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highlighting the Dallas Center for Performing Arts: |
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Gold stars
fell from the sky at the Groundbreaking - October 2005
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Dallas
Center for the Performing Arts begins the first dig to create a 320,000
cubic foot hole for underground parking garage
- Summer 2006
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Jeanne
Marie Clossey,
Chairman
Act II Host Committee |
October
2006: Act Two Concert and Gala
featuring Sir Elton John performance and Dame Julie Andrews, mistress
of ceremonies.
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“The
groundbreaking ceremonies have sent a vital message to the world
that Dallas is emerging as an important cultural community,”
said Howard Hallam, Chair of the Board of Directors of the
Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation and the Mayor’s
appointed coordinator of the Dallas Arts District.
The
commencement of groundbreaking marks a significant milestone in
the 9-year campaign beginning in 2000 to raise funds to build
the Center.
The
Dallas Center for the Performing Arts will complete the dream
of the Dallas Arts District planned more than 25 years ago and
will signal a new era for the cultural arts in this community.
Once
completed, the Center will annually infuse $170 million into the
Dallas economy and create up to 2,000 new jobs in Dallas’
arts and hospitality industries.
Dirt
used to break ground was collected from throughout Dallas and
other cities in the area to symbolize the many communities that
will benefit from construction of the Dallas Center for the Performing
Arts.
Six
children from the audience joined others in the groundbreaking
as representatives of future generations who will enjoy the Center.
Tommy Lee Jones was invited to lead the children, donors, Foundation
board members and dignitaries in breaking ground for the Dallas
Center for the Performing Arts.
Caren Prothro, Vice-Chair of the Dallas Center for the Performing
Arts Foundation Board,
said the Center is ahead of schedule in all phases of its operation
and on budget. “It is a great time to be in Dallas and a
wonderful experience to be working on behalf of a campaign that
will transform our city’s cultural landscape, providing world-
class venues in which to enjoy the performing arts,” Ms.
Prothro said.
Dallas Mayor Laura Miller said
she was impressed and amazed by the generosity of Dallas families
and organizations in supporting the Dallas Center for the Performing
Arts funding campaign. “No cultural initiative in the history
of our city has received the support you have provided this campaign,”
Mayor Miller told the gathering, which included most of the 77
families and organizations who have contributed $1 million or
more to the fundraising effort for the Center. “I congratulate
and thank you and express the appreciation of your city.”
“The
groundbreaking is a wonderful affirmation for the many people
and organizations that have worked so hard to make the Dallas
Center for the Performing Arts a reality,” said Bill Lively,
President and CEO of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts
Foundation. “Our campaign goal of raising 93 percent
of the project costs through private gifts may be the largest
private sector commitment of this kind in the history of American
philanthropy.”
Alon
USA made a $1 million gift to help support construction of the
Dallas CenterDallas Center for the Performing Arts and underwrote
the historic groundbreaking events. David Wiessman, President
and CEO of Alon Israel, discussed, discussed the international
impact of the Center when it is completed.
“Today’s
ceremony is a testament to Dallas’ commitment to the arts
through the construction of what we believe will be the finest
performing arts center in the world,” Wiessman said.
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Groundbreaking
initiates construction of $275 million Dallas Center for the Performing
Arts
Press
Release by Tina Sharp
Photos by Weston Adams
DALLAS
(November 10, 2005) – Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Dallas
Center for the Performing Arts were held Thursday morning, November
10, signaling the beginning of construction of the $275 million project.
The
ceremony at the Center’s future site in the Dallas Arts District
included remarks by Academy Award-winning actor and Texan Tommy Lee
Jones, State Representative Dan Branch and Dallas Mayor
Laura Miller. In addition, Dallas Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia
greeted the audience in Spanish and English and described the significance
of the performing arts center to future generations. The invocation
was given by the Reverend Charles Stovall, Senior Minister of
St. Paul United Methodist Church, located in the Dallas Arts District.
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Tommy
Lee Jones, keynote speaker with his wife,
Dawn Laurel
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Diane
and Hal Brierley
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The
celebration also featured a 24-herald trumpet and 12-piece brass
choir performing a new proclamation fanfare and the Booker T.
Washington High School for Visual and Performing Arts Concert
Choir performing two anthems, including The Battle Hymn of the
Republic.
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Jeanne
Marie Clossey, Chairman, Act TWO Gala; Sara Martineau, Sue Justice;
Tucean Webb
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Norman
and Toni Brinker
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Nelda
Cain Pickens;
Nancy Cain Marcus
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Karen
Katz
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Stanley
Ukenil; Judy Pollock, Executive Director, Arts District Friends;
Chris Geyer
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Caroline
Rose Hunt; Charlene Howell
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Mary
McDermott Cook; Margaret McDermott
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Alan
and Sarah Losinger
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Patsy
and David Donosky
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Sue
Rose; Deedie Rose
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Karen
Stone, The Dallas Opera; Rodney and Kathy Woods
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Tincy
and Vance Miller
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Howard
and Fanchon Hallam; Myrna and Bob Schlegel
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Charles
Santos, Executive Director, TITAS; Zoe Hart
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Nancy
Barry |
Rebecca
Fletcher; Nita Clark
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Mary
Poss; Veletta Lill
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Gena
and Chuck Norris
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Gene
and Jerry Jones with their daughter, Charlotte Anderson
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Golden
star confetti burst from a cannon at the finale.
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Center
Venues
The
following venues comprising the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts
will represent the highest quality in design, acoustics, technical creative
support and audience amenities:
*
The Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House designed in the classic Italian
horseshoe configuration, with its audience chamber defined to seat 2,200;
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The Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, serving as a gateway to the Dallas
Arts District from the downtown Dallas business center and seating 600;
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The
renovated Annette Strauss Artist Square, the Center’s outdoor venue;
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The
City Performance Hall providing main stage production space to many
of Dallas’ smaller performing arts organizations;
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A Grand Plaza larger in size than London’s Trafalgar Square that
knits the venues together in a park-like environment; and
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A 600-car Underground Parking Garage.
Construction
Timeline
Construction
will begin first on the parking garage. Following completion of the
parking garage, construction of Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House
and the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre will follow in fall 2006. All of
the venues for the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts are scheduled
to open in late 2009.
Award-Winning
Architects
Dallas
will be the only city in the world that has four buildings within one
contiguous block designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winners. Included
are the Nasher Sculpture Center designed by Renzo Piano, the Morton
H. Meyerson Symphony Center, designed by I.M.Pei, the new Dee and Charles
Wyly Theatre designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture and
Rem Koolhaas, the 2000 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, and the
new Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, designed by Foster and Partners,
let by. NormanLord Foster, was the 1999 Pritzker Architecture Prize
Laureate, the architecture equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
London-based
Foster and Partners – known for its work on such projects as
the Great Court of the British Museum in London, the world’s largest
airport in Hong Kong and the new German Parliament Building in Berlin
– is the design firm for the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House.
The firm’s founder, Norman Foster, and Principal Spencer de Grey,
both internationally acclaimed architects, are leading the project.
The
Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), with offices in Rotterdam,
Netherlands and New York City, is the design firm for the Dee and Charles
Wyly Theatre. OMA is responsible for the design of such world-class
facilities as the Rotterdam Kunsthal in the Netherlands and the Guggenheim
Museum in Las Vegas. Other projects include the recently opened Seattle
Central Library in Seattle. OMA founder and world-renowned architect
Rem Koolhaas and Partner-in-Charge Joshua Prince-Ramus are leading the
design of the project.
Good,
Fulton & Farrell Architects (GFF) will design the underground parking
structure that will serve patrons of the Center’s venues and the
eastern end of the Dallas Arts District. Headquartered in Dallas, GFF
offers premier architectural, interior, and urban planning services
locally, nationally and internationally. Consistently ranked as one
of the largest firms in North Texas, GFF is currently involved in most
of the major civic initiatives with the Central Business District, including
the Inside the Loop Committee, the Downtown Transportation Master Plan,
and the Downtown Parks Master Plan.
The
City Performance Hall, to be constructed by the City of Dallas, is being
designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of Chicago and Corgan Associates
of Dallas.
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