Deep Ellum Bowl: Coming Soon!

The Deep Ellum Bowl is coming soon!

Checkout the welcome message from their website!

Hello everyone. We've been working on putting a 10 lane bowling alley, bar, and restaurant in Downtown Dallas for nearly 3 years. We've locked on a spot and are ready to get it going.

It's going to be fun. 10 bowling lanes, restaurant, and bar in the heart of Deep Ellum. Live music, bowling leagues, great food and late hours. Neighborhood atmosphere with local owners.

Stay tuned for updates on our progress. If you have any questions, please let us know or post a new thread below. Visit their website.

Interview with Santiago Calatrava: Designer of the new Margaret Hunt Bridge

Two decades ago, Tom Fisher, now dean of the University of Minnesota College of Design, visited Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava in Zurich, where he has a staff of 40 and a lakeside villa.
As he was ushered into the architect's office, Fisher noticed an odd artifact hanging above the desk: the skeleton of a dog. "I thought it was his long-lost pet," he says. Read the full interview at Fast Company.com

Continental Ave. Bridge By November 2012

 Rudolph Bush reports that the major gift to the Trinity River project is a $10 million gift to convert the Continental Avenue Bridge to a pedestrian bridge.

The gift is anonymous, but in honor of Mary McDermott Cook, who chairs the Trinity Trust Foundation.

The existing Continental Avenue Bridge is next to the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, which is under construction north of downtown. The Hill bridge is the first Trinity bridge from Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who was in town for today's gift announcement.

"This landmark $10 million anonymous gift given to the City of Dallas gives us the funds to convert the Continental Bridge into a pedestrian and living bridge for everyone in Dallas to enjoy," said Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert.

He praised Cook for "her tireless vision for Dallas."

Cook said: "This gift will transform the Continental Bridge into an outdoor venue for walkers, bikers, and potentially, a future trolley line across the Trinity River. It will be beautifully landscaped and include the infrastructure and facilities for recreational events, markets and fairs."

Cook is the daughter of Margaret McDermott, for whom a second planned Calatrava bridge is named. That bridge would replace the existing Interstate 30 bridge over the Trinity. Read More

New Life for the Former First National on Elm Steet?

No need to mourn the demise of Elm Place, set to shutter for good on January 29 -- not when someone's already figured out what to do with the former First National Bank of Dallas, among George Dahl's myriad local icons. That someone: Colliers International, which is handling the sale of the 50-usable-stories, 1.1-million-square foot tower with a Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail station right downstairs. Read more.

Texas State Fair

This weekend marked the opening of the Texas State Fair! The State Fair can be traced back over 120 years. Back then the exhibits consisted of finest cattle, farm equipment, and summer concerts. Now the exhibits that are the most popular are the number of strange and weird items that can be battered and deep fried! Fried Twinkies, Snickers, and butter are some of the more unhealthy but delicious items on the menu.

We met some friends in Richardson Sunday morning for Dim Sum at Kirin Court and parked at the Aprapaho DART station to catch the rail into the city. After getting off at the Pearl Street station we switched to the newly open Green Line which took us directly to the front entrance of Fair Park! It was the perfect way to get to the fair and avoid the traffic and parking issues that have plagued the fair for years...

Having the kids with us made the fair extra enjoyable (for me anyway). There's nothing like watching them jump in all the show cars and pretending like they're driving... and they did this over and over in almost every car on the show floor until we finally left the building! Of course, since they're mine it's probably a lot more annoying than I thought it was. :)

The ride back to Richardson was long but enjoyable after being outside and on our feet all day long.

If you can make it to the State Fair this year I definitely suggest taking the DART Rail.
It's better for the environment and for your budget. Tickets were only $4 which is worth the hassle and every time we ride the DART Rail we're proving that residents of this city can appreciate and understand urban transportation instead of having to show up and get their BMW dinged in the cramped parking lots around the fair grounds.

Terrorist Plot on Fountain Place

Yesterday Dallas FBI agents intercepted a Jordanian terrorist in an attempt to detonate a car bomb to blow up the Fountain Place building. Fountain Place is a 1.2 million-square-foot office tower of green reflective glass rising 60 stories from a beautiful water garden located at the corner of Ross Avenue and Field Street in downtown Dallas. This is one of my favorite modern buildings in downtown Dallas. I see it everyday on my way to work and on the drive home.

Designed by I.M. Pei & Partners, the original plans were for the development of a second twin tower that was not built. It's location was just north adjacent to the existing tower. The second tower was also to include the famous plaza and water gardens with connections to the first tower. Although it was not built I can only imagine what the two towers would have looked like peering over the Dallas skyline.


The alleged terrorist mentioned during the planning stages of the attempted bombing that he wanted to blow up the tower because it reminded him of the World Trade Center in NYC. An eerie thought for sure. It makes me happy to know that the F.B.I. are diligent in their mission to seek out and uncover terror activity, and we can all see the value in their efforts especially on a day like yesterday.

West End Pirate Day street festival

Today was national Talk Like A Pirate Day! Which is a very interesting thing because at the West End in Dallas, everyone thought it was Dress Like A Pirate Day! Allowing people to live out their strange yet amusing obsession with pirates hundreds of people gathered in the West End for live music, food, crafts, and performances.

We ate lunch at the Chipotle just up the street and and walked around afterward watching the crowds singing while dressed like pirates! It's nice to see some action in the West End as it's been pretty ghost like for the past few years. I think it's about time to have more businesses move into the space and bring it back to it's former glory! Having House Of Blues just at the Northern edge on the boarder between West End and Victory park is definitely helping get some people moving through the area. I look forward to seeing it return to it's old glory!

I know where Britney sleeps

Word got out last night that Britney Spears is staying at the downtown ALoft hotel which is right next door to our loft. Here's the view from our window. The hotel was packed last night and there appeared to be a lot of buzz from guests and visitors trying to catch a glimpse of Britney in the hotel. She plays American Airlines Center tonight and the concert is almost sold out.

I tried looking through all the windows I could (sans binoculars) but couldn't spot her. Apparently there have been a few spottings, of people caught in intimate moments, and with their windows open (for some reason) by local residents in my building. So let it be known, that if your windows are open there could always be someone watching...

The Londoner Uptown: Cheers Mate!

This weekend was the British Bike BurnUp in Expo Park. As usual there was a large turnout of scooterist who gazed at the vintage metal! Soon after the things cooled down and motorcycles dispersed, we took a tour through the historic Fair Park fairgrounds which was pretty amazing since Fair Park was the location of the 1936 World's Fair and remains unaltered to this day. It also is the worlds largest collection of Art Deco buildings and was amazing to see it without the crowds of people gulping down fried pizzas and Twinkies.

After a great group ride we and ended up at the Londoner in Uptown. Good times, good beer, great food made this a instant favorite of mine! I really like this location, and apparently they like us too with happy hour prices for all people showing up on scooters. They also have reserved parking out front just for us! The inside is styled like you would imagine an old London pub, with a bit of Hard Rock Cafe thrown in. Pool tables, darts and yes, a free juke box filled with "Brit pop, 80's favorites and some 70's glam rock".

We're definitely going back soon for some fish and chips and to enjoy the UK without leaving our neighborhood!