Museum Tower, Dallas, Texas.
Museum Tower, Dallas, Texas.
Ingrid the Labradoodle blending in with the skyscrapers of downtown Dallas.
We’ve had unseasonably cold weather in Dallas recently — days in the low 40s and evenings in the 30s. Everyone’s pressed, especially Gunter, the Chiweenie.
Gunter hasn’t gone on strike yet and refused to do his business outside (like he did in Minnesota), but after a few minutes outside he’s standing by the edge of the dog park, glaring and shivering.
A new rainbow gateway sign was installed this week in the gayborhood, near the intersection of Oak Lawn Avenue and Cedar Springs Road.
The sign is immediately in front of the Centrum office tower and right by the Legacy of Love monument that was erected about 15 years ago.
The new Oak Lawn sign is… interesting.
Some buildings are still boarded up from the George Floyd protests, and I am not sure whether they are still actually worried about break-ins or just went out of business entirely. In the case of Hikari Sushi, I suspect that it’s the latter.
The Ivy City neighborhood is rapidly gentrifying, so it is not unusual to see brand new developments abutting shells of former buildings. But this pair of buildings on Capitol Avenue NE looks mighty familiar.
Surely it is not a coincidence that they match perfectly? Perhaps this is what progress looks like.
Gentrification in the Ivy City neighborhood of Washington, DC.
Gentrification in the Ivy City neighborhood of Washington, DC.
There are a lot of random facades being propped up in this manner around the neighborhood. I am not sure why they are worth keeping, but at least they are providing inspiration for new buildings?
I recently came across this beautiful balcony in DC’s Adams Morgan neighborhood.
This is one of the densest neighborhoods in the city, so the balconies on townhomes tend to be drab fire escapes instead of lush balconies like this. The townhome owner fit as many plants onto this back balcony/stairs area as possible without it looking super cluttered.
I think the chandelier on the first floor is overkill, but otherwise I love it. 🎍
The Embassy of Australia on Scott Circle is being torn down this summer. It’s very interesting to see which buildings that DC deems worthy for preservation, and which foreign-owned buildings get maintained.
I guess this one didn’t make the cut.
Australian Embassy construction in Washington DC
Apparently toward the end, the embassy was in such disrepair that scaffolding had to be erected to prevent the facade from falling onto pedestrians. At least the property is being redeveloped and not simply abandoned like some other embassies in the city.
Hopefully the the building will be treated better.
The Howard Theatre is one of the many venues in Washington DC that put up Black Lives Matter signs this summer.
I was in an Uber ride through an unfamiliar part of Washington D.C. one evening when I saw a massive dome in the distance. It definitely wasn’t the U.S. Capitol building or the National Cathedral, and I couldn’t think of any other landmark that was so immense.
A week later, I decided to explore and made my way to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. This mouthful of a monument is apparently the largest Catholic Church in the U.S. and the second-largest in North America after the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
I recently made a second trip to the U.S. Capitol Building. The Capitol museum exhibits were fascinating because I didn’t know how dramatically the Capitol Hill campus changed over the years.
Apparently the iconic D.C. row houses we see today were not as common as the wooden flophouses that used to dominate the city. The clearance efforts remind me a lot of the Minneapolis skid row documentary from a few years ago — gentrification before it had a name?
After meandering through the exhibits, I followed the tunnel to the Library of Congress, which was quite the surprise.
Michael’s shirt didn’t survive the bowling alley food on Sunday, so we made our way to Union Station after our league finished. We found a suitable (and cheap) replacement shirt at Uniqlo, and then decided to stop at McDonald’s because apparently our diet resolutions don’t apply on weekends.
The Union Station McDonald’s was an unexpectedly strange experience because Kellyanne Conway and her son were sitting at the table next to us.
After slogging my way through winter break, starting the semester feels like reaching the end of one of those airport moving walkways before you’re ready.
My classmates and I are beginning the semester in a distracted state — most of us are already in first-and-second round interviews for after-graduation jobs. While this is a wonderful position for us to be in, it is very time-consuming to prep for interviews (and fret about callbacks.)
Washington D.C.’s Chinatown is a place that I will get to know well this semester — in addition to being the site of the closest subway stations to school, I am also externing at a law firm in the heart of Chinatown.
I recently went to the Jefferson Memorial — it was my first time visiting a memorial up close since moving to Washington D.C.
It was a very brief trip. I only saw the memorial at a distance because I came across it on a dog walk and there are plenty of signs indicating that dogs are not allowed inside.
Michael used to live in Lewisville, a suburb of Dallas.
I had been to Lewisville a few times, and it seemed like pure sprawl: chain stores, fast food restaurants, big highways, and a massive landfill. When we finished cleaning out Michael’s old apartment, I got the brilliant idea to visit downtown Lewisville – a city of 100,000 people must have a cute downtown, right?
Well…
Shops and vintage signs in downtown Lewisville.
The Wayne Ferguson Plaza water feature has some very specific rules.
Last week, The Real Housewives of Dallas took a road trip to Austin. They got plastered on a tour bus, fought in a massive vacation mansion, and then fought some more at the Four Seasons hotel.
Michael and I made the same trip on Sunday, minus the booze, mansions, fights, or Bravo film crew.
Other than that, it was totally similar.
Downtown Austin, Texas
The clouds reflecting off of a glass skyscraper in Austin.
The Austin Texas visitor center has a location pin attached to it.
I came across an editorial about first world problems a strange neighborhood zoning fight involving a mansion-turned-wedding-venue and its neighbors.
Here’s the gist:
Around the same time that Highland Park was getting started in the early 1900’s, some of Dallas’s richest residents built houses on Swiss Avenue.
Swiss Avenue had unique zoning rules, such as each house had to cost at least $10,000 and had to be built for the intended families (no spec homes.) Swiss Avenue was also the first paved street in the city of Dallas and offered private trolley service to the residents.
By the 1970’s, the original tenants were gone and the neighborhood was in decline. One of the organizations that fought to keep the mansions from being subdivided was the Dallas County Medical Society Alliance Foundation, which bought a mansion at 5500 Swiss, known as the “Aldredge House.”
To keep the house running, the Foundation turned their mansion into a wedding venue. The neighborhood then rebounded, the mansions were restored, and the new residents complained about the raucous parties at the Aldredge House.
Then a shitstorm ensued.
The article about the Aldredge House made us curious, so we decided to take very long dog walk to Swiss Avenue and see what it was about.
A large house on Swiss Avenue.
The wide tree-lined Swiss Avenue.
DFW is only second to Houston as the fastest growing city in the United States.
The hoard of people moving to Dallas spurred a huge construction boom, and cranes are all over the city.
A new apartment project near the American Airlines Arena.
A new apartment building project in the Dallas design district built in the “One Plus Five” style.
Construction in the Victory Park / Harwood neighborhood of Dallas
Apartment buildings are growing like weeds around the gayborhood and many of my neighbors think anything past 3-years is an “old building.”
But there is something strange about the style of the new apartment buildings in Dallas – they look like something straight out of soviet Russia. (We were beginning to see these in Minnesota as well.)
Things in my second year look dramatically different – I have a boyfriend, a new dog, and a promotion at work – the Lowertown life is great.
I also discovered that there is an express bus that is actually quicker than driving to the office, so I rarely use my gas guzzler anymore.
I couldn’t have fathomed bus commuting to work even one year ago.
The faux-car-less life is amazing.
It is going to be even better during winter because 1) driving in the suburbs with snow is terrifying, and 2) the office campus is so huge that the walk to the front of the building can take 15 minutes, which is brutal in -20 degrees.
Plus, the bus pass is only $85 for 31 days. (Way cheaper than gas.)
I’m also able to buy new passes at the office, which is insanely convenient. I’m smitten.
Transportation aside, I love living on Mears Park, the Farmers’ Market, the restaurant options, the Cathedral, and all of the gorgeous architecture:
A shot of downtown St. Paul overlooking the ghetto Walgreens and Bruegger’s Bagels. It’s a beautiful area but usually crawling with creeps.
The Green Line station in front of the Union Depot in downtown St. Paul. It is in front of the Bedlam Theater and the CoCo Coworking Space.
The Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul. It’s run by Minnesota Public Radio and hosts shows like A Prairie Home Companion.
Thankfully, I’m far more active in St. Paul during the winter than I used to live in Minneapolis, even without having to rely on a car.
Last time I was in Miami, it was February and miserably cold in Minnesota. I realized that I spent minimal time outside because being outside felt extremely weird.
The Galtier Towers and Mears Park in downtown St. Paul during winter.
It’s also open until 2 a.m., which is highly convenient for wintertime bar hopping if you don’t piss off the cops.
We are in downtown St. Paul for at least another year, and then may try something else. But for now it’s a great life choice.
