You take the good, you take the bad….

Dallas is a hotbed of development. When you spend some time here, you are overwhelmed by the amount of space that is available; especially coming form a cramped city like Los Angeles. I am struck not only by the size of parking lots but by the size of parking spaces. They are about 50% wider than they are in LA.

All of this space is lending itself to some interesting residential development. The bad news first.

A residential highrise designed by trashcan master Philip Starck called House. I actually (kind of) like the Taschen store(s) of his in Beverly Hills and Paris, but that is mostly commercial interior design. His architectural feats have been less than superb and I will be keeping an eye on this development in my beloved hometown.

And now the good.

From the Urban Reserve website:

Architecture at Urban Reserve is modern, arising from the talents of a select group of regionally and nationally recognized architects. Rejecting historically false or retro styles, the homes of Urban Reserve are of their time and of their place–North Texas in the early 21st century.

From what I can gather, this seems to be a neighborhood of 50 individually designed homes by young architects. The competition chose form two categories:professionall, in this case meaning the architects must be out of school for 10 years or less; and from a pool of current architecture students. I applaud the developer for (I think it is a woman) her push to get young architects involved in what could be a very unique modern residential community.

I am going to try to take a trip down to the White Rock Lake site and snap a few photographs. I am not sure how far along this project is, but I would like to get some pre-groundbreaking photos this trip and, hopefully some “in progress” and “completed” documentation on my future Dallas trips.