On the heels of successfully completing the architecturally inspired Dallas Arts District, Dallas is still in the midst of a massive building spree. Just this past year, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science debuted its new $185 million venue in Dallas Victory Park; the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum opened to the public on the Southern Methodist University campus; and Trinity Groves, a restaurant and retail destination at the foot of the Santiago Calatrava-designed Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, is one of numerous projects underway on the Trinity River Corridor.

The Dallas Arts District first launched in 1984 when the Dallas Museum of Arts was unveiled. Five years later, the I.M. Pei-designed Morton H. Meyer Symphony Center was added along the corridor, followed by the light-infused Nasher Sculpture Center in 2003, created by Renzo Piano. In 2009, two more buildings designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects were added to the neighborhood, the Winspear Opera House and Wyly Theatre. The latest addition is City Performance Hall, a 750-seat theater that’s home to small- and mid-sized theater troupes, concerts and lectures.

To complement the Dallas Arts District, a five-acre urban oasis, Klyde Warren Park, opened last October. A deck park built over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway, the green space is home to an open amphitheater, a dog park, shaded walkways and an expansive lawn, ideal for picnicking before or after a cultural event.

“It has quickly become a focal point between the hotels and offices in Uptown and the entertainment corridor of the Dallas Arts District,” said Phillip Jones, CEO, Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The Perot Museum of Nature and Science © Raycan | Dreamstime.com

Jones also mentioned convention bookings are up 30 percent from the prior year, thanks to the opening of the 1,001-room Omni Dallas Hotel in 2011. Connected by a skybridge to the hotel property, the convention center recently finished Phase I of a $60 million expansion that included major renovations of the function areas, multimedia conference rooms and a new mezzanine-level ballroom. Phase II of the expansion includes adding 100,000 square feet of space, with construction planned to start in 2015. New this year is a trolley that will connect conventioneers with the burgeoning Bishop Arts District, a neighborhood of boutique restaurants, chocolate shops, cafés and art galleries.

A two-minute drive from the convention center is the strikingly modern Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, which connects downtown Dallas to the Trinity River Corridor and West Dallas. Calatrava’s 400-foot arch, above the center of the bridge, has already become an iconic image of the city. Below the bridge, the corrugated steel warehouses, brick storefronts and former loading docks that lined the river are being reshaped into an exciting new multi-use development called Trinity Groves. So far, seven restaurants, a brewery, a bowling alley, a home décor shop and a huge culinary event space have made their debut in the remodeled warehouses — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

In fact, the whole Trinity River Corridor is slated to be the city’s next big undertaking, a $3 billion endeavor to create 20 miles of hiking, biking and horseback riding trails through the largest untouched urban hardwood forest in the country. The Trinity River Audubon Center has already opened its doors on 120 acres of waterfront property. The Trinity River Golf Course, an 18-hole championship course, is scheduled to open in 2017 and will be the future site of the PGA-affiliated Byron Nelson Championship Tournament. A 60-acre mixed-use development along the Trinity River dubbed “The Rivers” is set to break ground this summer. Early planning includes 2,000 to 3,000 townhouses and condos, restaurant and retail space and the future home of the Dallas Maritime Museum. The Museum already has an agreement to house the nuclear submarine from the movie The Hunt for Red October.

Dallas is known as a great shopping town, and the new additions in that arena don’t disappoint. NorthPark Center, one of the premier shopping destinations in the state, has added six new stores, including the city’s only J. Crew Men’s Shop, Tory Burch and Rolex outposts. On tap for the convention center crowd, The Omni Dallas Hotel plans to add 25,000 square feet of retail space this year.

Noted restaurateurs also have new dining establishments in the works. Wolfgang Puck opened his latest venture, Cloud Nine Café, atop Reunion Tower GeO-Deck. After undergoing six years of renovations, Reunion Tower reopened in October, offering glorious vistas of the city and the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge below, lit up at night. One of the city’s favorite chefs, Stephen Pyles, recently announced he is moving his namesake restaurant to a new 18-story skyscraper in the Dallas Arts District. Then there’s Chef Dean Fearing, owner of Fearing’s at The Ritz-Carlton, Dallas. His restaurant keeps on packing them in nightly. One bite of the maple- and black peppercorn-soaked buffalo tenderloin, the most popular dish on the menu, and you’ll understand why.

Dallas could have rested on its laurels now that the Dallas Arts District flourishes. Instead, it turned its sights to the Trinity River Corridor, hoping to seamlessly stitch the city to its natural setting and offer a 21st-century metropolis that continues to reinvent itself. It’s going to be exciting to see how the city changes shape these next five to 10 years.

SCENIC DRIVES

In a city not particularly known for its scenic drives, there’s one 2.5-mile stretch just east of downtown that should not be missed. In the early years of the 20th century, cotton gin manufacturer Robert Munger had an idea to build an affluent neighborhood of stately homes on Swiss Avenue. All the estates had to cost at least $10,000, a princely sum at the time, and be a minimum of two stories high. The Dallas elite loved the project, and soon folks like Carrie Marcus Neiman, founder of Neiman-Marcus, were hiring some of America’s top architects, like Bertram Hill, to build their dream homes. Swiss Avenue became the first paved street in the entire city. In 1974, the street was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, noted as one of the finest examples of turn-of-the-century architecture in the Southwest.

Today, some of the city’s most notable personalities, like former Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, still live in the neighborhood. Join the line of cars on a slow drive down the street to see an intriguing mix of architectural styles from Italian Renaissance to Prairie to Spanish Revival. You’ll soon realize that large-scale development in Dallas has a lengthy history.