Local architect Cliff Welch sends word today of another important Dallas building on the chopping block: the Howard Meyer-designed office building at 2505 Turtle Creek Boulevard. If you don't know anything about Meyer, plenty of biographical info about the famed architect can be found courtesy the Texas State Historical Association and in the University of Texas Alexander Architectural Archives -- the latter of which refers to him as "one of the pioneers of modern architecture in Texas." Doug Newby also has a page celebrating his work around Dallas. Also available: his sketches for Temple Emanu-El.
From what I discovered today the building's being rezoned to make way for a boutique hotel with affixed high-rise condos that would, according to the proposed plans for the property, obliterate current neighborhood residents' view of Turtle Creek. Unfair Park has also learned the Canadian developer wants to build a restaurant on the property, which neighbors fear -- chiefly because of the increased traffic and because it's in a dry area of town one block away from Reverchon Park.
All this comes five years after Meyer's house at 4400 Rheims Place in Highland Park was razed after a contentious dispute. Welch also tells Unfair Park concerning the Turtle Creek property, "To build an edifice like this from scratch is cost-prohibitive today. You just couldn't do it now." --Robert Wilonsky
