Subject: Brent Brown

• Design for Living in Southern Dallas

  March 18, 2008

• There's Great Hope for Central Dallas Ministries' eMagazine

  Larry James, president and CEO of Central Dallas Ministries, sent out an e-mail this morning directing folks to the second issue of CDM's online magazine, which is more or less a compendium of videos, all of them worth a peek. Among the contributions is the story of the great Brent Brown, the UT Arlington School of Architecture adjunct professor and architect behind buildingcommunityWORKSHOP, which is attempting to rebuild sections of Southern Dallas. In his video, Brown explains his reasons

  November 14, 2008

• For Those Having a Hard Time With Re:Vision Dallas's Vision for Downtown ...

  "Engangled Bank" is another of the finalists for Re:Vision Dallas -- one where "the sky pasture is also available for each tenant in the community to grow produce for their own consumption or resale in the market."Many Friends of Unfair Park have questions concerning Re:Vision Dallas -- which we've been mentioning for months, but, sure, the release of the conceptual renderings of three potential downtown buildings has gotten folks' attention. So I called John Greenan -- executive director of Cen

  June 1, 2009

• Block Friday, or: Imagining a New Design for Living in Downtown Dallas

  Those interested in the future of downtown Dallas may wanna carve out some time on Friday -- like, all day Friday. Because from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., City Hall will play host to a daylong "design charrette" during which city officials; architect Brent Brown, founder of bcWORKSHOP; and folks from San Francisco-based Urban Re:Vision will hash out how to turn a single block of downtown into "the first fully sustainable, urban square block in the United States." Seems a mighty tall order, and it i

  December 2, 2008

• City, Heal Thyself: Words of Wisdom From Last Night's Affordable Housing Forum

  Alexa SchirtzingerFrom left last night, Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm, architect Brent Brown and Regina Nippert of the Dallas Faith Communities CoalitionLast night's affordable housing forum at Temple Emanu-El was a lesson in getting things right by "thinking wrong," as architect Brent Brown likes to say. "Wrong," in Brown's view, really means "creatively." Despite an intermittently functioning PowerPoint presentation, Brown wowed the mostly middle-aged, well-dressed audience of about 160 with

  March 27, 2009

• Touring 508 Park Ave., But Is It Love in Vain?

  Photos by Dan FinnellThe third-floor recording studio at 508 Park Avenue in which Robert Johnson recordedAt this late date you're surely aware of the plight of 508 Park Avenue, the site of the makeshift studio in which Robert Johnson, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys and perhaps even Charlie Parker recorded. The owners of the building are still fighting with the City Attorney's Office over bringing it up to code; meanwhile, it's still on the market, begging for a buyer.Count among the interested

  June 10, 2009

• Revising Re:Vision Dallas, Yet Another Look at What Might Have Been Behind City Hall

  PIKL Studio's Commonwealth, among the honorable mentions in the Re:Vision Dallas competitionA Friend of Unfair Park points out that I'm not the only one collecting Re:Vision Dallas cast-offs. So too is the ArchDaily blog, which, earlier this week, posted PIKL Studio's Commonwealth development for that block behind Dallas City Hall, where Central Dallas Community Development Corporation's exec director, John Greenan, and Brent Brown hope to begin construction on a "self-sustaining community" by n

  June 19, 2009

• Even If They Don't Build the Entangled Bank, Well, Maybe It'll Still Win a Big Award

  ​Is what you see above the future of Dallas? Don't know. Hard to say. But, as we've said often in recent months, John Greenan (executive director of Central Dallas Community Development Corporation) and Brent Brown (founder of bcWORKSHOP) are determined to turn a parking lot behind Dallas City Hall into a sustainable live-work-play-grow-eat-etc. by no later than a 2010 groundbreaking.We'll have much more in a coming issue of the paper version of Unfair Park, but till then, a bit of relevant ne

  August 24, 2009

• Are the Plans To Build A Green, Sustainable Building of Tomorrow Smack in the Heart of Downtown Dallas Some Pipedream or A Reality?

  October 1, 2009

• Why Can't a Nonprofit Do a Downtown Project Cheaper Than a For-Profit Developer?

  Brandon ThibodeauxJohn Greenan, founder and executive director of nonprofit Central Dallas Community Development Corp., a subsidiary of Larry James' Central Dallas Ministries​In the paper version of Unfair Park this week I took a longer look at Re:Vision Dallas -- you know, that self-sustaining development John Greenan and Brent Brown want to build on a parking lot behind Dallas City Hall sooner than later. Right, that one. Anyway. In the piece, Greenan (founder and executive director of nonpr

  October 2, 2009

• Brent Brown, Who Rebuilt Congo Street, Will Head Dallas CityDesign Studio in City Hall

  Brandon ThibodeauxBrent Brown​Couple of weeks back we debuted the Dallas Urban Design Studio, a Trinity Trust-funded endeavor that'll get its own office in Dallas City Hall in order to "elevate the design consciousness and culture of Dallas, while working to balance social, economic, environmental, and design sustainability towards enhancing livability for all Dallas residents." Clearly, though, someone wasn't happy with the acronym "DUDS": In a press release sent in advance of tomorrow's form

  October 5, 2009

• It's Official: The Trinty Trust Gives $2 Million to Set Up "CityDesign Studio" in Dallas City Hall

  Speaking of the Trinity Trust, they've still got those T-shirts available.​The suspense is over. (See what I did there?) Following up its September 24 announcement concerning $10 mil going toward turning the Continental Avenue Bridge into a pedestrian pathway-n-park, the Trinity Trust this morning trekked to Dallas City Hall to highlight yet another donation: $5 million, courtesy Rusty and Deedie Rose. Friends of Unfair Park are by now well aware that part of that gift -- $2 million -- will go

  October 6, 2009

• At City Hall, a Call to "Complete the Streets"

  ​Last week, the National Complete Streets Coalition announced that more than 100 cities across the U.S. have adopted at least some of its policies, with Lansing, Michigan and Rockville, Maryland, among the latest to seize the idea that the streets don't belong just to cars. (Ah, yes. Here we go.) Which I mention this morning only because the city council's Transportation and Environment Committee will, at 2 p.m. today, get the full what-for about the Complete Streets Initiative, which was kind

  October 12, 2009

• Brent Brown, Head of City Hall's New CityDesign Studio, On Redesigning Dallas

  Brandon ThibodeauxBrent Brown, Mary Suhm's choice to head up the Dallas CityDesign Studio​Even after having mentioned the Dallas CityDesign Studio -- which the Trinity Trust is paying for, thanks to Rusty and Deedie Rose's $5 million donation -- a few times, we still didn't know what the what it's supposed to do. After all, its mission statement seems awfully vague: "This resource center will engage, advise and support work focused outside the levees, particularly as potential development occu

  October 15, 2009

• Inching One Step Closer to That Self-Sustaining Block Behind Dallas City Hall

  Come Friday, we'll know which of the three Re:Vision Dallas finalists, including Entangled Bank (seen here), is the out-and-out winner.​John Greenan, executive director of Central Dallas Community Development Corporation and one of the main men charged with growing that self-sustaining block behind Dallas City Hall, took note of El Centro College's plans to perch 21 wind turbines on the roof of the old Sanger Harris building: "I'm glad to see someone is pioneering the technology," he writes i

  November 9, 2009

• White House Invites Head of Dallas CityDesign Studio to Talk Clean Energy, Public Health

  Brandon ThibodeauxBrent Brown​Ran into bcWORKSHOP and Re:Vision Dallas's Brent Brown Friday night at the opening of Main Street Garden, and during a lengthy chat that spilled over into a downtown dinner with our families, not once did he mention a pending trip to Washington, D.C. But the Dallas Institute this morning sent word that a lecture scheduled for Thursday night -- titled "Beauty in Modern Architecture" -- has been canceled, since Brown, who's now running the Dallas CityDesign Studio i

  November 16, 2009