Five stories that have North Texas talking: Dallas in 3D, gun seizure laws, rain on the horizon and more.
Scribes have passed around Dallas-defining essays like the laminated travel buddy Flat Stanley, dressing each of them up in their ideas about how Dallas should be seen. We're no exception. But Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture writer Ada Louise Huxtable, who died Monday, nailed it in the '70s.
Praising Dallas for its huge Municipal Building and Center -- “almost three New York City blockfronts long” – she wrote in November 1976:
“Lacking rationale or assets, Dallas made things happen that had no reason to happen, like 'bending' the railroad to go through town. This stubborn, willful ingenuity, or making something out of nothing, is the basis of its character and style.”
In a piece headlined ‘A Most Important Public Building’ for the New York Times [subscription required], Huxtable called what's now known as Dallas City Hall “a turning point for Dallas,” a sweeping horizontal response (reaching out) to the skyscrapers (reaching up). Huxtable left a legacy of discussion on architecture as social function. Here's a look at the story as it appeared in the Times.
'One of Our Most Important Public Buildings,' NY Times
- Radio host Alex Jones is all over the internet today, threatening to bring 1776 back. He’s afraid the government will seize Texans’ firearms a la Hitler or Stalin, he told CNN’s Piers Morgan. To calm the seas a little, NPR’s Nancy Cohen has a story on how the Conn. gun seizure law, for instance, actually works.
- Just as Arlington hovers over the threshold for Stage One drought status, forecasters say North Texas can expect 2 to 4 inches of rain today. A flash flood watch has been issued for this evening on through Wednesday afternoon. [NOAA]
- You might've seen the headlines about Ruth Carter Stevenson, who built the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth into an internationally-revered institution. But look closer at this rebellious daughter's departure from her newspaper tycoon father's path, as told by the Fort Worth Star Telegram's Tim Madigan. One of many stellar moments: Upon seeing an 1888 Van Gogh landscape his sharp-eyed daughter bought with her first Fort Worth Star-Telegram dividend check, newspaper tycoon Amon Carter Sr. apparently asked, "What in God's name is that?" Years later, the work sold for $14 million. [FWST]
- If you feel unprepared for this spring semester to begin, consider the case of one Fort Worth church-housed school that was robbed four times over the break. Wedgwood Academy is a school for special-needs kids. Losses are estimated at $20-$25,000, and include food from the Southcliff Baptist Church building, seizure medication and iPads used for teaching. [CBSDFW]