The 73-year-old Masonic Temple in Downtown Dallas will soon be getting a major makeover. The building’s new owners, Stephanie and Hunter Hunt, will turn the 43,000 square foot building into a hub of creativity.
During an interview with KERA in March, Stephanie Hunt told KERA’s Lauren Silverman about her search for a downtown location to start an urban innovation lab for youth – a place for young people to access the latest technology and the world’s most creative mentors.
“Our thought is to connect kids with garage inventors, DIYers, engineering students, professors,” Hunt said. “Bringing people together that might not otherwise ever come together.”
Urban Development, Collaboration
Hunt told KERA she wants the innovation hub’s focus to be around urban issues “Urban design, agriculture, entrepreneurism. Teaching young people the power to create their own businesses. And really providing them with sort of an incubator type atmosphere,” she said.
“You hear about it for the Stanford grads, well why not for kids coming out of high school?”
The Masonic Temple, has gone largely unchanged since 1943, according to Robert Wilonsky of the Dallas Morning News.
The building is “rock solid,” but will need some renovation work, according to Brent Brown with the nonprofit bcWorkshop in Dallas. Brown, who is working with Stephanie Hunt, says the building’s downtown location makes it the ideal place for community outreach and collaboration.
An additional note: Hunter Hunt is a member of the KERA board.
Here’s a video of Brown talking at a TEDxSMU in April, 2013:
