Dallas

I recently spent some weeks in my home town of Dallas. It was strange how so much has changed and yet many things stay the same. That said, I rediscovered something I had almost forgotten about, like how lovely Fair Park is. Most of these images are from there. It was built as a World's Fair site in the 30's and consists of one of the largest, intact collection of Art Deco structures anywhere. I was very happy to see that the city has restored most of them because I remember then in poor condition when I was growing up. Other areas of the city have changed as well, like the Arts District which has been under construction, off and on for more than 20 years. Through private money, it has been built with buildings by Rem Koolhaus, I.M. Pei, Norman Foster, Edward Larabee Barnes and Renzo Piano. Dallas has always had an architectural history with it's Phillip Johnsons dotted here and there. Pei did the Brutalist style City Hall. Soon there will be a couple of Calatrava bridges. Some areas are near unrecognizable from the time since I left. It was also nice to see friends and family. To spend time in my old room, which I had to redo and go through some old things. It was nice to have dinners and lunches with my mother and her adorable dogs. It was nice to see the old cat and realize she is 14 years old now. All of this rekindled my spirit somehow. So much has happened over the past 3 years of my living here in Paris and I love it, yet it is still nice to know it is possible to leave one's new home and return safe to an old one, even if just for a few weeks.