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During your Dallas vacation, don't miss these great establishments and attractions:
Dallas Zoo
If you're headed west to Fort Worth, and one zoo trip will do, you'd be better off waiting (the Fort Worth Zoo, along with the one in San Antonio, are the two best in Texas and two of the best in the country). Otherwise, if the kids are clamoring for some wild animals, the recently renovated Dallas Zoo -- the oldest zoo in Texas, founded in 1888 -- isn't likely to disappoint (one feature, "Wilds of Africa," was named the top African zoo exhibit in the country). The 85-acre park also features a habitat for rare Sumatran tigers, a chimpanzee forest, and a monorail safari ride. A couple of hours spent here should suffice for the kids.
Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art
This exceptionally displayed collection is the product of one of Dallas's best-known real estate developer's fascination with the arts of Japan, China, and India. The 500 pieces on display (taken from a collection of more than 7,000 objects) range from 1000 B.C. to the 20th century. The first floor is dedicated to the arts of Japan; its galleries hold Japanese scrolls and screens, as well as ceramics and bronzes. The Chinese galleries focus mostly on painting, sculpture, and decorative arts from the last Chinese empire, the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Across a sky bridge is the third gallery, dedicated to Indian culture, with Hindu sculptures and features of Indian architecture, including a large residence facade in elaborately carved red limestone. There are also a number of sculptures from Cambodia -- a standout is the pre-Khmer 7th-century figure of Vishnu -- and Nepalese and Tibetan objets d'art. Allow an hour or two to see it all.Crow's non-Asian sculpture collection is on display at the Trammell Crow Center, located at 2001 Ross Ave. at Harwood. It includes 19th- and 20th-century French bronzes (by Rodin and Maillol) throughout the office building and in the garden.
Nasher Sculpture Center
Despite its status as the principal art museum in a city of considerable wealth, the rather modest permanent collection of the Dallas Museum of Art is proof that either north Texans don't collect much great art or they don't donate it on a grand scale to local institutions. One notable exception to that rule is Raymond Nasher, one of the world's foremost collectors of contemporary sculpture. A local businessman, by way of New York, who made his banking and real estate fortune in Dallas (with the shopping mall NorthPark Center, among other properties), Nasher decided, after years of being wooed by the Dallas Museum of Art as well as major institutions like the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to establish a public sculpture garden in his adopted city. The $50-million project was entirely funded by the private Nasher Foundation.The Nasher Sculpture Center opened in 2003 on a 2 1/2-acre site adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art, in a glass-and-marble structure infused with natural light, designed by the renowned architect Renzo Piano. The center should change the way art aficionados think about Dallas and make it an art destination. The collection, which includes high-quality pieces by virtually all of the great modern masters and was amassed over 4 decades by Ray and his wife Patsy, is considered by some art experts to be the finest private sculpture collection in the world. The tasteful 54,000-square-foot center, a place of quiet refuge in downtown Dallas, features an outdoor sculpture garden landscaped by Peter Walker, with pieces from Nasher's immense collection exhibited both indoors and out. The collection includes some of the finest individual works from the likes of Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Joan Miró, David Smith, Constantin Brancusi, Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, Henri Matisse, Alexander Calder, Isamu Noguchi, Richard Serra, Mark di Suvero, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Joseph Beuys, Roy Lichtenstein, and many others. Among the monumental pieces in the open-air museum there are too many highlights to mention, though James Turrell's "skyspace" Tending (Blue), perhaps deserves special recognition as a site-specific piece commissioned for the museum. At the back of the garden, near the bathrooms, it is a walk-in box open to the sky, with optical effects and an unexpected perspective. Although the Nasher Sculpture Center -- which has some of the biggest names in art and architecture attached to it -- opened with big publicity and truly ought to be one of Dallas's most highly prized treasures, it is sadly and inexplicably having some difficulty attracting visitors, especially locals. If you're at all a fan of modern art, don't miss the opportunity to see this spectacular collection.
Embassy Suites Hotel Dallas-Near The Galleria
The new Embassy Suites Dallas near the Galleria is located in the heart of North Dallas, 500 yards from the Galleria and 1 mile south of Addison's Restaurant Row conveniently located 1 block north of the intersections of I-635 and the Dallas Tollway. GALLERIA MALL AND OFFICE TOWER .3MI S, COMPLIMENTARY SHUTTLE VALLEY VIEW MALL 1MI SE, COMPLIMENTARY SHUTTLE RESTAURANT ROW 1MI N, COMPLIMENTARY SHUTTLE Stonebriar ...
The Mansion on Turtle Creek, A Rosewood Hotel
Situated on a 4.63-acre site on a terraced hill at the corner of Turtle Creek Boulevard and Gillespie Street, the hotel is just five minutes from the downtown Central Business District, less than 30 minutes from the international airport and adjacent to Dallas' most prestigious residential area, the Park ...
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