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NEWSLETTER - SEPTEMBER 2018
More than a decade ago, Dallas taxpayers voted to pay for the creation of the
Kalita Humphreys Theater/Dallas Theater Center Master Plan, a vision that represents the needs and desires of hundreds of people who voiced their ideas about how to raise the level of this cultural treasure to its highest and best use for theater, architecture, park, and community.
 
For more information about the Master Plan, the mission of the Kalita Humphreys Theater at Turtle Creek Conservancy (KTC), and for additional links,
please visit www.wrightinthepark.org

THIS ISSUE AT A GLANCE

Focus: The Park
Learn more about Wright’s design intentions for the theater to grow out of the site, and the Master Plan’s recommendations regain those qualities.

News Update
Progress: We lobbied for a fire inspection and safety improvements, and they are happening!
Our response to the Dallas Theater Center’s Position Paper. The DTC wants to delay revitalization of the Kalita again. After decades, the time is now.

Would you like to help?
Give feedback on the Dallas Cultural Plan, and contact the city to voice your support.
FOCUS: THE PARK
Wright’s Intentions for the Site
by Ann Abernathy

The Kalita Humphreys Theater (the Kalita) is nestled in the center of a park of rare natural beauty. The Master Plan envisions this park being reclaimed and enhanced, so that the original topography is revealed, and the built form again relates to the natural form. The restored state-of-the-art theater building, the focal point of the nine-acre park, will be a home for innovative art and a sculptural art form itself.


Wright’s early study of building/site directionality, and the beginning of his creative process.
(Image Courtesy: The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives | The Museum of Modern Art | The Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library)
Enamored of the lushly vegetated rock escarpment site in Dallas, Wright planted his concept for “The New Theater” into the curving contours of a large swale in the center of the property. The vertical line in this rotated sketch represents the upright of a 30/60/90 drafting triangle, the hypotenuse of which aligned with the main contour lines of the south boundary.
 
Round forms, undulating contours, and strong diagonals interweave in the plan, engaging outside and inside. The revolving stage is at the center of a plan, expressing spiraling movement. Paul Baker described the kinetic majesty of the building on its site in a 2005 interview with the author: “When you walked in there and looked at that space you fell in love with it… We came in with a live idea, and we all worked together. It was Mr. Wright’s idea to make it round, the shape was all his.”
 
The theater site, donated by Sylvan Baer to the Dallas Theater Center, was only 1.2 acres of a 13-acre park, and Wright, from the beginning, envisioned his theater as the nucleus of a site that would one day include another cultural venue uphill, of his design.


View from the northwest (mislabeled northeast) showing bridge over Turtle Creek.  
(Image Courtesy: The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives | The Museum of Modern Art | The Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library)
Wright originally intended to route the parking uphill, past the rail embankment. In fact, the entrance was to be a grand allee, sweeping across a bridge from Turtle Creek Avenue to confront a bold tower advertising the theater’s presence. Under the shelter of a cantilevered terrace, the visitor would have been drawn into a tunnel, and the drive would have wound around to the parking area on the uphill side.
 
The bridge was not built and the additional land for parking was never acquired. This led to the misperception that the building is backwards, and that Wright intended visitors to trudge up the hill.
 

Alterations

The original supervising apprentice, W.Kelly Oliver, said while touring the building in 2009: “The indirect pedestrian approach to the building is a common thread to all of Mr. Wright’s Buildings. Viewing the buildings as you approached from a distance and on a circuitous route allowed you to get some measure of the architecture and created an interest in what might be inside.”
View from the north, the Heldt Administration Building, built in the sightline of the theater, 2009
The experience of entry was radically altered when parking and an administration building were added uphill from the Kalita site, funded by a 1983 bond project.  A wood frame building, covered in stuccoed insulation board, the current building is expensive to maintain, and is at the end of its useful life, according to the Master Plan Existing Conditions Report.
 
Additions have filled in the soaring cantilevered terraces of the Kalita, and the rocky bluffs have been graded for parking, ending the original dialogue between site and building – so important to Wright’s organic design.
View from the south, showing 1968 additions over the formerly open terrace, and 1989 parking.
In 1989, a “grand” entrance was added to the south of the building, further masking Wright’s original vision. “The foyer was expanded, cannibalizing the grotto space, and eventually flipped around entirely so that the principal entrance was from the [south]. A sea of parking enveloped the building, marring it visually and eliminating any sense of procession,” wrote Mark Lamster, architecture critic of the Dallas Morning News, in a recent article.

Please visit wrightinthepark.org to view perspectives showing the Master Plan vision.

Master Plan Vision


The Conceptual Site Plan from the Kalita Humphreys Theater Master plan shows the restored Kalita and the diagrammatic volumes of the new, relocated Support Building, as well as the potential “Expansion Building” uphill. The steep site and creek floodplain restrict buildable area. Parking on the north side includes one below-grade level to reduce surface parking. Pedestrian connections abound. The southern part of the site is the more active park zone, with a ramp to the Katy Trail.
 

Connections to the Neighborhood and Beyond

Based on input from all interest groups, the project team and importantly, the Park and Recreation Department, the Master Plan envisions a site that is fully utilized but not over-built – it maintains a balance between building volumes, parking requirements, and the important goal of protecting and enhancing the park.
 
The Park will be enhanced as connections are made on all sides. The Wright-designed stair to the Katy Trail and Wright-designed entrances at Lemmon and Blackburn will be reconstructed.  As Wright originally planned, the main theater parking will be uphill to the north.
Kalita Humphreys Theater site, an essential link in this park corridor, is shown red on this plan for Turtle Creek Parkway, based on the 1911
The revitalized park will have physical connections to the city via the creek, trail, and trolley, and programmatic connections will reach far beyond its border.
 
The synergy of theater, architecture, and park in combination will contribute to economic viability, and the increased activity at the park will bolster local businesses. International significance will accrue to Dallas as a whole.
NEWS UPDATE: WE ARE AT A CRITICAL JUNCTURE

Adopt the Plan Now

Support has continued to grow from the many interest groups that want to see the vision of the master plan implemented. We appreciate all the letters you have written to the City, and all the emails we’ve received.  As one generous supporter wrote:
“Architectural tourism is alive and well… How many of the local performance companies would be thrilled to have that space available!  There are a hundred ways to make that space part of the fabric of the city instead of the forlorn relic it is now.”
 
The Dallas tax-payers already paid $350,000 for the current Master Plan, a comprehensive plan by expert consultants that has wide consensus and support and is already is being used by the City to guide maintenance. The Master Plan already takes into account all interest groups including theater AND other performing arts, architecture, preservation, Wright, neighborhood, park, and trail interest groups.
 
While the City assured us last year the Master Plan would go to Council, we still do not have a confirmed date.
 
This is the Plan, and this is the time.
 

“Is Dallas finally ready to do the Wright thing and preserve the landmark Kalita Humphreys Theater?”

 
See Robert Wilonsky’s article published in the Dallas Morning News on August 21, and scroll down to see the commentary added by Trey Birkhead. We agree the time has come, but the debate is not just about one or two groups---the conversation needs to be about what is equitable for our whole, diverse city."

 

Dallas Theater Center Position Paper

For 2 ½ years, we have been conveying information about Master Plan to the Kalita’s current tenant, the Dallas Theater Center, in an effort to work collectively.  In June, the DTC objected to the Master Plan in a written statement. We felt obliged to respond, to correct the mischaracterizations and erroneous statements. We encourage you to read our response. Please email us, and we would be happy to send it to you. 
Key Points:
  • The architectural issues they raise are, in fact, already addressed by the Master Plan.
  • Under their heading “Loss of Rights to Manage the Kalita Campus,” they object to management recommendations, but the Master Plan does not include such recommendations, because a strategic plan for management was not the purview of the Master Plan by request of the client, the Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA). The City attorneys agree that management must be considered separately from what is in the Master Plan.
  • We believe that a City-led process, guided by principles of the Master Plan and Dallas’ new Cultural Plan, will result in collective operation for the entire Kalita property based on input by owners, potential tenants, management entities, and stakeholders.
  • The Dallas Theater Center wants to create a new plan and wait for the next bond election to create a public private partnership before improving the Kalita. This could take years, with future adoption uncertain and construction years hence.
  • Absent from their statement is any acknowledgement of the decades of property decline, the deteriorated condition of the interior and exterior of the building, and numerous code violations, which have all occurred under their watch.
  • The Kalita is Wright’s only theater, and the first cutting edge theater built in America after World War II. It should not be turned into another kind of theater, but used by cultural groups all over Dallas for its wonderful, unique qualities.
WE ARE DOING ALL WE CAN TO SAVE THIS TREASURE 

Fire Inspection

There is no written record of the last time there was a fire inspection of the Kalita Humphreys Theater. Although the Master Plan team raised this issue in 2008, not until Mark Lamster called attention to it in his January article – pointing to the lack of a fire curtain – and your letters followed, did the inspection finally occur. We have volunteered original documents from our archives and consultant reports from the Master Plan, and we understand that a Dallas Fire/Rescue Department report will be forthcoming.
 

We Lobbied for Bond Money. Now it is being used!

The KTC lobbied City Hall for the $525,000 to be reinstated in the 2018 bond package.
 
In the absence of formal guidelines for the Kalita, the KTC archives and the Master Plan reports are being used to generate background information for HVAC work that is now under bid.
 
The adoption of the Master Plan will underscore that the Historic Ordinance for the Kalita Humphreys Theater recommends that a historical consultant be retained on all projects to maintain standards of care by all those who come onsite to do maintenance and improvements. The Master Plan recommends an onsite permanent archive to keep all records intact and available to the City and the public.
 

We congratulate Carl Janak on his service to the City

Carl Janak, Senior Architect of the City of Dallas, who was mentioned in the Lamster article, has retired from the City.  There is no replacing Carl, who made it his mission to know everything possible about the Kalita to inform EBS/DPW projects. Carl made sure that vendors and contractors worked with historical data specific to the building and that protections contained in the 2005 Historic Ordinance were maintained.
RESULTS OF YOUR SUPPORT

Your support is making a difference.

Our last newsletter details the progress through May.  Click here to read it!
 

Spring Outing 2019 Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy (FLWBC)

The FLWBC is an international nonprofit organization based in Chicago with a mission to facilitate the preservation and maintenance of the remaining structures designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. 
 
They have recently announced that they are coming to Dallas in May 2019 for a special advocacy-focused visit to call attention to the importance of our Wright theater. Visit this link to hear more about the FLWBC’s Spring Out and About in Dallas:
 
The Fall Issue of the FLWBC magazine, “SaveWright,” will include an article about the Kalita, the Master Plan, and the KTC, with additional comment by KTC board member Charles Marshall about other Wright work in Dallas.
HOW CAN YOU HELP

Give feedback on the new Dallas Cultural Plan (Click this Link)

Right now there is one brief mention of the Kalita on page 86-87. We believe the Master Plan vision for the Kalita campus aligns with the Dallas Cultural Plan Policy in these ways:
  • Kalita has the potential to be the nucleus of an exciting cultural campus for the whole Dallas community.
  • The Kalita campus is envisioned in the Master Plan as a cultural park that will serve the whole Dallas community and beyond.
  • Highly desired by Dallas’ small, emerging, and diverse cultural groups for its unique panoramic stage and perfect acoustic, the Kalita’s 375 to 440 seat mainstage will fill a gap in demand for smaller theaters.
  • The Master Plan envisions a Kalita campus that will feature outdoor performance spaces and up to two Black-Box theaters on the site.
  • As it did in the past, the Kalita will once again accommodate architectural tourism, school groups, and lecture series.

Contact the City

It is vital for the City to hear your expression of the importance of this property and your support of the city adopting the Master Plan.  You can help by sending an email as soon as possible to the following groups:

Cultural Affairs Commission
Find the contact information of your commissioner here: https://dallasculture.org/cac/commissioners/   
Our path to Council starts with the Cultural Affairs Commission.

Office of Cultural Affairs - jennifer.scripps@dallascityhall.com - The process to for the Master Plan to go to City Council must be initiated by the Office of Cultural Affairs. Encourage them to put this on Council Agenda as soon as possible in support of the city adopting the Master Plan.

Quality of Life, Arts, and Culture Committee
Chair is Sandy Greyson sandy.greyson@dallascityhall.com and Vice Chair for Cultural Arts is Mark Clayton, http://dallascityhall.com/government/citycouncil/district9/Pages/default.aspx

Councilman Philip Kingston, District 14
Philip.Kingston@dallascityhall.com, The Kalita Humphreys Theater in the Turtle Creek Corridor is in District 14.

Park Board Councilmembers
Find yours here: https://www.dallasparks.org/107/Park-and-Recreation-Board. The process will include a Park Board briefing. 

Park and Recreation Department
Willis Winters, FAIA, is Director https://www.dallasparks.org/106/Department-Leadership. Encourage the park department to engage in the process of moving through Council.


Voice Your Support on Social Media

Use #savethekalita to build support for the Kalita in your community, and repost and retweet @wrightinthepark on Instagram and Twitter.
RECAP
The Council is being asked to adopt a master plan, not a governance structure, and not funding. The simple broad strokes vision of the Master Plan will transform this campus into an enduring cultural asset by:
  • Restoring Wright’s only theater and its relationship to its setting as an example of great modern architecture
  • Rehabilitating the theater to its original design with modern equipment and minor modifications for functionality
  • Creating a support building that fully supports the program
  • Restoring the landscape and enhancing and protecting the park
  • Increasing awareness of the cultural asset locally, nationally and internationally
  • Bringing together advocates and owners in a collective operation to ensure good stewardship for the future
CONTRIBUTE
Your financial support will help us get the word out, on more platforms and move us forward with support for the push to Council.

We are accepting donations in check form, to the KTC Conservancy, 3824 Cedar Springs Road, Suite 1044, Dallas, Texas 75219.

Please include your address for receipt and acknowledgement. This is the right idea and the time is long overdue!
Help Save a Dallas Treasure!
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