June 16, 2008

US & Canada | US | Texas | Dallas

Big Stylin’ in D-Town

By Sandra Ramani

The hottest names in design put their stamp on Dallas.

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Sure, it’s no Dubai (yet), but these days downtown Dallas is awash with construction cranes. The shifting skyline has at least yielded some spectacular results, including a new Arts District whose design roster reads like a Pritzker Prize-winner list — Renzo Piano (Nasher Sculpture Center), Rem Koolhaas (the shape-shifting Wylie Theatre, opening 2009) and Norman Foster (the Winspear Opera House with retractable glass façade, also 2009). Keeping pace with the cultural quarter, just one mile away, is D-Town’s latest luxe lodging, The Joule, which touts itself as the city’s “first true designer hotel.” With Adam Tihany interiors and a Charlie Palmer eatery, the Joule is just one block from Neiman Marcus’s flagship (guests have the department store on speed dial for those fashion emergencies.) But the real sex appeal of this Starwood Luxury Collection hotel is its Plexiglas-windowed rooftop pool that cantilevers off the edge of the 10-story tower.

The arrival of new blood like the Joule — not to mention last year’s Ritz-Carlton and before it, W Victory — has also prompted some mainstays to do a nip-and-tuck. The elliptic, pink-granite Renaissance Dallas Hotel (dubbed “the Lipstick” by locals) wraps up a renovation in August, while next summer sees the completion of a LEED-certified rooftop garden and putting green.

Meanwhile, Art Deco gem The Stoneleigh Hotel & Spa will host two parties on June 25 and 26 to herald the end of its $36-million top-to-toe refurb. The first to celebrate its 170 reborn rooms (nine suites have been named after famous guests, such as Elvis and Oliver Stone), new restaurant (pictured), and spa. The second soiree will toast the just-finished two-floor penthouse and presidential suite, restored to their 1930s splendor with 22-foot-high ceilings, 500-year-old wood paneling and private rooftop terrace. Probably best they celebrate while they can: those cranes are working on a 43-story Mandarin Oriental, slated for 2010.