Meow-Adjusted: The Case for Tearing Down Dallas' Convention Center

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Meow-Adjusted: Repairing the existing convention center makes as much sense as putting a giant cat on it. (If you enjoy our tribute to Cats of Brutalism, check out more on Instagram @cats_of _brutalism.)


One morning in December, I met Ray Washburne outside the Dallas Morning News’ former downtown headquarters on Young Street. I had been chatting with Washburne over the previous few weeks about his plans for the landmark George Dahl-designed building on 8 acres, which he bought in 2019 for $28 million. He is bullish about the future of his little corner of downtown, not far from Reunion Tower, even though it is one of the few parts of the city center that haven’t seen much new development over the past decade. I couldn’t quite imagine the space myself, and so I joined the gregarious 61-year-old Highland Park Village owner and Hunt family in-law to see it through his eyes.

Washburne popped open a padlock on a back door of the building and led me into a dark, dusty, cavernous hall. Since he bought the place, Washburne said, he has spent about $1.2 million gutting the structure. Little remains of its 70-year history as the base of Dallas’ most important news outlet, but Washburne seemed familiar with every nook and cranny. He pointed out passageways where reams of paper once flew between the printing presses and the typesetters, and he showed me a corner on the third floor that used to house the office of Robert Decherd, a descendant of the man who started the paper in 1885.

“Welcome to the Titanic,” Washburne said, grinning proudly and spreading his arms over his empty dominion. “I could tear it down. It doesn’t have any historic preservation on it. I could scrape the whole thing and just do garden-style apartments. I guess I’m too much of a dreamer.”

We stepped onto the balcony outside Decherd’s old office, and Washburne began to tell me about his dreams for downtown. He plans to transform the old newspaper campus into an entertainment district. Decherd’s office will become a trendy restaurant. The warehouse and printing press area will be retrofitted as microbreweries and distilleries. He will keep much of Dahl’s facade but plans to transform the interior of the campus into a brick-paved pedestrian zone lined with restaurants, bars, and music venues. On the other side of WFAA’s studio, we could see the blue glass exterior of the Omni Dallas Hotel and the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center’s exhibit halls. He may try to create new ways to access his property from the convention center, but that wasn’t why he bought the building.

Read more: https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2022/january/the-case-for-tearing-down-dallas-convention-center/