The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • R4

4 THE BALTIMORE SUN I TRAVEL I SUNDAY, AUGUST 12, 2012 TRAVEL The emerging Dallas New 'front bridge part of transformation BY WENDY DONAHUE Tribune Newspapers 41 1 AV ilfil0 4 1 Mittibs--- 4111HTI4 NV tio i It-', 1 i 1 I tr4 1 1 41, 1 i NNNNNN16 I 0 i 471. LI; I st 111.11111011110016001L11 ilL 19,,, IN PHOTO BY DANA DRIENSKY The new Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge represents an extension into a more exciting future for downtown Dallas, which is letting all its ambition show in a sleek downtown interspersed with user-friendly spaces. ,410, 441 pt.g,10,,,..............,'...', .00300..... i.1:i,:,,-,,fr.. 1 --------1- ..:..1.

-1- -Pr-- taN litzn I IBM: .14 it Ma 1' 3 4 jpowel ,1 J1.11419.-- 70; 11; 4 16 --1 .1. 4-11-' ''11 7--- pip moo 7451i1W, ..1..4.,, 1,,,, Hi 41 i L. vft. Beyond downtown: Snapshots of a stay Former President George W. Bush was eating a souffle at no 1 rise (5360 W.

Lovers Lane, risesouffie.com) near his home when President Barack Obama called to say Osama bin Laden was dead. So we ordered Bush's specialty, the crab souffle savory but foamy. The frontier cabins of Texas Town captured my daughter's and niece's imaginations at the Dallas Arboretum (8525 Garland Road, near White Rock Lake, dallasarboreturn.org). Benches along tranquil gardens and ponds gave their grandmother a respite. An exhibit of Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures continues at the arboretum through Nov.

5. With designer fashion and home goods in front and a cafe in back, Forty Five Ten (4510 McKinney fortyfiveten.com) draws shoppers such as Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Simpson. Owner Brian Bolke says his Dallas clientele love fashion, architecture, art and design in equal measure. "The women here live big, full lives and are unashamed of being in he said. He credits the arts scene for moving the city forward.

The neighboring home furnishings store Nest (4524 McKinney Ave. nestdallas.com) exudes warmth with a European accent. Borrowing relatives' bikes on a Thursday afternoon, my husband and I cycled the honeysuckle-fragranced Katy Trail from Highland Park south to the American Airlines Center, where the Mavericks play. On our return trip we pulled over at the trail-side patio of the Katy Trail Ice House (3136B Routh katylcehouse.com), where wayward office workers sipped the curiosity that is the beerita, a margarita with an open bottle of beer bobbing in it. Dallas isn't particularly bike-friendly, but bike rentals are available for $35 per day, including a helmet, at Dallas Bike Works (4875 W.

Lawther Drive, dallasbikeworks.com) near the White Rock Lake trail. No trip to Dallas would be complete without gawking at the ritzy homes and the Dallas Country Club along Beverly Drive and ending up at Highland Park Village (Mockingbird Lane and Preston Road, hpvillage.com), where we enjoyed Tex-Mex and top-shelf margaritas at Mi Cocina and watched well-heeled, weekday shoppers at Christian Louboutin, Hermes and Stella McCartney. We noted the absence of pedestrian or bike lanes on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. We then learned of plans to turn the Continental Street Viaduct, which parallels the new bridge (named for philanthropist Hill), into a pedestrian and bicycle passage later this year. A plaza will provide a unique vantage point from which to behold the bridge as a landmark that broadens Dallas' horizons.

DALLAS Like spokes stretching from its 400-foot arch, the steel cords of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge propel us from the glossy downtown Arts District to gritty West Dallas. Renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, performer Lyle Lovett and 3,000 partygoers blanketed the westbound lanes of Calatrava's bridge for its over-thetop unveiling in March. Now, on a sunny Tuesday afternoon, our rental car crosses its elegant expanse alone. The breeze in the grass makes the only waves in the Trinity River bed below. Here is a city at a crossroads.

Its image often reduced to fast cars, fervent shopping and the fall ofJFK, Dallas is striving to diversify that view while uniting its sprawling metroplex with a string of architectural marvels downtown. "In Dallas, we love the impossible," Mayor Mike Rawlings said at the celebration of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, which soars as the symbolic hub of Texas-sized ambitions. The city's accomplishments over the past few years have turned heads. To the bridge's east is the Arts District, where the vermilion walls of the Winspear Opera House and the aluminum tube-covered cube of the Wyly Theatre attract curiosity from the Woodall Rogers Freeway. A bit farther north is the new three-block-long Klyde Warren Park, scheduled to open Oct.

27 with shady paths, a performance stage for concerts, a dog park and a children's garden, where a storytelling balcony will encircle an oak tree. Interactive fountains aim to mitigate temperatures that blazed past 100 degrees for 40 consecutive days in summer 2011 A restaurant is scheduled to open in 2013. Conceived as Dallas' front lawn and named for the son of a pipeline executive, the 5.2-acre Klyde Warren Park was designed in part to cover a stretch of the Woodall Rogers Freeway. Its more critical role is to bring a pulse to a dormant zone between the Arts District and Uptown. So a steady stream of free programming will include fitness boot camps, movie screenings, ballroom dance lessons, creative drama classes for children, a putting green and an outdoor lending library.

As intended, the park and other cultural enhancements have stimulated residential construction downtown, but not without courting controversy. The million-plus apartments of the new Museum Tower overlook one of downtown's jewels, the Nasher Sculpture Center. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano and PHOTO BY TIMOTHY HURSLEY The bridge connects the Arts District and its Winspear Opera House with the grittier West Dallas area of the city. opened in 2003, the Nasher boasts works by Rodin, Picasso and Degas. On the late afternoon that we stroll through the sculpture garden, Magdalena Abakanowicz's "Bronze Crowd" and the folded-arm figure of Aristide Maillors "La Nuit (Night)" are bathed in shade.

But at times the tower's reflective glass creates intense glare and heat. Fearing damage to its holdings, the Nasher has pressed for corrective measures. Within a block stand the Dallas Museum of Art and the Crow Collection of Asian Art. The new Perot Museum of Nature Science, designed by Pritzker Prize laureate Thom Mayne, is scheduled to open nearby in January, pointing to another source of debate: The museums and performing-arts venues are more concentrated here than in most cities. That's convenient in one sense, but natives and tourists alike lament that the cultural attractions, thus far, are unmatched by restaurants, shops or even storefronts that sell bottled water.

A similar vacancy greets us when we cross the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge from downtown. At the western terminus lie dusty vacant lots, Skittle-colored corrugated warehouses and auto-repair shops. A few blocks away is Ray's Sporting Goods, a gunlover's paradise. Some tourists might be tempted to turn back. But staying the course a few minutes southwest, past modest residential neighborhoods and Spanish-language billboards, my mom and I arrive for lunch on the cactus-flecked, tented patio of Bolsa, a cafe known for organic ingredients from local growers.

At this laid-back destination of gentrified Oak Cliff's Bishop Arts District, bruschetta with melon, cucumber, royale chevre and mint awakens our palates. It's half-price wine bottle day. My mom and I laze II I 1.1'. rft 7: 1 ,11 fi 11 Al 1,, ,1111,, 1 4 .1.. i v.

4,14, l'' i 'in '8 1,1,... 1 1 jili' -1 le- 1. ,.1 1 'Al'' I PHOTO BY ASHTON STANISZEWSKI The three-block-long Klyde Warren Park is scheduled to open in October as Dallas' new front lawn. It also hides a stretch of highway. Like this city's more recent cultural projects, this one spurred protests in the 1990s.

Dallas never was a cow town that's Fort Worth's distinction, said artists who sued to halt the project. Now, though, that criticism seems forgotten. Children hop along the stones to cross the stream beneath the waterfall, and a family smiles for a portrait on the lawn. more than two hours, my idea of vacation nirvana. My mom's is fresh-baked pie a la mode.

But while Bishop Arts boasts art galleries, vintage shops and boutiques, the Emporium Pies bakery won't open till fall in a converted purple house. So we drive back toward downtown, where we happen upon the iconic homage to old Texas, the Pioneer Plaza bronze sculpture of 70 larger-than-life steers being herded down a man-made ridge. WO. wdonahuetribunecom Hotel toiletries getting too upscale to leave behind At Waldorf Astoria Hotels Resorts, you'll find products from Salvatore Ferragamo Parfums. um tailw Some of the miniature toiletries at upscale hotels and resorts are so beautifully bottled, fabulously scented and downright seductive they seem to dare guests: Try me.

See if you can resist taking me home! Waldorf Astoria Hotels Resorts partnered with Salvatore Ferragamo Parfums to place an exclusive line of Tuscan Soul amenity products in 22 of its hotels worldwide this year. Mandarin Oriental Hotels in Boston, New York, Barcelona and Munich feature Red Flower organic products, known for their fragrance, Un Jardin sur le Nil. A complete personal travel kit awaits guests in Hotels, with samples of Bliss signature lemon and sage products, such as Body Butter, Soapy Suds Body Wash, Body Bar, Fabulous Foaming Face, and a shampoo and conditioner duo. In the Fort Lauderdale Hotel, a full-service Bliss spa and store are just off the lobby so guests can sample and purchase other products. Some hotels, such as Rosewood Hotels Resorts, select individual product lines for different properties.

Owner Ty Warner personally selected Bulgari green tea toiletries for Rosewood's Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos, Mexico. The 2.5-ounce plastic bottles of hair and body products conveniently conform to airline carry-on size regulations. How does all this luxury play out? A USA Today poll of more than 2,500 travelers found that 56 percent said they take toiletries home. And that's a win-win-win for hotels, fragrance brands wanting notice, and travelers. Irene Levine, special to Tribune Newspapers fresh scent as well as the company's commitment to health and the environment.

The popularity of Red Flower soared after it was initially launched at trendy Barney's in New York. Legendary Hermes was founded in Paris in 1837. Guests at any of the 10 Hotels Barriere properties in France (and one in Marrakech) receive a half-ounce gift bottle of the elegant Hermes I ri -11111W Ab I I 1 IMBL 1 fort A en 4'C' 11,71 I p.m 1411, -lb c5 Illai low To advertise, call Bondi; Wright at 410-312-6602 FIrt ri Am a Wa eV' 11Seti 11111--- t. no--Ns I iej 42,11, CAYMAN SUITES HOTEL OCEAN CITY Save on Summer Rentals! CRUISLCOM g8 Op! Days 0 The Internet's Largest Cruise Specialist Smith Island Cruise with Capt. Tyler 23 triand i 13 v-7-0, OCEAN BLOCK.

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