Outsiders Celebrate Revolutionary 'Bastille Day' in Bishop Arts District

A slight breeze alleviating the oppressive heat. Laughter and the sound of people humming songs from ‘Les Mis’. Wine glasses as far as the eye can see. Le Tricolore hanging from every ledge.  This is Bastille on Bishop, 2015.

Bastille Day, or La Fête nationale, is a celebration of the symbol of the French Revolution: the overthrowing of Bastille prison in medieval France. In Paris, this historic day is marked with the nation’s largest parade. In Dallas, we go to the Bishop Arts district to enjoy some of the wonderful aspects of French culture: namely food, wine, and le marché. Bastille on Bishop is located near where La Réunion (a colony founded on the ideals of French philosopher François Fourier) was settled, just a few miles away from our beloved Reunion Tower, now known as the Bishop Arts District.

As lovers of culture and social spaces, it’s no surprise that about half of our office attended the festival. When we finally found parking, we were led to the festival by men and women in full ‘French’ attire –Breton striped shirts, red berets, and neck scarves. The streets were filled with people enjoying the open-air market. In the middle of the block, crowds of people were watching teams playing petanque – a French game that involves tossing a boule (ball) as close to the conchonnet (a wooden ball inside a circle) as you can. 

Though the mood was fun and imaginative, we were brought back to reality as we saw the line of protesters down the main street: ironic for a festival that was celebrating the people’s victory over government. Their signs pleaded with the crowd to help the community preserve the culture of the spaces that we were all currently enjoying. With the rezoning of Oak Cliff on the horizon, and Dallas as a whole moving towards denser development regulations, people are stepping up to protect their neighborhoods. Festivals like Bastille on Bishop serve as a good reminder to those of us that call the city home – we must find a way to marry the preservation of culture and the benefits of smart development. Integrating the past, present, and future is a difficult task, but with communities as passionate as this, I have no doubt that we will get to enjoy the Bishop Arts we know and love for years to come. 

Photographs by Raylen Worthington (color) and Charlie Pruitt (b&w)

Studio Outside 'Watch Wednesdays' a Welcome Addition to the Workweek

At Studio Outside, we're always looking for small ways to enhance our quality of work and our quality of life, and part of quality of work is continuing our education in landscape architecture and staying inspired. It's too easy to become chained to your desk at work and mired in routine in life, so I've been thinking of ways to add a little variety here and there.

One recent addition in the past couple weeks has been taking advantage of our new conference rooms (and flatscreen TVs!) to watch short films over the lunch break, which I've dubbed Watch Wednesdays! The goal is to take advantage of the lunch break, when many people are already eating at their desks or in the kitchen, and use it as a chance for some entertainment and inspiration for our profession. 

The first Watch Wednesday (WW) was a viewing for the office of the rediscovered 1967 film, The Walls are Rising, which I wrote about here. It sparked some interesting discussion about the ways Dallas has (and hasn't) changed over the last 50 years. The second WW was on an interesting short piece from Bassett & Partners called Briefly, which interviews prominent designers in a variety of fields about the value of a project brief, about creative inspiration, and the design process in general. Last week, we watched (or re-watched, in some cases) the iconic story The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, inspired by the synonymous book by William 'Holly' Whyte published in 1980. 

Below you can find our first three WW videos. How do you break up your work week or add interest to your daily routine? Let us know in the comments!