The inaugural David Dillon Symposium was held April 26 and 27, 2012 at the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center. Paul Goldberger of Vanity Fair provided the keynote address on Thursday evening, beginning with a spirited reading of David Dillon’s review of Philip Johnson’s “The Crescent” in Dallas, originally published in the Dallas Morning News in 1986.
The following day, 8 arts, design, and architecture writers discussed the changing role of criticism today, as media platforms shift from traditional print models to distributed, democratized online sources. Where do we go to read about architecture? And where, especially, can we find local voices who interpret and critique our built environment? What is the future for criticism?
Speakers included (in order of presentation):
Session 1: Stephen Fox (Anchorage Foundation), Benjamin Lima (University of Texas Arlington), Scott Cantrell (Dallas Morning News)
Session 2: Thomas Fisher (University of Minnesota), Alexandra Lange (Design Observer), Christopher Hawthorne (Los Angeles Times), Stephen Sharpe (Texas Build Smart), Paul Goldberger (Vanity Fair)
- Andrea Roberts
- Tara Dudley, UT Austin and HHM
- Larry Hollins
- Robert Swann, Dallas Landmark Commission
- Jason Shelton, University of Texas at Arlington, moderator
12:00 Working group lunches – box lunches provided
- Led by Diane Jones Allen, Program Director in Landscape Architecture
- Dennis Chiessa, Lecturer in Architecture
- Don Gatzke, Professor of Architecture
- Molly Plummer, Graduate Student in Landscape Architecture
1:30 – Heritage in the 21st Century – Strategies for Development
- Cyndy Lutz, Vice President of Neighborhood Investment, Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity
- Robert Meckfessel, DSGN
- Theresa O’Donnell, Chief Resilience Officer, City of Dallas
- David Preziosi, executive director, Preservation Dallas,
- Maria Schneider, CEO Dallas Unity Fund
- Mark Lamster, Dallas Morning News and UT Arlington, moderator
3:00 Summation and closing remarks