Mission San Jose, San Antonio, Texas

Mission San Jose, San Antonio, Texas, restored in the 1930s as a WPA project and monetized in the present.

DART Light Rail

As a continuation of my exploration of the built environment, I have been photographing the DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) light rail construction and thinking about the possible changes in the landscape around it. The image here runs parallel to the existing highways, bypassing businesses and dividing the landscape it runs through. Businesses will close, others will open and how society interacts with the landscape will be altered.

There is a history of transportation changes altering communities. A a string of towns runs between Shreveport, LA. and Dallas, Texas that were railroad town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  The  automobile and US Highway 80 changed that, and eventually many of these towns were bypassed all together by the interstate highway a few miles from the town centers. In Dallas, the demise of the trolly system closed businesses and even churches, who depended on public transit and had no parking facilities.  link to images

Signs of the Economy

42 acres at the corner of Walnut Hill and US 75, Central Expressway in Dallas, Texas.  A large apartment complex was demolished to make room for an ambitious mixed-use, high end development. The land has been taken back by the lenders and they are trying to sell it to recover the more than $40 million they have invested in it.  link to image

Main St. Theater in Nacogdoches, TX

Here is another of these closed cinemas, this one in Nacogdoches, Texas. It is for lease and next door to a thrift shop.  link to image

The Tyler Theater

I have been photographing old movie theaters. My interest in them comes from Saturday mornings in downtown Youngstown, Ohio, and the 400-500 seat, single screen neighborhood theaters that are mostly gone in Dallas. (The Esquire, Delman, Wilshire, Granada, etc) The theater in this image is in Tyler, Texas, just off the square. It exists as only the facade, the interior is gone. link to image

Images in Texas Architect

Texas Architect has published images I made of the Watermark Community Church for Omniplan in a portfolio of religious facilities. (page 66 of the March/April 2010 issue) You can see more work from the project here: http://www.petercalvin.com/archtecture.html

Executive Fitness in Dallas

Hart's Military Training, US 75, North Central Expressway, Dallas, TX.

Possible keywords: executive training, corporate culture, militarism, competitiveness, machismo, football culture, butch, capitalism
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