Sunday, February 12, 2017

Geography

Dallas is the county seat of Dallas County. Portions of the city extend into neighboring Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall counties. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 385.8 square miles (999.3 km2), 340.5 square miles (881.9 km2) of it being land and 45.3 square miles (117.4 km2) of it (11.75%) water.[22] Dallas makes up one-fifth of the much larger urbanized area known as the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, in which one quarter of all Texans live.

Architecture

The Dallas skyline with parts of Uptown in the foreground.
Dallas' skyline contains several buildings over 700 feet (210 m) in height. Although some of Dallas' architecture dates from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most of the notable architecture in the city is from the modernist and postmodernist eras. Iconic examples of modernist architecture include Reunion Tower, the JFK Memorial, I. M. Pei's Dallas City Hall and Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. Good examples of postmodernist skyscrapers are Fountain Place, Bank of America Plaza, Renaissance Tower, JPMorgan Chase Tower, and Comerica Bank Tower.
Several smaller structures are fashioned in the Gothic Revival style, such as the Kirby Building, and the neoclassical style, as seen in the Davis and Wilson Buildings. One architectural "hotbed" in the city is a stretch of historic houses along Swiss Avenue, which contains all shades and variants of architecture from Victorian to neoclassical.[23] The Dallas Downtown Historic District protects a cross-section of Dallas commercial architecture from the 1880s to the 1940s.

Neighborhoods

Central Dallas

Central Dallas is anchored by Downtown, the center of the city, along with Oak Lawn and Uptown, areas characterized by dense retail, restaurants, and nightlife. Downtown Dallas has a variety of named districts, including the West End Historic District, the Arts District, the Main Street District, Farmers Market District, the City Center business district, the Convention Center District, and the Reunion District. "Hot spots" in this area include Uptown, Victory Park, Oak Lawn, Dallas Design District, Trinity Groves, Turtle Creek, Cityplace, Knox/Henderson, Greenville and West Village.
Homes in Munger Place Historic District in the winter

East Dallas

East Dallas is home to Deep Ellum, a trendy arts area close to Downtown, the homey Lakewood neighborhood (and adjacent areas, including Lakewood Heights, Wilshire Heights, Lower Greenville, Junius Heights, and Hollywood Heights/Santa Monica), historic Vickery Place and Bryan Place, and the architecturally significant neighborhoods of Swiss Avenue and Munger Place. Its historic district has one of the largest collections of Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Prairie-style homes in the United States. In the northeast quadrant of the city is Lake Highlands, one of Dallas' most unified middle-class neighborhoods.[24]

South Dallas

South Dallas, a distinct neighborhood southeast of Downtown, lays claim to the Cedars, an eclectic artist hotbed, and Fair Park, home of the annual State Fair of Texas, held in late September and through mid-October.[25] Southwest of Downtown lies Oak Cliff, a hilly area that has undergone gentrification in recent years, in neighborhoods such as the Bishop Arts District. Oak Cliff was a township founded in the mid-1800s and annexed in 1903 by the city of Dallas.[26] Today, most of the area's northern residents are Hispanic. The ghost town of La Reunion once occupied the northern tip of Oak Cliff. South Oak Cliff has a population that is a mixture of African American, Hispanic, and Native American.
South Side Dallas is currently a popular location for nightly entertainment at the NYLO rooftop patio and lounge,[27] The Cedars Social,[28] and the famous country bar Gilley's.[29] The neighbourhood has undergone extensive development and community integration. What was once an area characterized by high rates of poverty and crime is now one of the most attractive social and living destinations in the city.[30]
Further east, in the southeast quadrant of the city, is the large neighborhood of Pleasant Grove. Once an independent city, it is a collection of mostly lower-income residential areas stretching to Seagoville in the southeast. Though a city neighborhood, Pleasant Grove is surrounded by undeveloped land on all sides. Swampland and wetlands separating it from South Dallas will in the future be part of the Great Trinity Forest,[31] a subsection of the city's Trinity River Project which is planned to restore and preserve wetlands, newly appreciated for habitat and flood control.
Dallas is surrounded by many suburbs; three enclaves are within the city boundaries—Cockrell Hill, Highland Park, and University Park

Districts

Topography

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