In Grapevine, a building so weird you have to see it

When I posted a picture of the building called Grapevine Main on my Instagram feed a few weeks ago, there were a lot of answers: questioning comments, derisive comments, appreciative comments, emojis of all kinds.

What exactly is Grapevine Main? I’m not sure how to answer this question, but here’s what I can tell you: It’s quite simply the strangest new build in North Texas, a $ 105 million non-train station with a historicist design that unlike any other building anywhere. So yeah, it’s a curiosity.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. “It’s a crazy project,” says John Allender, who designed the building for Dallas-based Architexas. “It’s bizarre. There is nothing like it. “

A lot of things got mixed up in the Frankenstein building: a tourist attraction, a dining hall, an event location, a 120-room hotel, a 38,000-square-meter public space and – North Texas is North Texas – a parking garage with 552 spaces. This last element is a bit ironic given the project’s train station theme, a product of its location next to Grapevine’s TexRail station and the historic train station now a museum.

The project was designed by city guides as the new city center and gateway to the historic Main Street Historic District of Grapevine, which is directly across from the train tracks.

The clock tower on Grapevine Main(Lola Gomez / photographer)

It cannot be denied that it makes an impressive impression. Located behind a wide, open square, it is dominated by an axially aligned, 50-meter-high clock tower with a cap that protrudes like a threatening mortarboard (without a tassel). A pair of red brick wings with their own overhanging roofs supported by hilariously oversized brackets flank the lower center block. At first glance, the composition appears symmetrical, but on closer inspection its peculiarity becomes increasingly clear, as one wing is larger than the other and the vertical window arrangement is detailed differently.

The closer you get, the stranger it gets. The two-story central block is in front of a columned arcade like a Venetian palace. One would expect a large formal entrance, and indeed there is a protruding portico with an articulated pediment above it. But there is no door where the door should be. Instead, you will be directed through side entrances behind the portico. The grand gesture expected from the architectural elements is reduced to a strangely banal experience.

It’s a shame too, because the interior is pretty dramatic. What a majestic arrivals hall would be if this were the train station it claims to be is a food court with a mosaic tile floor and a vaulted, double-height ceiling supported by steel trusses accented by filigree needle lights. The side wings – the waiting rooms of the fantasy train station – are lovely restaurant and event rooms.

The food court in Grapevine Main (Lola Gomez / photographer)

The building design is not entirely sui generis, although it is obvious. “When we started, we did a lot of research and looked at a lot of historic train stations,” says Allender. The city wanted something of a traditional character, given the Victorian character of its historic Main Street District. The architects landed at an unusual and long-demolished train station in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania known only from some relatively poor historical photographs taken around the time Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train rolled through. “It’s just really unique in its dimensions and detailing.”

Harrisburg Station was much smaller than Grapevine envisioned, and so the already unusual model was scaled to oversized Texan proportions, a process of inflation that has made it even more idiosyncratic.

So what is it architecturally? In my opinion, the building falls into the broad stylistic category of postmodernism, a descriptor with different definitions. There’s historicist architecture that is a boring, corporate-conservative response to modernity (think Old Parkland), and there is postmodernism that is a playful reinterpretation of architectural elements (think of the Centrum Tower in Oak Lawn). Robert Venturi, the architect and critic who was the reluctant avatar of postmodernism, actually hated the term. He preferred mannerism, by which he meant a kind of artificial exaggeration.

This term describes Grapevine Main well; It’s something more thoughtful than mere kitsch, and it’s built with real care, a work of considerable craftsmanship. The detailing might be weird, but it’s pretty and pulled through to the last. The clock tower, for example, is enlivened by a dog-tooth brick pattern on all four sides and not just on the outward-facing front – an effort that would have been rendered worthless in a smaller project.

That level of thoughtfulness, however, is not reflected in the rather barren open space in front of the building that was installed to give Grapevine the great civic assembly space it had previously lacked. If filled with people it could meet that demand, but most of the time it isn’t, which means that the building is surrounded by a rather empty space that is exposed to the elements. Dallas supporters, constantly frustrated by the huge square of our own City Hall, understand this predicament. If the wings of the building had been pulled forward to enclose the space, it would have been a comfortable, active and inviting space. More trees and more furniture wouldn’t hurt either.

The place on Grapevine Main (Lola Gomez / photographer)

The hotel component of the development, accessible via a separate main entrance around the corner on Dallas Road, is a boutique version of Marriott’s upscale Autograph Collection.

From the city’s point of view, the attraction here is obvious: a beautiful hotel just a few minutes from DFW International Airport, combined with an all-in-one entertainment facility, which is located next to a charming historic city center. City planners can also view it as a win, a major transport-oriented development that could fuel future growth in the area alongside the Grapevine rail link.

Ultimately, the success of Grapevine Main will be based on its relationship with the historic district that is across the tracks. If it serves as a real gateway to this area and attracts more people to visit, it will be a victory. If instead it pulls visitors away from the historical core and cannibalizes the real history of the city for a fictional one, it will be very sad indeed.

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