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John Gillin Residence

1948 establishments in TexasBuildings and structures completed in 1958Frank Lloyd Wright buildingsHouses in DallasTexas building and structure stubs
Close up aerial view of John Gillins house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
Close up aerial view of John Gillins house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

The John Gillin Residence is a large single-story Usonian house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1950 and built in Dallas, Texas, in 1958. The Gillin House is Wright's only residential project in Dallas. Gillin, a successful oilman, geophysicist and electronics "gadgeteer", commissioned Wright to design a work of art that would also be suitable for living and entertaining. A self-made man, Wright respected him and allowed him to design many details including all door hardware, the stainless steel kitchenettes and even the diving board support. This sprawling Usonian is one of Wright's most extensive single-story residences. Three wings spin off a central hexagon much as might have happened had Wingspread been based on an equilateral parallelogram rather than a square. The home is organized around a massive angular fireplace. The acute angles of 60 and 120 degrees give intimacy to the rooms with ample light-filled space and volume that is unusual for a Frank Lloyd Wright designed home. The grand living room is under a hexagonal copper dome roof and ventilator specifically copied from the Arizona Biltmore Hotel's Aztec ballroom. The home was designed in response to the south central prairie's climate and its site of seven acres overlooking a creek. Long horizontal outer walls of understated native sandstone and horizontal bands of windows converge to create a dramatic entry. In 1996, the Gillin House was featured as Bob Mapplethorpe's house in the Wes Anderson film, Bottle Rocket.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article John Gillin Residence (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

John Gillin Residence
Rockbrook Drive, Dallas

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 32.867497 ° E -96.829625 °
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Rockbrook Drive 9400
75220 Dallas
Texas, United States
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Close up aerial view of John Gillins house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
Close up aerial view of John Gillins house, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
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Preston Center, Dallas
Preston Center, Dallas

Preston Center is a commercial center in north Dallas, Texas (USA), located around the intersection of Preston Road (State Highway 289) and Northwest Highway (Loop 12). The area has been a premier retail center in Dallas since its development in the 1950s, though the nearby NorthPark Center has provided significant competition. Around the Preston Center shopping complex lies both a significant amount of office space, totaling over 3,000,000 square feet (279,000 m2) and housing former President George W Bush's office, as well as some of the best residential neighborhoods in Dallas. University Park is to the south, a string of condos along Northwest Highway is to the east, and the Preston Hollow neighborhood is to the north.The development includes two 20-story office towers that opened during a construction boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s. As of 1989 many of the Preston Center buildings were partially vacant. During that year Terry Box of The Dallas Morning News said that the vacant buildings were perceived by residents of nearby Preston Hollow as "intrusive symbols of the city's failure to control its growth" and "have come to exemplify much of what is wrong with North Dallas." Around that time residents tried to pressure area politicians into making the development more low-rise and further removed from the Preston Hollow community.As of 2019 the families of many property owners had already owned the properties for some time.A municipal-owned parking garage serves Preston Center developments as the city is obligated to provide parking.As of 2019 several owners of Preston Center developments oppose redevelopment as it would interrupt their cash flow in the short term.