Confessions of Dallas High Rise Living: Is Dallas No. 1 With The Deaf and Blind?

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(Editor’s Note: This is the second installment in a hopefully regular series from Jon Anderson, in which he dishes on the inner-workings of life in the sky. Anderson’s take on Dallas high rise living is both entertaining and educational. You can read his first installment here.)

By Jon Anderson
Special Contributor

Driving up and down our High and increasingly Toll “ways” one can’t help but be proud of the number of housing units built for deaf and blind people. This has picked up considerably since the recession and something we can be proud of.

Or course I’m kidding about the deaf and blind, but how else can you explain the huge numbers of apartment blocks and condominiums lining our dirty and unendingly noisy six-lane thoroughfares? Otherwise, I’d be forced to think developers actually believe people with functioning ears and eyes would not only want to live facing a high-speed motorway but use a balcony overlooking it all.

Here’s just a sample…

A quick trip down Central Expressway

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Easy Highway Access (Just a leap from your bedroom window).

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Honey, did you really need to be in West Village THAT badly?

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It’s not just rentals, condo owners can partake.

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Pass the wine. WHAT???  PASS THE WINE!!! OHHHH!

A flick over Woodall Rodgers Shows We Love Our Deaf Millionaires Too!

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A saunter up the Stemmons and the Tollway…

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The pool deck on this baby faces the highway!

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It’s SOOOOO chic to live in the Design District.

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Oak Lawn’s Newest Tollway-huggers

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Balconies for Juliet to Holler “ROMEO, ROMEO!!!!”

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Capturing Tollway views in both directions.

I know Dallas hasn’t used up its interior (and quiet) lots when so many of them were cleared leading up to the recession.  And it’s not like these new buildings are cheap housing — I’ve not even shown the Stemmons-adjacent Victory Park buildings. Residents are paying a pretty penny for awful views, windows incapable of offering fresh air without the constant thrum of traffic and balconies whose only use is for banished smokers.

Can’t we do better?

 

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Jon Anderson is CandysDirt.com's condo/HOA and developer columnist, but also covers second home trends on SecondShelters.com. An award-winning columnist, Jon has earned silver and bronze awards for his columns from the National Association of Real Estate Editors in both 2016, 2017 and 2018. When he isn't in Hawaii, Jon enjoys life in the sky in Dallas.

8 Comments

  1. CRITIC on January 30, 2015 at 9:08 am

    These REIT induced architectural disasters are pre-planned ghettos.
    Can you imagine what these will be like in 20-25 years ?
    Hopefully scrapped or imploded

  2. BabyBoomerang on January 30, 2015 at 10:16 am

    And who designs these butt-ugly buildings? There have to be apartment/condo architects in Dallas who have taste….where are they?

  3. Jon Anderson on January 30, 2015 at 10:36 am

    1. With luck they’ll gather them all up and bury them inside the Trinity River tollway project, another future demolition site.

    2, I suspect these buildings are not designed locally. My bet is that national companies reuse plans a number of times making whatever tweaks are needed for a specific lot. On a trip to Austin, I swear I saw even say spendy Museum Tower’s twin.

  4. LonestarBabs on January 30, 2015 at 3:47 pm

    It’s just as bad in the suburbs!!! A fugly metro-blight.

  5. Sharon Quist on January 30, 2015 at 7:20 pm

    We CAN do better. Email or call me!

  6. Allison on February 2, 2015 at 8:51 am

    Don’t forget The Shelton just off the tollway in Preston Center, basically. I sold Palomar (pictured) and it is interesting to note that to the people who live there, the hum of the freeway essentially becomes “white noise”… Mid-rises are noisier than high rises, because they’re normally wood construction. So yeah, I could never live in a wood constructed building off of the freeway, but a high rise is always solid concrete and steel, so not nearly as bad. I think people are willing to trade the noise for the convenience of easy access.

    • Candy Evans on February 2, 2015 at 11:48 am

      When we lived in what was then a million dollar house on Park Lane, we were one block from the tollway and heard the traffic noise all the time. I call it the urban waterfall!

  7. Jon Anderson on February 2, 2015 at 5:04 pm

    FYI, the last picture is of the Shelton from the tollway. While I agree that high-rise construction makes noise less of a problem indoors (assuming multi-pane windows), neither minimize the noise when windows are open or the patio is in use. Personally, as an inveterate window-opener, it’s something I’d never get used to.

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