The Eye of Texas Will Be Upon Deep Ellum With Shepard Fairey Commission on the Continental Gin Building Water Tower

Dallas is about to get a new piece of very visible art that is also a preservation project, so I’m doubly thrilled.

Artist Shepard Fairey was commissioned for Westdale’s latest art project on the water tower of the Continental Gin Building complex and is, in fact, on his scaffolding right now.

You may remember Fairey created the iconic Obama Hope image, so there was excitement in every quarter when he accepted the commission, and I mean from Dallas City Hall to the proverbial man on the street. This is going to be a significant addition to the Dallas public art scene. The fact that a historic restoration was part of the process makes my heart skip a beat.

A Vital Part of The Dallas Economy For a Century

The Continental Gin building was built in 1888 and was the largest cotton processing equipment manufacturing plant in the United States. Cotton was a vital part of the Dallas economy for much of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as one-sixth of the world’s cotton grew within a 150-mile radius of Dallas.

“The collection of masonry buildings in the Continental Gin complex represents one of the very best examples of historic industrial complexes in Dallas and one that has survived for more than 100 years,” Preservation Dallas Executive Director David Preziosi said. “The Continental Gin Complex is both a City of Dallas Landmark District, listed in 1987, and is on the National Register of Historic Places”. 

A few years ago, Joe Beard, President, and CEO of Westdale, was in Miami. He took a walk through the famous Wynwood Walls, one of the highest-profile street art destinations in the world. If you have not experienced it, you must. It’s essentially an urban graffiti art museum, curated by Goldman Global Arts, a creative collective founded by Jessica Goldman Srebnick and Peter Tunney.

Beard walked into Peter Tunney’s gallery and struck up a conversation with him about the art projects he envisioned for Dallas. Beard is not your conventional CEO. He’s a trailblazer, and his decision to integrate art into architecture throughout Deep Ellum — where his company owns a lot of assets — has been brilliantly executed.

“Joe told Peter he should come and see Deep Ellum and collaborate with Westdale,” Daniel Pezet, Director of Operation at Goldman Global Arts said. “He wanted to bring some world-class art to Deep Ellum to complement the existing local art.”

Goldman Global Arts pitched ten murals and have worked on installations throughout the Deep Ellum neighborhood, from the Case Building to The Green Room.

“Dennis Trimarchi, the Managing Principal of Real Estate Development, has been instrumental in the artist selection with Joe and P.J Beard, Asset Management Development Associate has been the lead on project management,” Pezet said.  “They have been a great team to work with.”

The Continental Gin water tower is the last mural to be installed and perhaps the most important as it’s not just a historic symbol, it’s also a focal point in Deep Ellum. 

“Originally, when we came out for that first visit, we realized the water tower was a symbol,” Pezet said. However, it was rusted and in bad shape. We wanted to restore it and have an iconic piece of art applied. Joe Beard thought that was a great idea.” 

Goldman Global began to curate the team and came up with a list of artists to present to Westdale. Shepard Fairey was selected, and the presentation went to the city for approval.

“We dealt with the Landmark Commission, and they were amazing,” Pezet said. “A lot of them were familiar with Shepard’s artwork, and once we pitched him, they were arms wide open!”

As you can imagine, Fairey is a busy artist, but he’s always enjoyed working in Dallas and has a great relationship with Goldman Global Arts, so it was an immediate yes to the commission. 

Integrating artwork into architecture has become something of a trend over the past few years. However, it’s rare to see an art project that involves the restoration of a historic structure. So, we tip our Stetsons to Westdale and look forward to the next project!