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FORTUNE.COM// JA N.1 .19part of Exxon Mobil, for $1.85 billion.
“It’s really the success that I’ve had in the
energy business that’s enabled me to take a
risk on these things and to take a longer-term
horizon,” he says.
Over the years, Headington Companies has
invested more than half-a-billion dollars in
redeveloping downtown Dallas. Two blocks
from the Joule, there’s Commissary, a bustling
café and market whose facade is covered with
27,857 ceramic tiles in shades of blue. Across
the street from the hotel is Forty Five Ten, a
trendy boutique that sells things like $585
canvas pants and coffee mugs with oversize
handles that recall the work of avant-garde
sculptor Claes Oldenburg. The fourth-floor
restaurant Mirador serves high-end renditions
of deviled eggs (topped with caviar) and Tater
Tots. “You have to give rich people reasons to
come down, and if they come down, they have
to want to come back,” Headington says.
Not all of his design ideas have come to
pass. One reject involved the Joule’s rooftop
swimming pool, which juts out over Main
Street. “We had a very wicked idea,” he says,
“of running a little pipe that would drip water
so that people underneath would go, ‘Oh, my
God, the pool’s leaking!’ ”
The prank is too out-there for now, but
if Headington keeps pushing the envelope,
maybe Dallas will be ready for it one day.
DESTINATIONDESIGN
When listing the nation’s top design hubs, people invari-
ably include New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
But, in fact, a number of smaller cities also have sizable
communities of “designers,” a nebulous catchall term
that applies to architects, product designers, graphic
designers, interior designers, and industrial designers.
Here are some of those designer-friendly cities:COLUMBUS, IND.This small town, pop. 48,000,
is home to diesel-engine maker Cummins,
which has an army of workers designing its
traditional motors, along with ones powered by
electricity, natural gas, and fuel cells. Oh, and
by the way, the city also happens to be a mecca
for modernist architecture, much of it funded
by the company’s foundation.MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAULThe Twin Cities area
is a hotbed of graphic design, a likely legacy
of its large number of ad and marketing
companies.CINCINNATIThe city is home to a number
of design firms, like ad agency Rockfish
Digital and Jack Rouse, which designs public
attractions including museum exhibits and
waterslides. Graduates of the University of
Cincinnati’s art and design programs help fill
the demand for talent.