Dallas: Nowitzki Legacy, Asian Art Treasure and Trinity Forest Trails
Explore Magnolia Avenue near southside Fort Worth neighborhood revival, follow Dirk Nowitzki 21 seasons with the championship Mavericks, drink on Lower Greenville in 1920s buildings, discover the Crow Museum free Asian art collection, hike the Trinity Forest Spine Trail through the largest urban hardwood forest in the US, and celebrate the Texas Rangers 2023 World Series at Globe Life Field.
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Magnolia Avenue and Near Southside Fort Worth
The Near Southside neighborhood in Fort Worth, centered on Magnolia Avenue and running south from the downtown medical district, has transformed since 2010 into one of the most vibrant mixed-use neighborhoods in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The Magnolia Avenue corridor contains independent restaurants, coffee houses, bars, and boutiques in 1920s commercial buildings. The neighborhood is adjacent to the Fairmount Historic District, which contains the largest collection of Victorian-era houses in Fort Worth. The annual Magnolia Green Fest and the monthly First Friday art crawl draw residents from across the metroplex. The Near Southside development has been guided by the Southside Inc. nonprofit development organization, which has invested in streetscaping, public art, and affordable housing programs that have allowed the neighborhood to maintain economic diversity alongside rising property values.
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Dallas Mavericks and American Airlines Center
The Dallas Mavericks NBA franchise, owned by Mark Cuban since 2000, won the NBA Championship in 2011 defeating the Miami Heat in six games. Dirk Nowitzki, the German forward who played his entire 21-season career for the Mavericks from 1998 to 2019, is considered one of the greatest international players in NBA history and won the 2011 Finals MVP and 2007 regular season MVP. American Airlines Center, opened in 2001 in the Victory Park development adjacent to downtown, seats 19,200 for basketball. Nowitzki Number 41 jersey was retired by the Mavericks in 2019. The arena also hosts the NHL Dallas Stars, who won the Stanley Cup in 1999, making American Airlines Center the first arena to house two championship-winning professional sports teams in consecutive years.
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Lower Greenville and M Streets Nightlife
Lower Greenville Avenue, running north from Ross Avenue through the M Streets residential neighborhood, is the oldest continuously operating entertainment corridor in Dallas, with bars and restaurants operating in buildings from the 1920s through 1940s. The Granada Theater at 3524 Greenville Avenue, a 1946 building that became a premier live music venue in 2005 after its renovation, hosts national touring indie, alternative, and roots music acts. The M Streets neighborhood surrounding Lower Greenville contains one of the finest concentrations of 1920s and 1930s Mediterranean and Tudor Revival residential architecture in Dallas. The area was designated a historic district in 1985 and has maintained its character through careful oversight of exterior modifications. The annual Main Street Garden Park, a 1.75-acre downtown greenspace opened in 2010, provides outdoor events space in the central business district.
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Crow Museum of Asian Art
The Crow Museum of Asian Art at 2010 Flora Street in the Arts District, founded by developer Trammell Crow and his wife Margaret and opened in 1998, holds over 700 objects spanning 5,000 years of Asian art history in a free-admission facility. The collection emphasizes art from China, Japan, India, Cambodia, and Thailand with particular strength in Chinese jades, bronzes, and ceramics. The museum building, designed by F+A Architects, was expanded in 2023. The Crow family donated the collection to the city in 2020 and the museum operates as a public trust. The museum is less visited than the Dallas Museum of Art next door but holds works of exceptional quality including Tang dynasty tomb figures, Japanese screens, and Khmer stone sculpture. The combined Arts District museums make Dallas one of the best free-admission museum cities in the United States.
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Trinity River Corridor and Urban Trails
The Trinity River Corridor, a 19-mile floodway running through the heart of Dallas, is the subject of a 2.5-billion-dollar long-term improvement plan that includes ecological restoration, new parkland, and the Trinity Forest Spine Trail. The Trinity Forest Spine Trail, 26 miles completed through 2020, runs through the Great Trinity Forest, the largest urban hardwood forest in the United States at 6,000 acres. The corridor also contains three levee bike and pedestrian trails totaling 55 miles. The Trinity Groves development on the west side of the river, featuring distinctive rotating cube-shaped structures, is a chef-incubator restaurant district that has attracted national food media attention. The Calatrava-designed Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge opened in 2012 and the Ron Kirk Pedestrian Bridge provide pedestrian access across the river floodway.
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Texas Rangers and Globe Life Field
The Texas Rangers MLB franchise plays at Globe Life Field in Arlington, a retractable-roof stadium opened in 2020 at a cost of 1.2 billion dollars. The Rangers won their first World Series championships in 2023, defeating the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games after 52 years without a championship. Globe Life Field succeeded Globe Life Park in Arlington, one of the most beloved open-air ballparks in baseball, which operated from 1994 to 2019. The 2023 championship, featuring Corey Seager as World Series MVP, is the most recent major sports championship in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The Rangers Hall of Fame honors include Nolan Ryan, who threw seven no-hitters during his career and pitched for the Rangers from 1989 to 1993, and Ivan Rodriguez, the premier catcher of his generation who played in Texas from 1991 to 2002 and 2009.