1. NEW PEROT MUSEUM
Thinking Inside The Box
CAFFEINATED CAR-TALK
Classics, Exotics And More
CARNIVORES RULE
Dallas’ Best Steakhouses
PLAYING HOST TO HISTORY
Adolphus Hotel Turns 100
STARCK, RAVING
Dallas’ Most Scandalous Club
WINTER 2013 THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO DALLAS
HAGMAN
1931-2012
A Texas-Size Tribute

2. WRITTEN BY
CATHERINE ADCOCK
Dallas’ newest museum challenges visitors young
and old to think, explore, create and imagine, all
from within the confines of a $190 million cube.
“There is a tremendous
need for great scientists.
Where do great scientists
come from? We certainly
hope that we have
created a place where
folks begin that journey.”
— Steve Hinkley,
Perot Vice President
of Programming
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3. D
allas’ newest museum
makes the earth move…
or can at least simulate it.
Experience an earthquake.
Race a dinosaur. Program a
robot. Just a few of the things
topping visitors’ to-do lists at the
new Perot Museum of Nature
and Science.
A product of a prodigious
fund-raising effort with a back-
story 70 years long, the Perot
delivers hand-over-dinosaur-
footprint when it comes to
education and, dare we
say, entertainment.
That’s what its
designers had in mind
when they attempted
to build a forward-
looking science
museum: engaging
audiences by relating
science to everyday life
in an interactive and
compelling manner.
Successfully doing so
would mean keeping
the attention of visitors
as varied as bored teenagers
and wide-eyed youngsters to
smartphone-addled adults.
“We’ve tried to tell stories,”
explains Steve Hinkley, Perot
Museum vice president of
programs. “You won’t see a
chemistry hall in this museum.
You will see a Sports Hall where
you can go run against a T-Rex.”
The aforementioned Sports Hall
encourages visitors to see how
their bodies stack up against
others’, such those belonging
to Dallas Cowboy Felix Jones,
a cheetah and, yes, a T-Rex.
“Those are the stories that
begin to get people involved
and asking questions of ‘Why
is the cheetah so much faster
than I am? Why is Felix Jones?
What makes his body different
from mine?’” says Hinkley.
From the dancing water
molecules greeting guests in
the lobby to the glass-enclosed
elevators and escalators, the new
museum is designed to provoke,
educate, inspire with the goal of
creating a more science-literate
community and leading a younger
generation on to careers in math,
science, medicine and technology.
“There is a tremendous need
for great scientists. Where do
great scientists come from?” says
Hinkley. “We certainly hope that
we have created a place where
folks begin that journey.”
A NEW INSTITUTION
In 2006, three major cultural
institutions, the Children’s
Museum, the Science Place
and the Museum of Natural
History, merged to form the
Dallas Museum of Nature and
Science in Fair Park, clearing
the way for what is now the Perot
Museum, located near the arts
district in downtown.
Housed in buildings dating to
1936, the combined institutions
desperately needed to expand
and update their facilities.
However, Fair Park buildings
carry historical landmark
standing, which curtailed the
possibility of on-site expansions.
A gift from Hunt Petroleum
led to the purchase of the 4.7-
acre property where the Perot
Museum now stands. What began
as a planned expansion turned
into a wholesale rebuild — a
brand new museum.
“The decision to build this
new museum came as many in
our community realized that the
city had grown up around our
institution,” says Perot Museum
CEO Nicole Smalls. “Great cities
have great science museums.
North Texas deserved a great
science museum.”
The creation of a new museum
and its attendant fund-raising
effort were well underway
when the children of Ross and
Margot Perot contributed $50
million in their parents’ name
to fund the institution. “My
dad is an engineer. Mom is a
teacher. And they have a passion
for education,” explains Perot
Museum board of directors chair
Carolyn Perot Rathjen. “It meets
a community need that has not
been [met] previously…not in
this magnificent form.”
All in all, nearly $190 million
of private donations funded this
foray into the next generation
of museum experiences, housed
in a building that is a work of
art in itself.
Designed by Pritzker Prize-
winning architect Thom Mayne,
the museum appears to be a
floating gray cube composed of
striated materials, its surface only
broken by an external escalator
enclosed in glass. It’s situated
west of Woodall Rodgers Freeway
in downtown Dallas, a location
that invited millions of motorists
to look on in amused skepticism
as construction progressed
The T. Boone Pickens Life Then and Now
Hall features the first-ever installation of the
Alamosaurus dinosaur (above, right) and the new
species Pachyrhinosaurus peroterum (above).
The Hoglund Foundation Theater features
larger-than-life 3-D technology.
Far left: The Dynamic Earth Hall invites
guests to touch a twister. Above: The
entrance to the Discovering Life Hall.
Left: Kids and their grownups interact
with an exhibit in the Engineering and
Innovations Hall.
JasonJanik
MarkKnightphotography
MarkKnightphotography
Mark Knight photography
DavidWoo
“There are so many ways
for audiences of the adult
age to engage with this
museum. As we like to
say, ‘We’re going for the
cradle to the grave.’”
— Steve Hinkley
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4. starting in November 2009.
Looking out from the escalator,
one can catch postcard-worthy
vistas of Dallas’ iconic skyline.
Inside, the building feels open
and inviting, with detail elements
that ignite curiosity, such as a
musical staircase. Says Smalls,
“We were really struck by Thom’s
want to have a building that
was a teaching institution that
was going to inspire minds and
dreamers and innovators.”
As a living testament to the
natural world in which it exists,
the eco-friendly building also
houses its own habitat of native
flora. On the one-acre roof
deck, drought-resistant grasses
pop up in between shale. The
landscape stays hydrated through
a sophisticated roof-collection
system that also meets the
building’s non-potable water
needs. The building itself is
on track to garner three green
accreditations: LEED, Green
Globes and Sustainable Sites
Initiative certifications.
Eleven permanent exhibits
showcase the work of several
design firms, inviting visitors to
explore, create, experiment and,
most importantly, think. “They
took the challenge to make better
exhibits than they have ever
made to heart,” says Smalls.
In the Being Human Hall,
one will find full-size slices of
the human body displayed for
inspection. They answer the
same basic curiosity that drove
1940s museum-goers to the Dallas
Health Museum, one of the
Perot’s forerunners, to see the
Transparent Man. Ten-feet tall,
his body was composed of clear
plastic skin covering anatomically
correct, and lighted, organs and
systems. In the same hall, an
exhibit demonstrates how the
brain’s neurotransmitters and
electromagnetic pulses work
by having visitors shoot Ping-
Pong balls using thoughts. The
Engineering and Innovation Hall
unpacks technology, inviting
guests to build robots capable of
solving a maze. For those looking
for a more traditional experience,
the fourth floor of the museum
is home to the only complete
Alamosaurus dinosaur skeleton
in the world, as tall as two school
buses and one school bus long.
And, yes, the Gems and Minerals
Hall will dazzle even the most
bedazzled jewel connoisseur.
What’s exciting about the
Perot Museum is less that it’s a
museum, and more that it’s an
experience. An experience that
offers attendants old and young
information to demystify the
science, math and technology
that make our universe move
from one day to the next and
into tomorrow.
“Math and science are the
engines of innovation,” said UT
Southwestern professor and
Nobel Laureate Michael Brown.
“If America is to maintain our
high standard of living, we must
continue to innovate.”
A science-literate community
isn’t just necessary to securing
those innovations, it’s also vital
to utilizing current advances in
day-to-day life and understanding
the greater issues society faces,
such as health epidemics and
energy challenges. Creating this
community begins with early
education, but must continue
for a lifetime.
So, sure, the lowest floor of
the new Perot museum boasts
a Children’s Museum where
tykes can embark on an outdoor
dino dig and experiment with
water, but the larger museum
targets grownups as well. “One
of the areas where we’ve allowed
technology to expand our
capacity is in creating layered
experiences, says Hinkley.
“There are so many ways for
audiences of the adult age to
engage with this museum. As we
like to say, ‘We’re going for the
cradle to the grave.’”
Math and science can strike
fear in the hearts of many adults
who recall textbooks, lab sets and
cramming for finals. A better
understanding of math and
science and how they function in
day-to-day life can be a pleasant
experience, even entertaining for
grown-ups. And the pay-offs are
more than worth it.
“I feel confident that the
investments that we have each
made in this institution will leave
significant rewards, create a
more science-literate community
and create a generation of
children that are creative,
innovative and passionate about
learning,” says Smalls.
“The decision to build this
new museum came as
many in our community
realized that the city
had grown up around
our institution. Great
cities have great science
museums. North Texas
deserved a great science
museum.”
— Nicole Smalls,
Perot Chief Executive Officer
Visitors can (from top) journey through the
solar system in the Expanding Universe Hall,
experience an earthquake in the Dynamic
Earth Hall, create music in a sound studio
in the Engineering and Innovations Hall,
and explore movement with motion-picture
capture technology in the Being Human Hall.
Leap frogs invite visitors to interact
with the exterior of the museum. Other
features include a rain-tube collection
system and a musical forest.
The Perot Museum’s entrance plaza features
a shallow stream that flows into a Koi pond.
MarkKnightphotography
MarkKnightphotography
JasonJanik
MarkKnightphotography
DavidWoo
DavidWoo
Day at the Museum
For Grown-Ups
Think the new Perot museum
is just for kids? Think again.
Don’t just go for the exhibit
halls (though they are not to
be missed), catch a film in a
theater featuring the latest
in 3-D technology or stop in
to enjoy the museum’s adult
programming.
Hours:
Mon. to Fri., 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sun., 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Pricing:
3-D Theater: $5-8
Admission $15, $20 (with
theater ticket)
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