I'm not leaving the Crow Museum of Asian Art. But today I am leaving our offices here. For good. We moved into this sprawling office (complete with the Center for Contemplative Leadership) twenty-three months ago. I had a private corner office with stunning views of the Dallas Arts District and we enjoyed a hall you could roller skate on or have a mean game of bowling. We never did that, but we thought about it.
This is my seventh office in twenty years at the museum.
My First office was at the Front Desk. I sat there for a year. This was one of my favorite offices I've had: direct contact with our visitors truly on the pulse of the museum activity.
The second was on the first floor just off of the then Japanese Gallery: a tiny house for five employees. Great views of Flora Street and all of the activity there. Once I looked out at saw a car that looked like my Isuzu Rodeo being towed on a Friday at 4:30. Turns out it was my Isuzu Rodeo. It was a long weekend until I could retrieve it. We laughed until we cried.
We expanded that space and created an office for the Director: in 2002 it became mine. (Third.)
Then we turned that space into the Lotus Shop: always growing and creating larger space inside of space. We moved up to the 31st Floor for our Fourth office home. It felt too far away and for a spell I was in the First Lotus Shop just off the front desk. It was tough to be so "exposed" --I was bombarded with too much information. It had a large sliding glass door that closed me in like a cell. This was my Fifth office.
Next, after the opening of the Performing Arts Center, now the AT&T Performing Arts Center we moved into their former preview space on the mezzanine of Trammell Crow Center. Office number six. This was a period of remarkable growth: a large shared office area with our first conference room and kitchen. Next we expanded to add a library and a larger conference room. It was a sweet suite and with each move we felt we grew up a little more.
And then, two years ago, with generous support from our Landlords, we were invited to take a large space on the 35th floor: the original Trammell Crow Office space that opened here in 1984. It's rumored my sprawling corner office was also Trammell S.'s office back in the day. Good karma. We loved it up here: Corgan completed a stunning renovation. LA-based artist Amanda Giacomini was commissioned to paint a mural of 10,000 Buddhas in her continuing series. We held a very sacred puja when we opened the office. Seven was heaven. Literally.
I learned about a new ecosystem: what the world looks like from the 35th floor. I watched traffic and tracked emergency vehicles to make sure they weren't coming to the museum. I watched Care Flight go back and forth from Baylor to Children's Medical. I studied the renovations of the Cathedral, the roof of the Meyerson and the construction of Flora Lofts and the Hall Project(s). It is a completely different world up here. I did a lot of work whilst in Suite 3550, too. This was the Design Center for our Big Vision to become part of the University of Texas at Dallas. I am sitting, here for just a few more moments in the room where it happened.
And Monday I will be in a new room in my Eighth Office. It will be a place of designing our future museum for the Campus at UT Dallas: a place of building new futures for the museum so much farther beyond what we have known--even as I sit 35 stories in the sky. Vision can happen anywhere. And it's not the offices you sit in that matter: it's the people you choose to spend those hours with and the dreams you go for.
So, goodbye Seventh Office in the Sky. May our inspirations that happened here carry forward for the next inhabitants. And I know that ultimately the sky never leaves me.
This is my seventh office in twenty years at the museum.
My First office was at the Front Desk. I sat there for a year. This was one of my favorite offices I've had: direct contact with our visitors truly on the pulse of the museum activity.
The second was on the first floor just off of the then Japanese Gallery: a tiny house for five employees. Great views of Flora Street and all of the activity there. Once I looked out at saw a car that looked like my Isuzu Rodeo being towed on a Friday at 4:30. Turns out it was my Isuzu Rodeo. It was a long weekend until I could retrieve it. We laughed until we cried.
We expanded that space and created an office for the Director: in 2002 it became mine. (Third.)
Then we turned that space into the Lotus Shop: always growing and creating larger space inside of space. We moved up to the 31st Floor for our Fourth office home. It felt too far away and for a spell I was in the First Lotus Shop just off the front desk. It was tough to be so "exposed" --I was bombarded with too much information. It had a large sliding glass door that closed me in like a cell. This was my Fifth office.
Next, after the opening of the Performing Arts Center, now the AT&T Performing Arts Center we moved into their former preview space on the mezzanine of Trammell Crow Center. Office number six. This was a period of remarkable growth: a large shared office area with our first conference room and kitchen. Next we expanded to add a library and a larger conference room. It was a sweet suite and with each move we felt we grew up a little more.
And then, two years ago, with generous support from our Landlords, we were invited to take a large space on the 35th floor: the original Trammell Crow Office space that opened here in 1984. It's rumored my sprawling corner office was also Trammell S.'s office back in the day. Good karma. We loved it up here: Corgan completed a stunning renovation. LA-based artist Amanda Giacomini was commissioned to paint a mural of 10,000 Buddhas in her continuing series. We held a very sacred puja when we opened the office. Seven was heaven. Literally.
I learned about a new ecosystem: what the world looks like from the 35th floor. I watched traffic and tracked emergency vehicles to make sure they weren't coming to the museum. I watched Care Flight go back and forth from Baylor to Children's Medical. I studied the renovations of the Cathedral, the roof of the Meyerson and the construction of Flora Lofts and the Hall Project(s). It is a completely different world up here. I did a lot of work whilst in Suite 3550, too. This was the Design Center for our Big Vision to become part of the University of Texas at Dallas. I am sitting, here for just a few more moments in the room where it happened.
And Monday I will be in a new room in my Eighth Office. It will be a place of designing our future museum for the Campus at UT Dallas: a place of building new futures for the museum so much farther beyond what we have known--even as I sit 35 stories in the sky. Vision can happen anywhere. And it's not the offices you sit in that matter: it's the people you choose to spend those hours with and the dreams you go for.
So, goodbye Seventh Office in the Sky. May our inspirations that happened here carry forward for the next inhabitants. And I know that ultimately the sky never leaves me.
Oh I soooo loved your beautiful office you are about to vacate. What a fun adventure you are on my sweet friend!❤️🌻
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