Hickory Street Annex

State Fair of Texas

2009-11-02T11:51:00.001-08:00

Hickory Street Annex is walking distance to the Fair. We are sad to see it go (except for the traffic). I don't understand how this was done, but I think it is a beautiful farewell to the State Fair of Texas. This video was made by Jim Herndon of On Location Portraiture with a regular camera and not a video camera. It is basically tons of still photos put together to look like a film. If you are a photo nerd you can read all about it on his blog. If you could somehow play it in slow motion perhaps you could see Oprah eating fried butter!

Eat, Drink and Be Scary

2009-10-21T20:29:00.001-07:00

Hickory Street Annex is excited to be a part of this really cool event on 10.29.09 benefiting Heroes for Children. Take a look at some of the stories below of the children that this wonderful charity has helped to support. We hope to see all of you at this party to help support such a fabulous organization! Purchase your tickets today Eat, Drink and Be Scary.

Wilson's best side

2009-07-01T19:24:00.000-07:00

This photo of Wilson was taken by one of our newest tenants, Adam Fish of Fish Fotography. He is a commercial photographer that is represented by another one of our tenants, Those 3 Reps.

In case you don't know, Wilson is Gary Kaelson's standard poodle. Wilson thinks he is human! Maybe because Gary spoils him.

DART criticized over weeds

2008-06-27T10:35:00.000-07:00

Gary has been trying to get the lot adjacent to the Annex cleaned up for months. It is a storage yard that DART has neglected, allowing trees, weeds and even stray dogs to take up residence there. He finally contacted David Schechter at WFAA and they came out and did a story on the situation. DART immediately cleaned up the mess and looks much nicer now! Thank you WFAA and DART!

DART criticized over weeds

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

With the largest light rail construction project in North America, DART is really growing its system. But it turns out, it's also growing some weeds.

A Dallas developer says DART has failed to clean up an overgrown property right next to his.

The Hickory Street Annex is a little oasis in Deep Ellum. But it sits right next to a DART storage yard that has not been kept up.

Gary Kaelson's banquet hall is supposed to be an elegant place. But he's not happy with what he sees out his window. "Overgrown weeds, lumber and shopping carts and stray dogs," he said of the view. Kaelson says the yard has been overgrown for years.

Recently, he started asking DART to clean up the yard, where the agency stores concrete cross-ties. He has been trying to get it cleaned up for a year and a half. This morning we forwarded Kaelson's complaint to DART. By noon, DART was cleaned up.

"We want to make sure we're good neighbors. We didn't do that in this case, we're sorry and we're going to get it taken care of," a DART spokesperson said. DART is building almost 30 miles of rail, so there's bound to be some construction impacts on neighbors. But it works hard to stay in touch with community concerns.

Click her to see article at WFAA.com

Hair Salon Shoot in the Studio

2008-06-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

We had a very cool event here last weekend. It was the second annual photo shoot for the Mouton's Salon in Grapevine (first time at the Annex). They were looking for a cool urban feel for their backdrop and Hickory Street Annex was the perfect fit. They brought in their talented hair stylists and makeup artists, models, photographers and wardrobe. They took before and after photos to show the transformation. But, I saw the models before and they didn't need much help!

All we did was open up the space, show them the coffee maker, and they worked their magic all day long. I have been promised photos when they are ready, so check back soon. To read more about the photo shoot, visit the Mouton's blog posting.

Gary, the sculptor

2008-03-26T14:48:00.001-07:00

After thinking about what to blog about for three weeks, it finally occurred to me that I should start with something about Gary Kaelson. Actually, I knew I wanted to write about him but wanted to focus on an aspect that most people don’t know about Gary. We all know that Gary is the owner of the Annex, but most people don’t know that Gary is also an artist! For the past three years, Gary has been one of the metal workshop students at Esalen (www.esalen.org), on the beautiful Big Sur coastline of northern California.

For many years Gary had been going to Esalen to do yoga and take in the health benefits of a relaxing week of vacation. In 2005, Esalen added a workshop called “the Magic of Metal: Blacksmithing, Welding, and Sculpting.” He gave it a try and has made it an annual homage ever since.

Growing up, Gary would assist his dad with carpentry projects, something he did as a hobby when he wasn’t busing being a doctor. When Gary was in college in Wichita, Kansas, he took a job with a small concrete company. When miscellaneous repair jobs to the equipment became necessary, the owner taught Gary how to use a cutting torch and arc weld. Although these skills were utilitarian in nature, these experiences sparked Gary’s interest in working with tools and creating things.

During his first workshop, with the help of his two instructors both from Santa Fe, Gary created a garden gate. He went to Escalen with this project in mind since he was in search of an attractive gate near the Bottle Garden at the Annex. As most of you know, the bottle wall is a creative assembly of glass bottles set in mortar. Gary used this as inspiration for the gate, mimicking the bottles with round pipe and square tubing. The second project of that week was a copper rose constructed from leftover copper downspouts that were being installed on site at Escalen. In fact, most of the projects are made from scrap metal that the instructors bring in from the local scrap yards. The philosophy of the instructors is to guide the students while giving them the space for creativity, and successfully keeping the workshop accident free every year! All of the tools used are handmade, since that is the how historically blacksmiths have always done things. Gary’s favorite part of the work is the blacksmithing. “There is something really nice about the metal getting hot and taking on a malleable clay-like form. You can shape and reshape the metal, then if you don’t like what you have made, the metal can go back into the fire and start again.”

The following years at Esalen, Gary’s projects included an alligator for the garden, a panel for cast glass inserts, and an intricate woven basket.

Students at Esalen range from a father and teenage son duo, where the son made a small Hummer from metal, to a doctor from Virginia that created a wind vane for his barn. Friendships are made and most students attend year after year.

Gary has already made plans for this September’s annual workshop. In the meantime, he is honing his skills in his new workshop in the basement of building B. Who knows what he will create next!

To see more photos, go to this page I created to show both the process and the final pieces. Gary plans to have these items on display for the hoe-down scheduled in May (for hoe-down info, look for the next blog entry).

new to blogging!

2008-02-29T08:18:00.001-08:00

This is the first day of our blog! I am not sure what to write, but I am sure we will come up with some interesting information for our creative business community and our event space clients. Gary and I have been wanting a good avenue to get some news out to the public, and we feel that blogging is a good bet.

We often want to brag about one of our extremely talented tenants and will post their accomplishments here. There are many things about the event venue that we are excited about sharing. We work with amazing vendors and clients. We are working hard every day to green our events!

It is the beginning of a new year (well sort of) and it seemed like a good time to update our site. Please visit our new galleries and see more images from recent events and the beautiful Annex.