Old Fair Park Building Becomes $11 Million Multi-Media Center

Dallas cut the ribbon Tuesday to reopen the old Science Place Two building as an $11 million Multi-Media building.

The historic building was the Hall of Domestic Arts at the 1936 Texas Centennial in Fair Park.

Now it will be a new place to help tell the Dallas story according to city officials.

It has a studio with TV cameras, editing suites for video shot in Dallas neighborhoods and a podcast studio.

Visitors from the Dallas City Homes non-profit affordable housing corporation were impressed.

“It’s absolutely beautiful. The level of equipment and finish out here is absolutely stunning,” said Elise Howard, the group’s asset manager.

Non-profits like Dallas City Homes, along with high school and college students will be allowed to use the new facility.

“These are the things that I think are really beneficial to a lot of organizations,” said Dallas City Homes Community Engagement Manager Kristen Williams.

The money used to renovate and equip the building comes from fees on cable TV subscribers. It could not be used for other city needs like potholes, only on communication purposes.

Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax said the money accumulated over many years and completion saw many delays.

“I think we’ve been working on this pre-pandemic. Obviously, supply chain and other types of issues came about. But, we’re excited that we’re able to open it and begin to utilize it and share it with our community,” Broadnax said. “If you think about where we are, Fair Park and the discussion of the history of this particular place that we're on, it's definitely something we wanted to make sure we got right.”

City officials hope productions from the multi-media center help them promote better communication with the community through cable access channels, the city website and other means.

“We're modeling best practices here in how to reach out to people because you can't just get them in social media, you can't just get them in the news,” Councilman Chad West said.

The media that comes from the new center will be the voice of City Hall with government approval for outside groups that register to use the communication tools and facility.

“We're all together here even talking, which is great. So, it's a beautiful, beautiful facility and a great bridge and a great resource,” Howard said.

College students may apply to work as interns in the center through the City of Dallas website.

Other community groups' use of the center will be arranged through contact with various city departments including the Office of Arts & Culture and Office of Homeless Solutions.

Officials said arrangements for use by Paul Quinn College, the Dallas Independent School District and Dallas College were planned.

But the facility is government access, not public access.