At dusk, the office towers of Las Colinas begin returning the sky. Blue glass cools toward black. Gold light catches one panel, then another, before slipping down the façades and entering the canal. The water holds the buildings more steadily than the ground does. Towers tremble in long vertical bands. Stone bridges darken underneath. Restaurant patios switch on their small bulbs. Somewhere above the water, an elevated guideway cuts between buildings and curves toward a station where no train arrives.
But nothing here resembles abandonment. Lawns hold their edges. Flower beds keep their appointed colors. Pumps circulate water through channels carved from a North Texas floodplain. Windows glow on several floors. Cars enter parking garages and disappear. Yet the district carries the suspended charge of a model left running after the presentation ended. Las Colinas does not look ruined. It looks overprepared.
North Texas contains many such environments, corporate districts assembled with the spatial ambition of cities and the psychological control of convention centers. Las Colinas in Irving and the Legacy corridor in Plano promise more than square footage. Water, mirrored glass, landscaping, transit, public sculpture, restaurants, plazas, hotels, apartments, and parking enter a coordinated field. The employee never merely enters an office, but an image of organized life in which corporate work might provide not only employment, but worldhood…