The Open-Ended City

A welcome reminder of [Dillon's] intelligence and flair for the mot juste…Together, the essays describe a critic who engaged architecture in the broadest sense, looking not just at individual buildings, but at the impact of urban planning decisions, transportation systems, housing policy, history, and the relationship between city and suburb. ~Dallas Morning-News

Many of the pieces will resonate across the country, especially in postwar Sun Belt cities, but North Texas is lucky to have Dillon's observations contained in this resonant volume…It is built to last. ~D Magazine

With articles in chronological order across each chapter and titles that are highly descriptive..., it's easy to jump around [The Open-Ended City] based on one's interests. Of course, given Dillon's focus on local criticism, residents of Dallas will be drawn to the book more than outsiders. But in 2019, when architectural criticism in the US is hard to come by..., Dillon's articles still provide plenty of lessons while tracing a changing metropolis he influenced in his own way. ~A Daily Dose of Architecture

From the first essay to the last, [David Dillon] condemned simplistic 'big-picture thinking'...and argued for design that would bring actual human connection back to city streets. Holliday writes that Dillon 'maintained a persistent belief in the ability of an engaged citizenry to demand higher quality and greater accountability for urban context,' and that he championed 'a richer social life for the city as a whole.' That makes him a model worth emulating, and his essays worth reading. ~Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Dillon is...among the few Texas newspaper writers whose columns have been collected in book form. As such, his pieces on social equity, land use, suburban sprawl, downtown redevelopment and historic preservation can be read in any order and enjoyed for their potent opinions and carefully laid out arguments. ~Austin American Statesman

[The Open-Ended City] is constructed in a way that highlights Dillon’s varied interests, and his voice, as well as his unique ability to '[tell] stories about architecture and cities [through] focusing on stories about people'...Dillon’s writing, and [Kathryn] Holliday’s editing of it, remind us that there must be careful watchers of the collisions that happen on the seam where public projects and private money meet. This book is an example of the fourth estate at its best. Not moralizing, not virtue-signaling, but compelling description, subtle perception, and the ability to capture the imagination via character, narrative, and gorgeous prose. ~Technoculture

David Dillon was one of America’s most incisive, literate critics, but because he was based in Dallas at a time when there was no social media or internet to boost his reputation and distribute his work, and because he died too young, he never received the national attention he was due. This collection will introduce him to a new generation of readers around the country, while reminding his longtime fans of the scope and brilliance of his writing. ~Mark Lamster, architecture critic, Dallas Morning News, and author of The Man in the Glass House: Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century

David Dillon began writing about Texas architecture at one of American architecture's lowest moments, the 1980s. "Why is Dallas architecture so bad?" he asked. Over the next three decades, as this vibrant collection shows, he answered his question not by picking on individual buildings but by picking apart how cities, regions, and even McMansions are made. With steady optimism and a broad, national perspective, he helped frame debates about public and private space that continue to this day. Dillon's clarity, humor, and doggedness are a model for the contemporary critic. ~Alexandra Lange, architecture critic, Curbed, and author of Writing about Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities