For eight years, architecture and commercial construction company The Beck Group has created playhouse designs for the annual Dallas CASA Parade of Playhouses at Northpark Center. And every year they come up with completely inspired designs that seriously make you say, HOW DID THEY TOP LAST YEAR?! But they do. Every dang time.
I mean, obviously, they’re professionals and they build for a living, so that’s part one. Part two is the design competition is open to everyone in the Dallas-based firm. It’s a chance to really, really turn the creativity loose, get in the mind of a child, blend it with something highly conceptual, and create a little work of art that will live in the backyard of the luckiest family ever.
Seriously, every playhouse in the Parade of Playhouses is special. They’re all unique and creative and the stuff of kid legend. What seems to define the playhouses from The Beck Group is an avant-garde style. Something wholly unexpected and again, highly conceptual.
In the past, they’ve created some of the most memorable playhouses – a XyLOphoNE House, a CUCKOO Haus, a House of Cards, and a striped down spaceship called To The Moon – to name a few.
This year’s inspiration comes from the abstract art of Piet Mondrian and I assure you, you’re familiar with his work. His most famous is the red, blue and yellow grid. Early Modernism and Cubism that takes you to a real Rubix Cube place. Still a little iffy? This will seal it.
“With compositions of black lines closing up rectangles of primary colors, Mondrian created some of the most iconic works of the early twentieth-century abstract art.”
Ah, yes, MONDRIAN. That’s the one.
This led to this year’s playhouse being called Kid-Drian and I don’t care who you are, that’s cute as heck. It has a built-in rock climbing wall, there’s a tunnel, and a lookout bubble. It’s also on display now so grab your raffle tickets and get after it.
Director of Client Services and Project Lead Arthur Mironchuk said one of the things the firm loves so much about the Parade of Playhouses is the opportunity to think like a kid again. The other thing they love? A chance to create something unique that benefits such an amazing organization – Dallas CASA.
Final thing – The Beck Group is no stranger to philanthropy. In fact, they have a whole foundation dedicated to it. One of the things they do is donate their time and energy to build ramps for lower-income houses in need. What an incredibly useful and likely overlooked benefit that Beck is primed to offer.
They are also pretty involved at Bonton Farms and helped build one of the first tiny homes in its neighborhood that offers affordable, onsite living to the workers. What I’m saying is The Beck Group aren’t just architectural visionaries. They’re visionary-visionaries. And that’s pretty freaking great.
The Parade of Playhouses is on display now at NorthPark Center and runs through July 30.
