Dallas’ Own Slice of Manhattan: Booming Harwood District Set to Transform the City with Hot New Restaurants, Stunning Buildings and Skyscrapers

Parisian bistros. Opulent office spaces. Tony high-rises. The city’s largest patio bar. What once was a quiet pocket of Uptown is on its way up — quite literally.

Developer Gabriel Barbier-Mueller first brought the Harwood District to life in 1984 with the debut of the landmark Rolex building, the neighborhood’s first office structure. Now that Dallas district is blossoming into an expansive borough 18 city blocks wide.

The Rolex is getting a stunning new helix-shaped building, set to open later this year. The curvy, twisted 137,000-square-foot, seven-story building designed by Tokyo-based Kengo Kuma & Associates — whose resume includes the LVMH Japan headquarters — will have Japanese-inspired tiered gardens on every floor, designed by landscape architect Sadafumi Uchiyama, the famed garden curator at the Portland Japanese Garden. It will also be the first building in Dallas designed by a Japanese architect.

Francophiles who love Harwood’s French eatery, Mercat, will also adore Magnolias Sous Le Pont — a bakery and cafe that opened in early 2015. Soon afterward, Happiest Hour became the chicest hot-spot bar and restaurant in town, with comfort-food bites (Kuby’s sausages, fried-green-tomato salad, Frito piel), strong sips and phenomenal views of downtown.

This spring, Harwood injects a bit of Italy into the mix with the opening of two yet-to-be-revealed Italian restaurant concepts. And finally, in 2017, a new residential tower, dubbed Bleu Ciel, opens with plenty of over-the-top amenities, including a private wine-tasting room, two junior Olympic-size pools, a gourmet grocery store and residences with the largest high-rise condominium terraces in the country. Take that, Manhattan.