The Trailhead takes inspiration from Hutsell houses & nature

Modera Trailhead opened last year with something to prove.

The Trailhead is on the 3.88 acres where the restaurants The Lot and Local Traveler used to be. Those eateries were born out of East Dallasites investing in East Dallas in the 2010s, but unfortunately, they were casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some neighbors initially opposed the mixed-use development between Grand Avenue and the Santa Fe Trail for fear that it would visually interfere with the White Rock Lake skyline and bring more traffic. But the project had support from the Friends of Santa Fe Trail and the Garland Road Vision Committee.

This division also played out at the municipal level. Despite a recommendation of denial from the City Plan Commission, Dallas City Council approved the rezoning for the project at the 3G intersection in 2021. The council limited the development to six stories and called for 9% of the apartments to be affordably priced, according to a previous Lakewood/East Dallas Advocate article.

All told, the Trailhead includes 285 homes and 12,500 square feet of retail space, a portion of which is occupied by the recently opened Beans & Brews Coffee House. The Advocate reported in 2022 that construction was getting ready to start. The project’s timeline was impacted by post-pandemic building issues as well as the complexity of the job, including the below-grade work that needed to be done.

In response to criticism, efforts were made to make the structure recede into the tree line as much as possible, Mill Creek Residential Senior Managing Director of Development Michael Blackwell says. The project also took multiple opportunities to pay homage to our neck of the woods.

“I’m excited to get people into the property, particularly those people who are already very attached to East Dallas the way most of our team members are because I think they’ll just feel part of that promise that we made, which is let’s go do something that is of the neighborhood, for the neighborhood, about the neighborhood,” Blackwell, a Lake Highlands resident, told the Advocate last year. “It never was about peering up over the lake. It was about nestling into this confluence of the streets and trees and golf courses and trails, green spaces and the lake that don’t exist in many places in the city.”

Nature and Mediterranean architecture, particularly in tilework, arched doorways and courtyard spaces, motivated the design of the Trailhead. The Hutsell houses were an inspiration, as was the DeGolyer mansion.

“If somebody redid a Hutsell house … in a really thoughtful way but where they weren’t trying to just have it be totally period appropriate, but they wanted to honor the heritage of that Hutsell experience, and you walked into their house, what would you expect to see?” Blackwell says. “That’s kind of what was driving us the whole time.”

Elegant is the word Blackwell used to describe these choices. Walking into the front office, you’ll see a tiled water fountain with an intricate snowflake-like design and a green-gray background, paired with potted plants on either side. Plant life references come up in wallpaper, light fixtures that look like flowers and art, like prints of tree trunk rings. Actual greenery is stationed in common areas, too.

East Dallasites already have an inclination toward nature because of proximity to White Rock Lake, which has been described as an urban oasis. Blackwell also says that the COVID-19 pandemic led people to seek out parks and trails, and that has now become the standard.

There are at least three “tree-cycled” tables in the common areas. These are large enough to seat at least eight people at one and six at each of the others. The wood used to create them came from trees that had to be removed for the Trailhead to be built. Inscribed on each table is the following message: “This table was crafted from a tree that once stood here, its branches sheltering this land. Now, as a part of this space, it continues to offer warmth, connection and beauty. May it remind us of nature’s enduring gifts and the importance of preserving our shared environment.”

One of the common areas overlooks the entrance to the Santa Fe Trail. It’s a place outfitted with cushy chairs and couches, perfect for catching up with neighbors.

“You sit here and hang out, you’re looking at the trees, and that was why we call it ‘The Nest,’” Blackwell says. “The retail is all underneath, and so this was giving people the ability to sort of be perched up in the trees, overlooking that experience. But it’s also kind of the loveliest space we have.”

Another homage to East Dallas are the ceramic tile murals on the plaza near the retail spaces. The hexagon-shaped tiles were handmade by manufacturer Cerámica Suro in Guadalajara, Mexico. One shows the Dallas trail loop, and the other zooms in on the local neighborhood.

A highlight of the Trailhead — the “pièce de résistance,” as Blackwell put it — is the terrace, lounge and event space that has a view of White Rock Lake.

“People that have a connection already to the lake and to the Arboretum and East Dallas or Forest Hills,” he says, “being able to see our part of town from this perspective is what’s special.”