Two of the city's neighborhood arts buildings, the Bath House Cultural Center on White Rock Lake and the South Dallas Cultural Center on South Fitzhugh Avenue, are in line for new roofs under a contract on the City Council's consent agenda Wednesday.
Council members are asked to approve a design-build contract of up to $396,576 with Chamberlin Dallas LLC. It covers design and preconstruction, an initial construction package, and the architecture and engineering work. The money comes from Proposition E of the 2024 bond program, the cultural and performing arts facilities measure voters approved on May 4, 2024.
The agenda sheet lists both roof jobs among that category's priority projects.
What staff found
Both buildings have flat main roofs that city staff say have reached the end of their useful life.
At the Bath House, 521 E. Lawther Drive, the roof is a built-up bituminous membrane topped with a mineral-surfaced cap sheet, which staff estimate is more than 30 years old and shows advanced deterioration. The agenda information sheet rates its roof drains, condensate lines, conduit and their supports as poor.
The building opened in 1930 as the first Art Deco structure in Dallas and has been a city landmark since 1996. The Office of Arts and Culture has run it since 1989.
The South Dallas Cultural Center, 1500 S. Fitzhugh Ave., has a modified bitumen roof estimated at more than 19 years old. Staff list cracking, blistering, ponding water and failing seams, and note that the building's main section has no overflow drains. The center opened in 1986.
