Design District
Dallas's creative hub south of downtown — art galleries, furniture showrooms, interior design studios, and an emerging evening dining scene. The Design District is where DFW's creative professionals come to spec out projects and discover what's next in local design.
Featured in the Design District
Longhorn Ballroom
216 S. Ervay St, Dallas, TX 75201
Nobody agrees what neighborhood Longhorn Ballroom belongs to — Design District, the Cedars, maybe the stretch of Dallas that exists only beneath freeway ramps. The building has earned the confusion. Elvis played here. So did the Sex Pistols and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and the little museum inside has the receipts. The restoration kept the huge wood floor and the glorious old-Texas weirdness, then added bathrooms you can use without making peace with God. Come for country, punk, soul, or whatever else can fill the room; arrive early enough to wander the lobby. And leave the freshly detailed car at home — the gravel lot will humble it.
Visit Website →The Design District Gallery Row
Dragon St & Ervay St, Dallas, TX 75207
Dragon Street and the blocks around it — over 20 galleries, working artist studios, and the kind of high-end furniture showrooms where you walk in without an appointment and a guy in a suit starts explaining why the couch costs more than your car. The art's the real draw though: contemporary Texas artists, sculpture, photography, the occasional show that actually makes you stop and read the wall text. First Saturday is when it all lights up — every gallery open, free wine, the parking's a nightmare but worth it. The crowd is half collectors, half architects, half people who wandered over from Uptown to see what the fuss is about. Bring cash, leave with a tote bag.
Visit Website →About the Design District
What is the Design District?
The Dallas Design District is a stretch of warehouses and low-rise commercial buildings south of downtown, centered on Dragon Street and Ervay Street. Originally built for furniture wholesale and interior design showrooms, the area has evolved into one of the city's most concentrated creative corridors — home to dozens of art galleries, design studios, home furnishing warehouses, and an emerging cluster of evening dining options.
Unlike the polished retail of Highland Park Village or the nightlife of Uptown, the Design District has a working, utilitarian feel that attracts architects, interior designers, photographers, and creative professionals who need to see products and materials in person. Many showrooms are open to the public during the week, and First Saturday Gallery Day — held on the first Saturday of each month — draws crowds from across DFW to the area's galleries.
The area borders downtown to the north, Deep Ellum to the east, the Cedars to the south, and the Farmers Market district to the west. Its central location makes it accessible from almost anywhere in Dallas with a short drive or DART ride.
What to Do in the Design District
- →Gallery Hop — Dragon Street has 20+ galleries within a few blocks — contemporary art, photography, sculpture, and regional Texas artists
- →Furniture Showrooms — Major wholesale showrooms open to the public for home furnishing inspiration and direct purchasing
- →Live Music — Longhorn Ballroom for Texas country and rock, the kind of room with a wood dance floor and a museum in the lobby
- →Photography Studios — Several professional photo studios in converted warehouses
- →Evening Dining — An emerging restaurant scene with creative chef-driven concepts opening in converted warehouse spaces
- →First Saturday Gallery Day — Monthly open gallery event, first Saturday of each month, free and open to the public
The Design District & DFW's Music Scene
The Design District's anchor venue is Longhorn Ballroom, and the only thing the neighborhood disagrees about is whether Longhorn actually counts as Design District or somewhere between there and Bishop Arts — which tells you everything you need to know about Dallas. A Dallas landmark with its own museum in the building, a wood dance floor that Elvis and the Sex Pistols and Stevie Ray Vaughan all played on, and a 2024 renovation that kept the bones and fixed the bathrooms. Country on a Tuesday, a metal act on a Friday, both sold out, both feeling like the right call. Get there early, eat at the café, walk the museum, watch the sunset through the old lobby windows. Don't bring a nice car — you're parking on gravel.
More recently, the Design District has attracted creative entrepreneurs converting its warehouse spaces into evening venues, bars, and restaurants. The area's industrial character — high ceilings, concrete floors, exposed ductwork — lends itself naturally to creative adaptive reuse, and several of Dallas's most interesting restaurant openings of recent years have happened in Design District warehouses.
The Echo Lounge & Music Hall at 1701 S. Lamar St is the Design District's other key live music venue — a proper stage and mixing board in a converted warehouse that books regional and national acts across rock, country, and indie. It's the kind of room where you catch a band before they sell out the bigger rooms, with acoustics that punch well above its capacity. The crowd is there for the music, not just the bar.
The proximity to Deep Ellum (one mile east) and the Cedars arts neighborhood means the Design District sits at the intersection of three creative corridors — making it a natural gathering point for DFW's arts and music community. Events at Longhorn Ballroom regularly draw crowds that fill nearby parking lots and spill into neighboring blocks, giving the area an energy that few other Dallas neighborhoods can match on concert nights.
Nearby Neighborhoods
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