Dallas's Most Iconic Landmarks

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot as his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza. The shots came from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, a brick warehouse at the corner of Elm and Houston Streets.

In the decades that followed, the building became a place of pilgrimage, and in 1989 the Sixth Floor Museum opened inside it to document the events of that day.

The museum's exhibits place the assassination in the context of the early 1960s, presenting Kennedy's life and presidency, the events in Dallas, the investigations that followed and the national mourning.

Photographs, films, documents and artifacts guide visitors through the story. The corner window from which the shots were fired is preserved behind glass, recreated as it appeared when investigators found it.

The Sixth Floor Museum is one of the most visited attractions in Texas and a moving experience for visitors of all ages. On the seventh floor, additional exhibitions explore related themes, and the museum's oral history collection preserves the memories of witnesses.

Reunion Tower opened in 1978 as part of a development near the old Union Station and quickly became one of the most recognizable features of the Dallas skyline.

Its slender concrete shaft supports a geodesic sphere that glows at night with programmable lights, displaying colors and patterns for holidays and events.

The tower's GeO-Deck observation level offers panoramic views across the city, from the downtown towers and the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge to the Trinity River and the prairie beyond.

Interactive displays help visitors identify landmarks, and a cafe and lounge allow guests to linger with a view.

At night, the sphere becomes a beacon, and the tower is one of the best places to see the city's lights spread out across the flat North Texas landscape.

The Nasher Sculpture Center opened in 2003 to display the collection of Raymond and Patsy Nasher, one of the finest collections of modern and contemporary sculpture in the world.

The building, designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano, uses glass roofs and travertine walls to fill its galleries with natural light.

Behind the building, a landscaped garden designed with Peter Walker serves as an outdoor gallery, with sculptures set among trees, lawns and fountains. The collection includes works by artists such as Rodin, Matisse, Picasso, Calder, Miró and many contemporary sculptors.

The Nasher is one of the most peaceful places in downtown Dallas, a garden oasis where art, architecture and landscape work together. It also hosts exhibitions, concerts and talks throughout the year.

Pioneer Plaza is a downtown park built around one of the largest bronze monuments in the world: a sculpture of a 19th-century cattle drive, with dozens of life-size longhorn steers led by cowboys on horseback.

The work, by the artist Robert Summers, recalls the cattle trails that once passed near the young city of Dallas.

The steers appear to walk down a hillside and across a stream, giving the sculpture a sense of movement and making it a favorite subject for photographs.

The plaza sits next to the Pioneer Park Cemetery, one of the oldest cemeteries in the city, and the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

Pioneer Plaza is a reminder of Dallas's roots in the cattle and frontier economy, set against the glass towers of the modern city. It is a quick and free stop between the convention center and the historic sites of the West End.

The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, opened in 2012 across the Trinity River, linking downtown Dallas with West Dallas.

Its single white arch rises high above the roadway, supporting the deck with a fan of cables and creating a dramatic new landmark on the city's skyline.

The bridge was the first of several signature bridges planned as part of the Trinity River Corridor Project, an effort to reconnect the city with its river. It has become a favorite subject for photographers, especially at sunset and at night, when it is illuminated.

On the West Dallas side, the bridge leads to Trinity Groves, an area of restaurants and bars, and to the nearby Ronald Kirk Pedestrian Bridge, a converted highway bridge that offers views of the Calatrava arch and the downtown skyline.

The Dallas Arts District spreads across several blocks on the northern edge of downtown and brings together museums, performance halls, schools and public spaces. Its development began in the 1980s, with the Dallas Museum of Art and the Morton H.

Meyerson Symphony Center, designed by I. M. Pei and opened in 1989.

In 2009, the AT&T Performing Arts Center added the Winspear Opera House, designed by Foster + Partners, with its striking red drum and canopy, and the Wyly Theatre, a vertical theater designed by REX and OMA.

Together with the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Crow Museum of Asian Art and the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, the district has become a showcase of contemporary architecture.

The Arts District hosts symphony concerts, opera, theater, dance and Broadway tours, as well as outdoor events. Klyde Warren Park on its edge links it to Uptown, making it a lively place day and night.