You may recall that earlier this year, I told introduced you a new addition to the Dallas arts and culture scene—the AT&T Performing Arts Center (formally known as the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts). Well, the time has come and the Center has officially opened, bringing a new era of entertainment to Dallas.

The $354 million Center kicked off its grand opening weekend in October with a week-long celebration that included indoor and outdoor festivities, concerts and forums, tours of the facilities, and much more. Opening festivities revolved around the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre and Sammons Park. Capping off the weekend was a spectacular fireworks show that lit up the downtown Dallas skyline (you can checkout a video from the fireworks show below).

The Winspear Opera House is designed in a horseshoe shaped configuration that is encased in a lipstick red outer shell that adds dramatic color to the downtown Dallas skyline. Seating an audience size of 2,200, the opera house was designed to provide the best acoustical environment for a number of different types of performances. The public commons area of the opera house is lined with 60-foot high glass walls that allows passersby to see what’s going on inside. In addition, the facility has a huge canopy that extends from the building into the surrounding park to provide patrons with shaded green space in Sammons Park.

Adjacent is the 12-story Wyly Theatre that is truly the only type of facility of its kind in the world. The “multi-function” stacked theater was designed to provide versatile space to allow performing arts companies to truly customize an experience for their audience. The space literally transforms itself to fit the needs of classical, experimental and any other performances in between for an audience size of 575. The lower level of the building is encased by glass walls where the upper portion is clad in pre-fabricated aluminum panels with random repetitions of vertical venetians, creating a textured effect.

Despite its grand opening, additional work is left to be done in order to complete the entire complex. The Annette Strauss Artist Square is an outdoor performance venue to be located directly against the east side of the Winspear Opera House, capable of hosting an audience of 5,000. Next door to the Wyly Theatre is City Performance Hall, another performance venue capable of seating an audience of up to 575. Both venues are expected to open at a later date.

The Center provides state-of-the-art performance spaces for five resident companies: The Dallas Opera, Dallas Theater Center, Texas Ballet Theater, Dallas Black Dance Theatre and Anita N. Martinez Ballet Folklorico. TITAS, the Dallas presenter of the world’s most highly acclaimed touring music and dance companies, will also present its season at the Center. In addition, the Center will present the Lexus Broadway Series, JAZZ ROOTS, the Brinker International Forum, concerts, lectures, films and many other programs.

The opening of the Center without a doubt has brought international attention to Dallas and its 19-block urban arts district, the largest in the United States. This only underscores Dallas’ placement on the map as a destination for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender travelers. For more information on the AT&T Performing Arts Center, check out their Web site at www.attpac.org.