Last week, I shared my experience at the Family Travel Conference, however I didn’t really have time to tell you that much about the Omni Hotel in Dallas. The moment has arrived!

The Omni Hotel was built just last year and is conveniently connected to the Convention Center. We were actually lucky enough to be there for the one year anniversary on 11/11/12 (that’s right – it opened on 11/11/11)! In just one year, the Omni has already made a name for themselves as being named one of 100 Best Places to Work in Dallas. When you look at it – why wouldn’t you want to work here?

During the Family Travel Conference, all of the attendees split up into various groups to tour the hotel. My particular group toured the art. Now at first you may say, is there really a lot of “interesting” art to see? The answer is yes. It’s everywhere and definitely interesting.

I love traveling but I love finding the “hidden treasures” even more. The art collection at the Omni is one of those “hidden treasures” but on top of that they stay true to their local roots. All of the art displayed within the hotel is by 150 local artists. All of it. All 6,500 individual pieces of it. Let me share some with you!

Wade Moore, Manager of the Collections Gift Shop provided us with the tour.

In the first photo on this post, you can see the lights on the outside of the building. These lights are moving all the time! When the Red River Rivalry was in town the lights showed the Texas Longhorn. Again -they’re moving all the time and the building looks gorgeous with the Dallas skyline behind it but the interior designers even took it to the next level. (Below) These the the walls along a hallway, the lights mirror the lights on the outside of the building!

Here are a some of the pieces of art that we were lucky enough to see on our tour. The art portion that we saw was so immensely small compared to the volume that is featured in the hotel.

Art can even be seen hanging from the ceilings.

Now, in the below picture, the water droplet pieces hanging from the ceilings are not actually featured art but items picked for the interior design of the hotel. Our group, thought it was just a piece of art that was included. It fits right in – amazing. Everything flows so well together!

The below artist also has artwork featured Barbara Bush’s personal collection.

I loved these pieces!

The artwork can also be found in local meeting rooms. Imagine holding in meeting in this room?! It’s absolutely stunning!

Now if the art featured inside the building wasn’t enough. Check out the stunning view of Dallas from inside the hotel!

Finally, I need to mention the Collections Gift Shop downstairs. If you enjoy a piece of the art in the hotel, it will not be difficult to find the artist go to with the piece. Some of the items, you can even purchase if you would like. In the Collections Gift Shop, the experience takes one step further. The shop holds items from the local Nasher Sculpture Center and Dallas Museum of Art that can also be purchased as well as other items from local vendors.

Below is the Villy Custom bike. Villy Custom was recently featured on ABC’s Shark Tank and received the largest amount of investment funding. Each bike can be customized however you like and can be shipped if you are visiting from out of town. Such a unique piece that can’t be found in all hotel gift shops! You could get one for yourself, for a friend, for me… just throwing out some ideas!

If you have an opportunity to at least stop into the Omni Dallas, I would definitely recommend it! I saw so many hidden treasures!