Roots are critical in shaping an artist's identity, and Jorge Pardo is no exception.

Pardo, 54, was born in Cuba, which his family left when he was 6. His dad used to work at the Woolworth's in Old Havana; his mom was a bookkeeper/accountant.

The Pardo family left Cuba in 1969, about a decade after Fidel Castro seized power in an armed revolution that overthrew his corrupt predecessor, Fulgencio Batista.

Pardo's parents, never among those mourning Batista's exile, were, however, "not political in any way," their son says. "They didn't want to be a part of the [Communist] party. They did not leave with extreme hatred. Dad always wanted to live in America, and Mom said, 'It's going to get worse before it gets better.' "

People buying food and coffee at The Commissary in Dallas. (Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer)

So, they moved to Chicago, where Pardo grew up. That brings us to 2017 and to a once-drab corner of downtown Dallas. Sterile brick architecture has long defined the corner of Main and Field streets, but no more.

You might say the new restaurant Commissary has been Pardoized.

Cuban-born artist Jorge Pardo designed the blue tile look at The Commissary in downtown Dallas. (Jorge Pardo)

"The approach is very simple," says Pardo, whose credentials include winning a MacArthur Foundation "Genius" grant in 2010. "It meant adding an extreme color component to a building that is not very common. We came up with an interesting palate. So, when you see the building, you see an optical first and then you see the building."

The owner of the property is the Headington Cos., whose signature downtown space is the Joule Hotel, three blocks east on Main Street. Michael Tregoning is president of Headington.

Michael Tregoning is president of Headington Cos. (Ron Baselice / Staff Photographer)

"We try to infuse art in everything we do," Tregoning says. "That's one of the common elements. That's one of our foundational grand principles. So, when we bought this building, we felt this was a very important corner.

"The idea for this building and the tile pattern resulted from a conversation with Jorge Pardo. He suggested that we could use ceramic in a somewhat unusual way to create place-making for this location, and that sounded great to us."

Pardo conceived of adding thousands of mosaic tiles, in multiple shades of blue — yes, even Dallas Cowboys royal and metallic blue — and having them cover almost 15,000 to 20,000 square feet, inside and outside the building.

The effect is that a building that once seemed to shrug or cower on an underwhelming corner now has a blue sizzle to it.

"There are two sizes of tiles, and they oscillate," Pardo says with an obvious excitement. "There's a pattern to it."

You can tell he feels jazzed about the project, adding with a laugh, "It looks amazing."

The tiles give The Commissary a distinctive look. (Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer)

Pardo's tile extravaganza accentuates the color of the sky in ways that even Magritte would appreciate and in ways the building's dull brown neighbors never have.

"The most visual part of it is in the Commissary and on the façade," says Pardo, who has long worked with a tile maker in Mexico, where the artist spends much of his time working in his studio on the Yucatan Peninsula when he's not at home in New York.

"It's a great application of tile," the artist says, adding with another laugh, "It's not normal that somebody hires you to tile a six-story building throughout."

Tregoning and Pardo both revel in the fact that downtown Dallas is beginning to "fill these places up with people again and bring them back to life. And I, for one," Pardo says, "am happy to be a part of it."