Group Riding from Dallas to Austin on Fixed-Gear Bikes
This is one of those “so crazy you can’t help but admire it” sort of things – a group is making the journey from Dallas to Austin for South by Southwest, and they’re doing it entirely on fixed-gear bikes. They have a blog set up so you can follow along – they’re heading out in less than a day at this point.
A tip of the hat to Trinity Bicycles for the link.
Fundraising for James M. Johnston’s new short film, “Knife”
We’ve just noticed that our friend/local indie filmmaker James M. Johnston is conducting fundraising for his new short film, “Knife“.
By stripping away the dialogue and removing any overbearing plot elements Knife strikes at the core of the Southern Gothic mythos without falling into redundancy. Visually, every composition, every bit of lighting, every movement the character makes will be telling you something.
Fundraising is being done via IndieGoGo, and you can donate any amount. Amounts of $50 and up receive special perks depending on the amount.
Good luck to James and his production team – we hope the level of funding continues to rise.
Google adds new Bike Route beta to Google Maps
Google has taken the wraps off a new beta feature on Google Maps: bike route support. The feature was turned on as the National Bike Summit in Washington, D. C. got underway this week. Google has added the bike route system to the maps of 150 cities thus far, and Fort Worth is one of them.
In Google Maps, you can use the “More” button at the upper right of the map to turn on the new “Bicycling” layer. As seen in the screenshot above, this adds green routes for bike route streets, such as these in the Near Southside.
Off-street trails are also highlighted in green.
You can also get bicycling directions. Here, we gave it a simple test – in the Near Southside, from Magnolia & Henderson to Pennsylvania & Jennings. Google Maps correctly used the bike lanes on Magnolia and the sharrow route on Jennings to take us there – Jennings is the main north-south bike route for the Near Southside between Magnolia and Downtown.
As long as there’s a bike route connection between your start and end, Google Maps seems to work pretty well. Where it starts to fall apart is when there’s gaps in the bike route system – and we certainly have plenty of those in Fort Worth. If there’s not a direct bike route connection, Google Maps starts to get a little weird. Here, it told us to go straight down Henderson from Magnolia to get to Sundance Square – not the route we’d recommend or ride ourselves. Henderson is not a bike-friendly street. We’d take Magnolia down to Jennings into Downtown, meet up with Throckmorton next to the Omni Hotel, then take the bus lane on Throckmorton to 3rd. Oddly, though Jennings is marked as a bike route all the way to Downtown, Google ignores it in this case. Google warns that these directions are in beta, and provides a link in the yellow box on the left to submit your own suggestions or corrections.
Here’s the route Google gives for Magnolia & Henderson to 7th & Currie. Not sure we’d recommend riding on the Summit Avenue freeway overpass for most riders.
Using one of Google’s suggested alternate routes, another problem with the current beta system becomes apparent: not only does it not yet know what streets are good for bikes and what streets are bad (see how it recommends riding down not only University but also the Rosedale freeway-style overpass over the river), it also doesn’t seem to recognize all the access points for the Trinity Trails.
To test that last point, we tried a custom route by dragging & dropping the blue line. We attempted to join the Trinity Trails near the Fort Worth Zoo/Rogers Road area to ride up towards the West 7th development via the trails into the park, but Google instead appeared to route us up University, into Trinity Park, onto the trails, then all the way out the opposite direction to Hulen before bringing us back down the trails into Trinity Park.
Clearly, Google’s not kidding about the “beta” part. Of course, some of the bugginess of the current setup in Fort Worth is probably also due to our disjointed bike route plan. In the future, as the Bike Fort Worth plan is implemented, Fort Worth will start to look a lot more like how the cities with more comprehensive bike transportation systems look in the new bike map feature, like Portland and Austin:
Beyond our own incomplete bike route network, the new Google Maps feature needs to start learning which streets are good and bad for bikes. Undoubtedly, feedback from users will be key to making that work – so Fort Worth bicycle users, start reporting to Google when they get things wrong. It might not be a bad idea for Google to implement some kind of street grading system to gauge a street’s bike friendliness based on a rider preference – something like an “Easy, Medium, Difficult” scale. And of course, to create streets that are friendly to bikes in general, it’s important for cities to implement Complete Streets policies.
It’s still a big step forward to have Google implementing bike routing into Google Maps, so we’re excited about the possibilities as this feature matures. Use it and see how it works for you.
Historic Electric Building Getting Much-Deserved TLC
These photos come to us from Atlas Properties, the new local owner/manager of the Historic Electric Building in Downtown next to Burnett Park. The historic 1931 skyscraper has been apartments for quite a while, but under its previous out-of-state owner the building had fallen into rather poor condition.
Since acquiring the building, Atlas has launched into an ongoing renovation and improvement project. Thus far, they’ve moved the leasing office to the ground floor, remodeled the common areas like hallways and elevator lobbies, and have remodeled the main lobby as well. Later this week, a new cooling tower is being installed.
These photos show the improvement in the interior condition of the building. We’ve always thought that the Electric Building was a gorgeous piece of architecture (and a valuable piece of the Downtown residential picture by virtue of its being notably more affordable than other apartment buildings Downtown) that was in need of better keepers to give it some attention, and it’s looking like that’s finally happened.
For more information, check out the Electric Building’s web site.
Chunduri Building Mixed-Use Underway
Yet another example of a small mixed-use structure is now under construction in the Near Southside. This development, at Grainger & Cannon (just a couple of blocks from West Leuda Park), will feature a ground-floor office for Dr. Chunduri’s neurology clinic, and two apartments on the second floor. It was designed by Gary Wood Architects.
The site is located in one of the Near Southside’s T4-N (for “Neighborhood”) zones. The T4-N zoning requires all development to include a residential component (either residences as part of a mixed-use project, or entirely residential). This helps ensure a wide range of housing choices and prevents monotonous commercial-only development, makes streets safer by providing round-the-clock use and more “eyes on the street,” and creates greater density of residences to give more support to local businesses as the district redevelops.
Below is an elevation drawing of the finished building:
West 7th Grand Opening
At last night’s West 7th Spring Bash, Mayor Moncrief and representatives of developer Cypress Equities were on hand to officially cut the ribbon on the big new mixed-use development. Prior to the ribbon cutting, Mayor Moncrief spoke about the development, reiterating several of the points from his State of the City address – that Fort Worth must continue to encourage central-city growth with denser, walkable mixed-use developments rather than solely continue to sprawl.
Cypress shut down Crockett Street between Currie and Norwood, giving plenty of space for attendees to stroll around in a car-free setting. Residents of the lofts upstairs were out on their balconies having their own parties and waving to Spring Bash attendees below. Bars were set up in the central plaza, and of course the retailers open thus far were open and encouraging people to visit (Cypress, in fact, gave the mayor a pair of boots from Heritage Boots, one of the development’s ground-floor retailers). Newly opened Terra Mediterranean Grill was showing off their very cool outdoor bar on Crockett, set up to face the sidewalk. At the end of the block, a stage was set up where the band Reckless Kelly performed throughout the night.
It was a fun event and a great way to officially open the West 7th development. Congrats to Cypress Equities on this impressive project – we look forward to seeing how it matures and continues to build out the remaining blocks and fill the last tenant spaces.
West 7th Spring Bash Tonight
Just a reminder that the Spring Bash at the West 7th development is tonight from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. There will be a ribbon cutting for the development, a performance by the band Reckless Kelly, a beer garden, and more. It will be held on Crockett between the two loft/retail buildings. The event benefits Cook Children’s Hospital. For more info, check our last post on the Spring Bash.
New Mixed-Use Infill near West Leuda Park
The Near Southside wave of small mixed-use infill developments continues. This example is going up on St. Louis just south of Pennsylvania, right down the street from the nearly-complete new West Leuda Park (as well as the Leuda-May Apartments and Hattie May Inn, as well as just around the corner from the Rahr Brewery).
This building is another loft-apartment-over-medical-office development, of the kind that is becoming very popular in the Near Southside. There will likely be even more to come – these small (often single-lot) mixed-use infill structures are a really interesting aspect of the Near Southside’s revitalization.
Magnolia Avenue Tree Lighting Nearly Ready
Next time you’re walking along Magnolia Avenue in the Near Southside, take an up-close look at the trees lining the street. The long-in-the-works LED lighting of the Magnolia street trees is very nearly ready to go.
Fort Worth South, Inc. came up with the idea, and has been working with the city to make it a reality. Due to the challenges of running power to every tree on the street, it’s taken a bit longer than first expected, but from what Fort Worth South president Paul Paine said at the banquet last week, in 2-3 weeks the lights should be on at last.
The project will cover every tree on Magnolia from 8th Avenue to Hemphill with bright, power-efficient LED lights. It should create a brilliant and very welcoming nighttime streetscape, and we hope it’ll encourage more people to get out and walk or bike along the Near Southside’s most active “main street.” This won’t be a holiday occurrence, either – the trees will be lit every night, year-round.
Once we get word of the lighting date, we’ll pass it along.
New Near Southside Police Station
The redevelopment of the building on Hemphill just off the corner of Magnolia & Hemphill that will be home to the Near Southside’s new police station is well underway. The police station, currently in the ground floor of the building at College & Magnolia that houses Mamma Mia, The Salon Upstairs, Urban Green Build, and other tenants, is relocating to this larger facility and is bringing the gang unit (who had to move out of their old home on University after Botanical Research Institute took it over) with them.
Most people are probably familiar with the building as it has sat for many years – an ugly, blank concrete box with a handful of tiny windows. It has long been an eyesore in the Near Southside, especially right off the ongoing revitalization success of Magnolia Avenue. This development will finally do something about all that ugly – the project is completely revamping the exterior of the building to be compatible with the Near Southside’s urban design standards. Already, many new windows have been punched in the formerly blank concrete walls. As the project continues, the building will gain an all-new facade divided up into three bays, making its appearance more compatible with the classic urban buildings of Magnolia.
What isn’t as obvious is the lengthy, oddball history of this building. From the street, the building is a dreary 1970s box, which is the result of additions and remodeling done in the ’70s to an existing building on the site. You see, buried within all that ugly concrete is a building from around 1903.
The original building inside, one of the traditional urban structures which used to line the major streets of the Near Southside before demolitions and parking lots took over, was originally a Texas National Guard Armory and post office. In the ’70s, Hemphill was widened from its older, narrower, more human-scaled form, and the old Armory had its street facade removed to accommodate the widening. At that time, additions were made and everything was unified behind the blank concrete facade that’s been there ever since.
Hints of the building’s past are visible, however – most notably in the alley. If you go around back and look at that side (the east side), you’ll see the concrete facade on each end, but in the center you can still see the original alley facade of the Armory, complete with arched windows and more.
This project will result in a major eyesore being transformed into a much more attractive and urban-compatible form, as well as the consolidation and expansion of the FWPD station and gang unit. We’re looking forward to seeing how the building looks as the renovations progress.
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