Took this twilight photo of the new Flatiron-style building at Museum Place going up. The building’s triangular form is really starting to become noticeable now. Click for a bigger view.
As a side note, I may or may not take tomorrow off from posting. If I do, then happy 4th of July to you all!
I took these photos of Thistle Hill at twilight yesterday evening, and thought I’d share with you all. Click the photo for a bigger view.
That’s right - the famed metal poles which held an advertising billboard until the 2000 tornado ripped through the city are back at last at the new Museum Place development. The poles, stripped of their billboard and bent sharply over by the tornado, are being reinstalled today as part of the new public plaza that will go along with the new United States Post Office at Museum Place (seen in the background covered by Tyvek wrap). Fort Worthology reader Jeff W. sent me this photo of the reinstallation underway:
The wall of the Post Office fronting the plaza will be covered in ceramic tiles featuring a large mural of a thunderstorm rolling across the prairie, along with the words “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”
It may seem odd to be so excited over the return of a few bent pieces of metal, but I think the reinstallation of the poles in the new plaza is a wonderful piece of public art. They are an incredible reminder of the sheer power of nature, bent as they were simply by the power of wind, and will serve as a fascinating landmark for the redeveloping Cultural District.
Well, it’s an understandable wish that we would want to keep our happy motoring system going, because we have invested so much in it, and it’s almost inconceivable to most Americans that we would have to do without it. But I think the truth of the matter is that the automobile and all of the things associated with it are going to be a diminishing presence in our lives, whether we like it or not.
And what disturbs me—actually, this is a symptom of our even larger inability to have a coherent discussion about our problems in this country. As you go around the country, what you realize is the only thing that we’re talking about is how we’re going to run the cars by some other means than gasoline or diesel fuel. And to me, this is really a tragic thing, because we have to talk about a lot of other things.
Last night, I gave a lecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic, and one young foreign student—he was from India, actually—got up and was going on at some length about all the technological means for producing new transportation systems and new elegant ways of getting people from point A to point B. And my response to him was that the one thing that we’re never talking about is walkable cities or walkable neighborhoods.
And it doesn’t require any heroic new technologies or new discoveries. In fact, it is, when all is said and done, absolutely the most pleasant way to live and to get around. Anybody who’s spent more than an hour and a half in the center of Paris understands this—or for that matter, a dozen other European cities.
I go around, and every college lecture I give, there’s invariably, inevitably, somebody who gets up and says, “I got a brand new Prius.” Congratulations. “Pin a medal on me. Give me a brownie point.” And then I have to sort of disillusion them and tell them… The problem in America is not that we’re driving the wrong kind of cars, per se.
The trouble in the United States is we’re driving incessantly. We’re driving every kind of car there is, incessantly. And we’ve got to find a way out of the incessant motoring and a way to live without it, and a happy way to live without it—not a punishment way to live without it, but a way to be happy and do it. And it means, really, a completely different paradigm for everyday life.
–James Howard Kunstler on the Kunstlercast, April 14, 2008
Back in may, I reported on speculation that the (now former) United Way Building at 9th & Commerce had a date with the demolition team at some point before the end of the year, and now, it looks like that date may be sooner rather than later. A demolition fence has now been set up around the building.
With a building like this, it’s entirely possible that we’ll be seeing it come down any day now with little fanfare, so don’t be surprised if you see heavy equipment tearing into the little ’50s structure soon. So far, I haven’t heard any rumors of what might be replacing the building. If I hear more, I’ll post it.
Things are looking a bit different around here, and the work has only just begun. The site’s been streamlined into this new design, which consolidates primary navigation into the drop-down menus under the header. (Incidentally, if you’re viewing the site on Safari, Firefox, or Opera, you should see those menus appear slightly translucent.)
Relocating the navigation system to the menus opened up some significant real estate on the right side of the site, which has been folded into the content area. The reasons for this widening of the site’s main body won’t be apparent yet, but this was necessary to pave the way for some big new features still in the pipeline that simply wouldn’t work on the old design’s 500 pixel wide content space.
One of those big new features is a totally remade Urban Living guide, which is under development now. The new guide is powered by Google Maps, and will allow users to fly around urban Fort Worth viewing urban living properties arrayed on the map. Optionally, the system may allow users to overlay other data on the map as well, such as the location of restaurants, cafes, bars, grocery stores, schools, five minute walk zones, transit routes, and even on-street bike paths and trails. In addition, it may be possible at a later date for users to comment and rate restaurants and such on the guide. A lot of this is still in development, but I hope to have a beta version up on the site in the not-too-distant future. The Urban Living guide will still be viewable as a neighborhood-by-neighborhood list for those who prefer it, but with Google Maps integration as well.
Speaking of Google Maps, I plan on using it extensively in new posts on the site, thanks to the new wider content area. Development news and updates will include integrated Google Maps and Google Maps Streetview viewers.
The design as a whole now reflects the basic feel I was going for, but there’s still plenty of tweaking to be done. Once complete, I hope the site will feel much more sleek and streamlined than before, with a greater focus on content display.
At last, a couple of new images of The Shops at City Place, the next phase of the City Place project that’s redeveloping the former Tandy Center. The rendering above shows the new look of the former outlet mall structure, with its additional parking on top and new facade.
Below is a site plan of the entire project, showing the planned retail spaces on the ground floor. According to this, the reopening of 2nd Street through the development is still planned, which is very positive news from a pedestrian circulation standpoint. Click for a bigger view.
‘Tis true, according to the NCTCOG. This quote stood out a bit to me:
It’s a milestone — the city has more than 700,000 residents for the first time — but it’s tempered by indications that some people are shifting away from buying new homes in outlying neighborhoods and toward apartment rentals in Dallas.
Fort Worth added 16,000 residents — 3,850 fewer than Dallas, which has more apartments available and a more mature urban transit core.
Sounds like we need even more infill development in urban Fort Worth, and how about getting crackin’ on rail of various kinds, perhaps?
Normally, staining a concrete floor requires the use of an acid-based stain that seeps into the material and chemically reacts with it to produce color. Application of these acid stains requires hefty equipment, elaborate safety gear, and extreme caution around the stains themselves and the toxic gasses they release during the staining process - to say nothing of the hazardous material disposal they require.
Now, though, an Arizona company called Eco Procote has developed a new concrete stain that has none of these drawbacks. SoyCrete is a soy-based non-toxic concrete stain that doesn’t emit toxic gasses, requires little safety equipment beyond gloves, doesn’t need elaborate application equipment (it can apparently be done very easily by DIY-ers), and as an added benefit allows greater control of the finished color and appearance than acid stains. Here’s an example of a finished floor in one of the many colors offered:
Having been researching this recently, I was also surprised to find that SoyCrete is actually cheaper than traditional acid stains. For a job that would cost several thousand dollars if done with acid stain, I found the same job could be accomplished with SoyCrete for under $300.
Just thought I’d pass along this tip, since there are a lot of folks in urban Fort Worth looking for lofts and such with concrete floors.
Details have come out about the likely plans for the remaining property that TCC acquired in downtown and across the river that they’re not going to need anymore:
