Urban Design Critique - Citizen’s National Bank

This building is the new Citizen’s National Bank building being built on West 7th Street, in the Cultural District just outside downtown Fort Worth. The following are my thoughts on this building.

In terms of aesthetic appeal, it’s not awful. The red brick & white stone look is certainly popular, and while the building’s design itself will not win any awards, it’s certainly not unattractive. It’s also situated nicely up against the street, always a necessity for good urban design (some have said it appears to be too close to the street, but I don’t share this opinion). This closeness to the street, combined with its height (only two stories, but the old buildings around it are all single-story), adds some nice mass to the 7th Street environment. This is an area of town that we’re hoping will start to see some good urban design - there’s an upcoming development down the street called “Museum Place” that should be excellent in this regard, and the continuing So7 project shows some promise as well.

Unfortunately, the CNB Building has some…flaws.

The biggest flaw in this building is its entrance & parking setup. Rather than hide the parking in the back, which is what they should have done, architectural firm Schwarz-Hanson has put parking on the side as well, causing an unsightly gap between it and the next structure. That in and of itself isn’t so terrible, but what they did next really pushes it - placing the building’s entrance in this side parking lot, rather than on the sidewalk facing 7th Street.

Why is this a problem? Well, 7th Street is not some backwater alley - it’s a retail corridor that has huge potential for smart urban growth. Part of urban design, though, is focusing attention on pedestrians, and people in general. When you stick your building’s big entrance on a parking lot, not the street and sidewalk, you’re putting emphasis back on cars, not people. This is horrible from an urban design perspective - your buildings should embrace the sidewalk life, rather than force people to enter by crossing a parking lot. That sort of backwards attitude is what makes suburbs so depressing, and there should not be any tangible presence of it, no matter how small, in a developing urban setting. This also means that people departing the main entrance will not be looking out on 7th, but rather will be looking at the blank side wall of a pub. Very nice. As it stands now, the building looks like it’s been built rotated 90 degrees from how it should have been built.

The Citizen’s National Bank on West 7th Street by Schwarz-Hanson gets a D- from me. It gains a few points for its massing and proximity to the street, and its decent appearance, but loses quite a few more for its lame orientation. If it turns out that there will be some form of entrance on 7th, I’ll be happy to upgrade the rating, but the big entrance in the parking lot will forever hold it to a lower score than it should (and could, with a few minor changes) have.