Fort Worthology presents XTO Square

XTO Energy hasn’t announced any plans as yet for the full block of downtown Fort Worth where Landmark Tower, the International Style skyscraper imploded last year, once stood. Rumors swing between parking, a building, and a park. Since XTO hasn’t presented a plan yet, I thought I’d give it a go and combine all the rumors.

I give you XTO Square. Underground are two to four levels of parking, accessed by the entranceway on 7th Street. Fronting Throckmorton and Houston streets are two eight-story buildings featuring office space in the upper floors and ground-level retail space. The buildings are red brick with large windows and decorative crowns that would be brilliantly lit at night. Each building features a large plaza for outdoor dining and the like. In the center is a grassy, tree-lined park.

This proposal has no relationship to XTO Energy, and is solely a creation of Kevin Buchanan and Fort Worthology. It is just a “what if” presentation. The rendering is a bit rough, the buildings lacking detail. This was just a quick render to show the concepts. Click the thumbnails for a bigger view.

I really want to go back and work some more on the towers. In my mind, they’re a bit more detailed than just brick boxes with glass crowns, but nothing overly elaborate. I did not want them to be really flashy, because I did not want to draw too much attention from the historic buildings surrounding the site. They have something of an old industrial loft + modern glassy feel to ‘em (the glass looks bad in the renderings, I know). I wanted them red brick to give some color to an area surrounded by whites and greys - Petroleum Building, Fort Worth Club, the church, the W. T. Waggoner, the Grant building, that sort of thing. Also plays off the TXU Building’s color. Come to think of it, a little green like in that building’s panels might be neat for small trim.

Essentially, I wanted the towers to be just fresh and flashy enough to draw people to the square. Once people are there, I wanted them to be restrained and contextual enough to fade into the scenery so people would then pay more attention to and appreciate the historic structures around them, as well as the park and the “experience” of being there and eating/shopping in the square’s shops and restaurants.

My reasoning behind two smaller buildings rather than one larger building is thus - I wanted more street frontage. I wanted Throckmorton and Houston fronted directly by retail, both to give an “enclosure” quality to pedestrians on those streets and to serve as a “connection” between the Sundance Square area and the SoDo area. The retail draws people up and down those two streets, closer to either Sundance Square or SoDo. With retail operating into the night, there would be a human presence in the area that would help people feel more comfortable walking between Sundance Square and SoDo, thus tying the two areas together. Retail fronting Throckmorton would also likely help a bit in tying XTO Square to the Burnett Park area, though not to the same degree. I did not care about the skyline - I cared more about the street and the pedestrian. I also wanted the park to feel enclosed and comfortable, and the twins solve that problem as well along with the trees lining the area.

The building offsets are for views, and to create large plazas at each end of the park. The site plan is open running north-south to present views of W. T. Waggoner/SoDo and the Petroleum Building. The east building sets back from 7th to give a view of the Simpson Building when traveling down 7th, and the west building sets back from 6th to give a view of the Fort Worth Club building when traveling down 6th.

Worries about parks being something of a “black hole” at night are hopefully solved in this design as well. Retail not only fronts Throckmorton and Houston, but the park and plazas as well. At night, activity is maintained in the park with the presence of shops and restaurants.