TCC Campus the right thing to do

We’ve been hearing some rumblings lately about how the new TCC downtown campus currently under construction is a mistake, that it’s too expensive, that TCC should be a simple place to educate students and not concern itself with important landmark structures, etc. etc. etc. Most of this is likely spurred by the recent cost increase and the debate over the college’s plaza by the courthouse. If you’ll allow us a brief rant, we’d like to share our thoughts on the matter:

We are believers in New Urbanism. One of New Urbanims’s ideals is that a civic or public institution, such as TCC, deserves landmark, monumental buildings to reinforce community identity and the civic and public fabric of our city. This campus is such a facility - it will be a landmark that future generations will enjoy for decades to come. Because we spent the money to get an outstanding architect to give us an outstanding, groundbreaking design, we’re getting a college campus that is without peer. Think about that. It is no exaggeration that the TCC downtown campus will be totally unlike anything else, not just in Texas or the US, but the world.

For downtown we ought to have higher standards than just a student education box. This isn’t some pad site out in the ‘burbs - this is in the heart of the city, in a place where we should demand greatness. This is a place where private, public, civic, cultural, and business mix intimately, and we owe it to ourselves and our descendents to not cheap out on things like this.

It would have been interesting to see the reactions of the critics had they been around in the late 1800s when they built the courthouse. How many of them would have demanded a plain brick box over the expensive structure that now sits at the end of Main Street? That was ridiculously expensive at the time, but every day when somebody looks up at that clock tower and feels a little pride in this amazing city I know that the cost was absolutely worth it. THAT is the standard we should aim for. We owe it to ourselves, to the students, and to future generations to create something special, something without peer. This is Fort Worth, darn it! This is a special place! We need to take some PRIDE in it!

BUILD.
THIS.
CAMPUS!

Thank you.