Not long ago, I had the opportunity to attend a Trinity River Vision meeting being held in conjunction with a broadcast of Biz Radio. I got some updates on the status of various TRV projects, so here’s a little roundup of the current happenings.

One of the highlights for me personally was getting to meet Bing Thom (left in the above photo), designer of the TRV and architect of the Tarrant County College downtown campus and the upcoming TRV bridges. Part of me expected him to be your typical “starchitect,” but he was a very down-to-Earth and friendly sort who was a pleasure to be around.

Tom Struhs and Elizabeth Falconer gave an update on the progress being made along Samuels Avenue at the Trinity Bluff development. As you’ve seen on Fort Worthology, steady progress is being made in the construction of Villa De Leon, the new luxury condo building being built immediately north of Nash Elementary on Samuels. Struhs used the opportunity to announce the pending start of construction of several hundred new apartments by Lincoln Property Co., who built the first Trinity Bluff development (the Lincoln Trinity Bluff apartments). Construction will be getting underway very soon on Lincoln’s next buildings.

Carl Bell, owner of the champion Fort Worth Cats baseball team and LaGrave Field, spoke about the planned mixed-use development he’ll be building around the stadium on what will become an island as part of the TRV. Originally announced to be 36 acres, Bell revealed that the project has now grown to 70 acres surrounding LaGrave. The project will be a mixed-use development with hundreds of residential units and significant retail and office space centered around the stadium and a new pedestrian street (which will replace the vehicular road currently in front of the stadium). The new pedestrian street will be named Bragan Promenade. The project will be designed in accordance with the Trinity Uptown design guidelines. Expect to hear more about the guidelines from me in future posts.

Here is a rendering of the project’s original 36 acre design:

J. D. Granger next appeared and talked about the large improvements that will be made to Gateway Park just east of downtown as part of the TRV. Gateway will serve as the overflow site of flood waters, and is also getting a huge makeover with new facilities and structures. I’ll be writing more about the Gateway Park plans in a future post.

The meeting was very informative and quite well attended. Catering was provided by Eurotazza coffee shop. The meeting was held in the TRV’s new offices in the ground floor of the Fair Building downtown (yes, yes, I know it’s technically the “Commerce Building,” but I can’t give up the old name of the department store that originally occupied it. Call me sentimental, I guess). If you’re in the neighborhood, make sure to visit the TRV’s information lobby at 7th & Throckmorton – there’s a lot of very nifty info on display.

So, the question I get asked most frequently about the TRV is “when will we see dirt moving?” There has been a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes, but little that can be looked at in the “real world,” so to speak.

Well, I’ve now got an answer. I’ve been told by a top TRV official that we can expect to see buildings being demolished to make way for the bypass channel in two months, perhaps less. Businesses will be relocated and then a swath of structures will be leveled. So, we appear to be literally at the breaking point of seeing significant physical work done on the Trinity River Vision.

For supporters like myself, this is a very exciting thing.

Finally, something special just for Fort Worthology readers! With the permission of TRV officials, I’m revealing to you all a very rare item in the above photo. You’re looking at Bing Thom’s initial sketch of what would become the TRV. On his first visit to Fort Worth, Thom sketched off this plan for the river simply as a bit of creative exercise. He gave it to city officials, and apparently didn’t really expect anything to come of it. He was said to be quite surprised when he received a call shortly thereafter inviting him back to begin work on the actual project!

That one bit of art was the seed that started the whole process, and it’s rather remarkable how similar it is to what we’re actually going to be building. I’m very excited to be able to show it to you all – it’s something that not a whole lot of people have ever seen before.

Look for more TRV posts in the coming days, delving into the urban design guidelines and the neighborhood concepts.