Posts from ‘June, 2008’

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 [...]

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 [...]

‘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 [...]

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 - [...]

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:

The approx. 47 acres on the north side of the river will likely be sold.
The block next to the courthouse, planned originally for a sunken plaza, will likely [...]

The local architectural/development scene has been buzzing since the announcement yesterday that Tarrant County College was giving up on its new downtown campus and instead buying Radio Shack’s headquarters down the street. A lot has been said about the decision, and a lot of questions have been raised. One of the more thought-provoking [...]

Yep. As I’ve reported over at West & Clear, Tarrant County College is throwing in the towel on completing its new downtown campus, and is instead buying Radio Shack’s headquarters on the other side of the courthouse from their property. TCC is saying this will not affect construction of the first half of [...]

The restoration and redevelopment of the Sawyer Grocery buildings on South Main has really brightened up that part of town, and work has been steadily progressing. As you can see, the exteriors are getting to be fairly complete, while significant progress inside can be seen through the windows compared to the progress I saw [...]

Another little photographic project for y’all. I took this panorama, made up of several images and then aligned in Photoshop, from the Amon Carter Museum porch on Sunday. I’d been wanting to get a new panorama from here now that the trees are green and the Omni, Carnegie, and various other projects have [...]

I’d meant to make a note of this earlier, but better late than never. Personal Real Estate Investor Magazine did a big story on Fort Worth for its May/June 2008 issue, and they contacted me for information and quotes. Sure enough, yours truly appears several times throughout the article. I was especially [...]

The first building of SoSeven’s Shops & Lofts is nearing completion of its exterior, and we’re now getting a good look at the building’s appearance. There have been seemingly countless different designs and renderings of the buildings shown since the project began, and sure enough the final product is a little different from what [...]

I took all these photos yesterday afternoon, and figured y’all might want to have a look. Click for a bigger view.

The Sanguinet Building

The Electric Building

The Neil P. Anderson Building

Burnett Park

Burnett Park Fountains

Burnett Park with Burnett Plaza

Flowers in Burnett Park

Flowers in Burnett Park

The Neil P. Anderson Building

The Neil P. Anderson Building

The Neil P. Anderson Building

The [...]

The Omni Hotel by the Convention Center is steadily rising towards its final height. Now taller than the AT&T Building, the tower has seven more occupied floors to go, and then four mechanical floors - 11 more in total before the building tops out. A lot more glass is being added to the [...]

The proposed modern streetcar circulator for central city Fort Worth has been slowly weaving its way through city corridors, quietly but steadily picking up steam as enthusiasm for the proposal grows. Yesterday morning, Dana Burghdoff of the city’s Planning and Development Department gave a presentation to the city council on the proposal, and Fort [...]

Time for another entry. Today, I’m talking about Robert A. M. Stern and his architectural firm, another group of which I’m a big fan. From RAMSA’s web site:
Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP, is a 300-person firm of architects, landscape architects, interior designers, and supporting staff. Over its thirty-eight-year history, the firm has established [...]

The long-planned Lofts Of St. Mary’s development, which will transform the ’50s-vintage metal church gymnasium in Fairmount into a modern living space, has been floating around for a long time now - I first reported on it back on December 21, 2006. Back in September, I reported that the project might be headed in [...]

The new “Flatiron” style building at 7th, Camp Bowie, and University is now getting the steel framing of its upper floors added to the concrete first floor. Part of the Museum Place development, the “Flatiron” will see three floors of office space atop ground-floor retail/restaurant space. Click the images for a bigger view.

There [...]

It occurred to me that I didn’t post a rendering of the completed campus commons during my TCU update from a few days back, so here it is. This is what the completed development will look like once the new Student Union and all the landscaping is in place:

Continuing the series on the homes of the most recent Fairmount home tour, today’s entry takes a look the beautiful Reeves home. Built in 1920, it is a Craftsman bungalow which is in remarkable, mostly unrestored condition. As shown above, the exterior features a large front porch, twin symmetrical gables and matching twin [...]

Just a note to inform that I’ve added another link to the blogroll - the site of the Fairmount Southside Historic District. Fairmount’s a very cool neighborhood, and I’d encourage everybody out there to take a trip and check it out.

Like the other developments on 7th, the Shops & Lofts at So7 are steadily progressing. The first building is getting more stucco and windows installed. This building will be office space with ground-floor retail. The larger building on the left is up and out of its underground garage, and progressing towards moving [...]

I’ve just heard some information that a developer is in the planning stages of a new urban apartment development to be located at College & Peter Smith in the Near Southside. Details are thin at the moment, but the development will be three or four stories in height surrounding a hidden central parking structure, [...]

I’ve reported on a bit of breaking news over on sister site West & Clear: Fort Worth’s own XTO Energy is buying Hunt Petroleum.
XTO keeps growing and growing - and they’re running out of historic buildings to buy and restore. Once they finish up with 714 Main and the Binyon O’Keefe Warehouse, I don’t [...]

Well, turns out my source was correct - Chesapeake Energy did in fact relight their newest purchase, the former Pier 1 tower, last night. I have to admit that I liked seeing those lights again. In fact, I decided to head out last night to the Lancaster bridge and take the photo you [...]

West Bend, the project which aims to transform the rather bleak site of the dreary River Plaza office building on University across from University Park Village into a mixed-use center of retail, hotel, and office space, has broken ground and gotten underway in the last few days. I’ve managed to grab ahold of a [...]