Comments on: New Kimbell Expansion Unveiled – Building Will Go On West Lawn

By: mike s.

mike s. — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:05:18 +0000

Because only hippies can enjoy a bit of greenspace, I guess.

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:47:49 +0000

the hippies are going to have to find somewhere else to frisbee.

By: Will

Will — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:51:59 +0000

Should be a nice selling point to the overpriced condos going up in the 7th Street Corridor – you know…”come move in here while the Kimbell expansion is being built, listen to the roar of heavy trucks carrying marble and concrete for the next three years or more”! Nice! Leave the darn lawn alone. Besides…where else will they pitch those outrageous tents to honor the elite if they cover up the lawn?!

By: Bernie

Bernie — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:38:56 +0000

Anybody else think Piano’s model looks kind of like a piano? Is this some kind of weak architectural inside joke?

By: Jerry

Jerry — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:06:26 +0000

I thought the FWElite were looking-at parking garage development as investments 10 years ago – and specifically at one on Montgomery @ W7th & Camp Bowie. By all means, an underground garage near the museums.
I do not understand how destroying forever the Kahn / Johnson landscape between the Carter and Kimbell helps Fortson’s vision of world domination. Can the underground tunnel not go East?
I guess it’s her museum, her artwork, and her billion dollar foundation, and she can do whatever she wants with them. They’re all still on City of Fort Worth land, but I don’t guess that matters, since the citizens of Fort Worth are no longer the owners of the art and foundation.

By: chris

chris — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:38:03 +0000

To echo what I wrote on the FW Forum somewhat… a city isn’t often given gifts like Fort Worth received when it got the Kimbell. All that is asked of us is not to mess with it, not to screw it up. Well, we couldn’t even make it forty years before we blew it.

What a city of complete hicks this makes us seem. And for what? Renzo Piano’s ego? Malcolm Warner’s ego? The west lawn of the Kimbell is the only proper entrance into the building as Kahn intended. It also has been a community treasure for a generation. And now we’re going to throw that all away… for what?

Seriously, if we can’t find some stewards of our civic treasures who are worthy of the responsibility, we’re better off demolishing the Kimbell outright and starting over than we are killing it piecemeal as this plan would do. I am so terribly embarrassed for my hometown today I can barely stand the thought of it. Madness!

By: Kevin Buchanan

Kevin Buchanan — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:31:20 +0000

I think the parties involved should just bite the bullet and scrape part of the WRMC’s parking lots across Lancaster to build a Cultural District parking garage once and for all. The Darnell site should be entirely a park.

Also worth noting that the streetcar will run through the heart of all this, and that’ll also help reduce the need for so many parking spaces.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:10:09 +0000

I like the initial renderings of the expansion. It seems to complement and harmonize with the original building. However, I am also concerned by the lackluster approach for a new lawn on the Darnell Street lot. I agree with Kevin that the entire lot should be scraped and converted to greenspace. If the museums are concerned with the loss of parking, why not place an underground parking structure beneath a new greenspace?

By: simeon

simeon — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:24:54 +0000

Anyway we can protest this? This lawn is one of the finest points of the whole cultural district and they should definitely build on the parking lot next to it instead.

By: JBB

JBB — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:19:22 +0000

I hate to see them build on the lawn, but they make a pretty compelling argument for doing that. Let’s hope they go through with green space on the other side of the museum.