Lighting Up Magnolia Avenue

More details are coming out about the ongoing makeover that Fort Worth South, Inc. is giving to Magnolia Avenue in the Near Southside. Earlier this year, the organization kicked off the start of a refresh for the district’s signature street, beginning with the repair of rotted benches and replacement of dead trees. The project is set to continue with the repair of sidewalks and possible trash can replacements and will be crowned by the re-striping of Magnolia into a “Complete Streets” configuration this spring, featuring a reduction in car travel lanes from four to two, the addition of a dedicated center turn lane, and the addition of dedicated bicycle-only lanes.

Now, there’s news of another addition to Magnolia in the works. Shown in the photo above is a tree in front of Fort Worth South’s headquarters on Mistletoe Boulevard near Baylor All-Saints. The tree is a prototype of a new lighting scheme that Fort Worth South is planning for Magnolia. The plan would see all the trees on Magnolia from 8th Avenue to Hemphill covered with these nets of lights and lit each night – on the order of around 138 trees in all.

The prototype’s lit trunk would not be used on Magnolia – just the branches would feature lights – but the example above does show the density of lights. The new tree lighting is only similar to the long-running tree lights in Sundance Square in appearance; the planned Magnolia lights are cutting-edge LED systems, said to use 1/3 the power of normal Christmas-type lights and last 6-8 years.

Fort Worth South is working on the details of the system, and there’s hope that the new tree lights will be in place by the next Arts Goggle in March if all goes well. It would certainly be an impressive addition to the Magnolia streetscape, and would likely draw more activity to Magnolia’s businesses…making whatever cost it would take to run the system’s efficient LED lights seem minimal compared to the increased revenue for local businesses (and the additional taxes that would be generated from said activity). Personally, I think it’s a win for all parties involved, and would help to encourage more pedestrian activity along the street – particularly in conjunction with the re-striped Magnolia’s expected slower traffic speeds.

More new about the lighting of Magnolia’s trees to come, I’m sure.