Mar 3, 2009
Fort Worth Public Spaces: Sundance Square Plaza
By: Kevin Buchanan
In the first of what I intend to make a series of posts on the site, I’m going to be taking a look at the state of public space in urban Fort Worth. As our first case, I thought I’d discuss the long-running question mark of the Sundance Square central plaza.
From an urbanity perspective, one of the most unfortunate parts of the otherwise wildly successful Sundance Square are these two parking lots, bounded by Houston, 4th, Commerce, and 3rd on either side of Main Street. Here, in the very heart of Sundance Square (and by extension, Downtown itself), nearly two full blocks in the center of Downtown’s most people-centric neighborhood are taken up by surface parking lots. Have you ever walked around Downtown Fort Worth, missing the lack of real effective public plazas & parks in it, and thought that these sites would make a great location for a plaza?
In fact, the Bass family agrees with you.
As seen above in the Sundance Square master plan, designed by architect David M. Schwarz, those two parking lots disappear, replaced by half-block mixed-use buildings fronting Houston and Commerce, and half-block public plazas on each side of Main Street. While the details tend to shift around (I don’t expect that the plan now would call for the demolition of the historic Jett and Land Title Block buildings, and I’ve heard of a slightly different design that shuts off that one-block stretch of Main to car traffic, which I think would make for a more effective space than allowing cars to bisect two plazas), the intent to use those lots for public space has been part of the plan since the ’80s.
So why are they still just parking lots? There are a number of stories out there: that the Bass family feels there aren’t enough parking garages yet to offset the loss of the lots (personally, I don’t agree with that sentiment). That another family owns half of the eastern block and doesn’t want to work with the Basses, preferring to keep their parking lot rather than sell the property. I’m probably forgetting others.
Downtown Fort Worth lacks a real central public space, an “outdoor room” in the heart of the city. There’s Burnett Park, but it’s on the west side of Downtown and is not really all that effective in its current form (its unfortunate ’80s makeover and being dominated by Burnett Plaza’s retail-less design keep it from being truly effective). The Water Gardens are a bit too big, and at the moment are not surrounded by much that people want to go to, a situation that will likely remain until the rest of the Lancaster area redevelops. These central blocks in Sundance Square remain an ideal location for a central plaza.
The setting reminds me a little bit of Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon. Pioneer Courthouse Square is an incredibly effective and popular public space, often called the best public space in America and named fourth best public space in the world by the Project for Public Spaces. It’s a city block (which, like Fort Worth’s, is small), surrounded on all sides by active uses (as the central Sundance Square blocks are), linked by rail transit (which would be the case here as well when the streetcar gets built). Pioneer Courthouse Square is described as “Portland’s Living Room,” and it’s a space like that which is missing in Fort Worth.
Here’s a Streetfilms video about Pioneer Courthouse Square, taken during the “Festival of Flowers” during the summer:
A video from imagiNATIVEamerica:
Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square from imagiNATIVEamerica on Vimeo.
And a photo by “Dog Mom of Five” on Flickr:
Here’s the link to the Project for Public Spaces entry on Pioneer Courthouse Square.
It is my understanding that if a park is built in downtown the city has been fairly staunch on their position that it must then be dedicated to the city. This is an immediate and understandable deterrant as it would essentially be a total loss of extremely valuable property. I understand that this is was an issue XTO faced at Houston and 7th.
Perhaps you could get around it if placed some small retail and “landscaped” the balance.
If I remember correctly, there is a Starbucks and a floral store as well as the official city info station and bus pass station within Pioneer Courthouse Square. When I was there last year, on a rainy Saturday it was the start of a bicycle race, a pro abortion rally site, a homeless sit-in, and a space for some Extreme Sports guys to jump. All this and I had a cup of coffee. Talked to some locals. And got a bus schedule.
I thought I’d heard that Burnett Park was getting a makeover? What’s the latest on that project?
And might that area ever get some retail (or reasons to draw people to that side of downtown)? Offhand, I can’t think of where you could squeeze any retail or restaurants into the mix.
JP,
Burnett Park is getting a “makeover,” but from what I know it’s turning out to be more of a “we don’t want to spend time fixing the fountains forever so here’s a minor facelift” sort of thing instead. They hired the same company that did the (rather unfortunate, IMHO) ’80s makeover to do this one. I’d heard they wanted to make it more of a real park instead of a cold and rather unfriendly business plaza, but the plans I’ve heard won’t really accomplish that. What they’re going to do is take out the fountains and replace them with flower beds, then take out the sunken grass and groundcovers and raise them up to the same height as the granite pathways. Then, I think they’re also going to do something with the old Christmas tree, as well as install some climbable artwork for kids. Frankly, I thought it sounded a little half-hearted. We’ll see. I’d rather see Burnett Park taken back to the way it was before, with the pond and a bit more open-ness in the middle.
The Neil P., the Electric Building, and 500 West 7th all have ground-floor space for retail. 500 West 7th has Bank of America and a Subway, and the Neil P. has Thomas Reprographics and the 7th Street Grill. I understand that the 7th Street Grill is good, but they close in the afternoon. If something ever went into the Electric Building that drew people (all that’s there now are some ground-floor office spaces), and if the existing places stayed open longer, that might help. Problem is, Burnett Plaza just sucks all the life out of the place (and the retail-less parking garage behind the Neil P. doesn’t help). The U. S. Courthouse also doesn’t do much, but at least it’s attractive. Burnett Plaza is like all the bad ’70s/’80s office towers in that it provides no attraction to anybody who doesn’t work there. All its retail is in the basement (and you can’t tell there’s anything down there from the street level anyway).
I also think 500 West 7th’s plaza in front of its retail spaces on 7th was a mistake. What was the point of that, when there was already a park/plaza across the street? If 500 West 7th came up to 7th Street it would help to activate Burnett Park more. As it is, Subway diners never get close to the park at all.
And the tunnel from Burnett Plaza to 500 West 7th doesn’t help, either.
Hopefully the sunken plaza and the block to the east of the courthouse between Belknap and Weatheford could be used as a living room of sorts. It would have made a great midpoint between Sundance and the north side. As remote as this possibility is now, I still think it is more likely than the public area in the heart of Sundance. The plaza in the heart of Sundance would be absolutely perfect…the ideal thing to really make Sundance sing with activity at all times.
Richie,
Problem is, sunken plazas a la TCC’s rarely work well. Things generally need to be at street level where “eyes on the street” can help keep things safe (and street-level plazas are more inviting) and surrounded by active uses (another thing which the TCC plaza won’t have for the foreseeable future). What attraction would there be sitting below grade in a plaza surrounded by two courthouses, a probably vacant college, and vacant lots & a bank drive-through? That’s why I’m leery of the TCC plaza.
It’s not my first choice either…I just dont see the Sundance Plaza ever happening. If it hasn’t happened by now I can’t see it happening. Really too bad too…would promote more residential and commercial uses in the sundance core…and help spread it to further blocks out.
I agree with your comments on Burnett Park. I never knew it was public space for the longest time. I thought it was just for the nearby office workers. (and good point on the plaza at 500 W. 7th; that spot just seems confusing to me)
Burnett Park has got great potential to be a nice spot on the westside downtown, though. I heard talk the other day that the park was going to be made “grassier” (this from a dog-owner who looked forward to having a spot for his pooch to run around a bit).
I’d also heard (oh, almost 10 years ago) that the parking lot between the Houston Place Lofts and the Panther fountain/Flat Iron Building was going to get converted into green space. I guess that was just a rumor – or else it never quite panned out as planned.
The catch most cities are in now is that people have to get out of their cars to use a park, BUT you have to give folks a reason to get out of their cars to use a park. Fort Worth does have a couple areas that are attractive and walkable. I walk my dogs all over downtown. Burnett Park not overly inviting. Seldom other than at lunch is there anyone else there. Sitting and watching cars race by is not conducive to creating a park atmosphere.
A county jail and a junior college campus also makes a poor setting for sitting.
When the street cars are running, we have a better chance at urban parks. People may leave their cars in their driveways and walk/ride to downtown. Or maybe parking facilities will spring up at the terminus of each line so that the cars will be far away from the downtown parks.
I had heard that the city was going to re engineer 9th Street from the ITC to Municipal Court Building. Part of the plan was to straighten 9th Street out at Throckmorton by removing the parking lot and expanding the panther fountain park area. The idea was to give people a reason to ride public transit downtown and have a place to stroll/sit/talk/meet. Anyone know anything about this?
The Panther Fountain area that you are both thinking of is actually called Hyde Park, and the city has a pretty extensive plan for it. I’ll probably write about it in a future post. See:
http://www.fortworthgov.org/lancaster/info/default.aspx?id=5564&ekmensel=c581fa7b_3592_5564_5564_4
http://www.fortworthgov.org/uploadedFiles/Lancaster_Corridor/Initiatives/Hyde_Park_Transit_Plaza_Pro.pdf
Those parking lots have become multi-purpose areas for all kinds of Fort Worth events. When they are used for other things, however, they aren’t used as parking lots. That means that just as you need the most parking, you lose what you had. That’s what I call ‘resource frustration’.
It would seem that the only way to develop them as public squares and multi-use areas without losing the parking would be to excavate two or more levels of parking beneath the squares. All three squares could then be linked and entrance and exits could be moved at least a couple of blocks away. That would reduce traffic immediately around the squares during public events, allow easier handicapped access to events, and give us one more place to run to when the wind comes howling.
It would also allow the squares to be landscaped.
Problem is, underground parking costs a *ton* of money in downtown Fort Worth due to the bedrock underneath.
We need to decide as a city – which is more important? A couple of parking lots, or a quality public space in the heart of our downtown? There are plenty of garage spaces, on-street spaces, other lots – the loss of two parking lots for a space that would enhance downtown and make it even more attractive is a small price to pay, IMHO. We need to build the plazas and not worry about putting parking underneath them. There is plenty of parking now and plenty of future opportunities for A) more parking in new development and B) reducing the *need* for parking through better transit, etc. This needs to be about making a great public space, not about making an underground garage that happens to have a plaza on top.
IMHO, of course.
Kevin – I agree with your view on the “just do it” approach. I do think that building a two-level underground garage is the optimal, long-term use for the blocks. I also think that the best design would be to have two small, square one story retail buildings at the northwest and southwest corners of the block between Houston and Main and one small square building at the northeast corner of the block between Commerce and Main (north of the building with the Flying Saucer) to frame in the public space, but to allow a wide passageway mid-block between Commerce, Main, and Houston Streets to create a better connection between Commerce, Main, and Houston Streets at mid-block.
I could understand the need to decide as a city if this were city property. Being private property however, it seems we don’t have any collective say. This still doesn’t overcome the hurdle from the municipality forcing dedication from anyone wishing to build such a public plaza.
[...] at FortWorthology writes that there’s hope of those two parking lots at the center of Sundance Square becoming a walking plaza, and that the Near Southside will hold an evening on the Green this Friday. With food and live [...]
My understanding was that the owners of the parking lot on the east side, due north of the Land Title Block are willing to sell, but they want a price that Sundance Development finds unreasonable.
I also seem to remember that the owners are located in another state entirely. Perhaps the current economic downturn will force them to reevaluate their holdings?
[...] the radar, but it could have implications for the proposed Sundance Square central plaza that we discussed previously: The real estate partnership that owns the historic 16-story Sinclair Building and the former Hogan [...]