Apr 1, 2009
Carillion Group Announces New Loft Development on Magnolia
By: Kevin Buchanan
Note: This is, of course, an April Fools joke. This isn’t actually being built. Just a bit of humor collaboration between us and the Carillion Group.
Today, we’ve received word from The Carillion Group about their next project in the Near Southside. Currently at work converting the former Miller Manufacturing Building at 311 Bryan Avenue into rental lofts, The Carillion Group is looking to branch out yet again into a new area of development.
Carillion Group head Eddie Vanston today is unveiling plans for land he quietly purchased while working on 311 Bryan. On the half-block bounded by Fairmount, Magnolia, and 7th Avenue, across the street from Benito’s, Vanston plans to start construction of a brand-new six-story mixed-use loft building.
The development, dubbed “The Bareview at Fairmount Place” is the Carillion Group’s most elaborate to date (and their first new-construction project), featuring 78 loft apartments, a pool, a small gym, sand volley ball courts on the pool deck, a sauna facility, and gamerooms, which Vanston describes as including “a wide variety of gaming systems” from “flat-panel TVs with Nintendo Wiis” to “vintage pinball machines and arcade games.” All will be free to residents.
The six-story building, shown above in rendering, will feature eleven-foot ceilings, polished concrete floors, and bamboo accents on the interiors. The exterior features glass, concrete, metal, and wood accents in a striking modernist design that will be an interesting contrast to the surrounding structures (the site was recently drawn out of the Fairmount historic district and as such does not have to follow the historic design guidelines). A three-story parking garage will be constructed below grade. The building will feature five ground-floor retail spaces, and Vanston has already signed leases for three: a coffee shop to be named “Magnolia Brew,” a Mid Century-style sushi lounge that will be named “Toshiro,” and Paciugo, the gelato shop also going into the West 7th development in the Cultural District.
The development will also not be lacking in “green” credentials. The building aims to be certified LEED Platinum, and will feature a wide variety of sustainable design touches: a rooftop garden, rainwater collection systems, a geothermal heating & cooling system, free secure bicycle parking for residents and retail customers, and more. “We are serious about sustainability, and the Bareview will be a great example of our commitment to the environment,” said Vanston. In keeping with this naturalistic spirit, The Bareview at Fairmount Place will be Fort Worth’s first clothing-optional infill development. Vanston is particularly excited by this. “The Bareview is a completely new concept in urban living,” he said. “It’s the ideal place to live for people who want to be within walking distance of shops and restaurants, live on the streetcar line, but not have to give up their naturalistic lifestyle. It really is the ultimate example of architecture in step with nature and I think it’s going to be something that will be very popular. It’s more proof that the Near Southside is the ‘Fun Side of 30.’”
A ten-foot high privacy fence will shield the Bareview’s recreation facilities from public view, allowing private and discreet living for its naturalist residents. The ground-floor retail tenants signed thus far all plan to offer delivery to residents to allow them to enjoy their foods while not compromising their lifestyle choice.
The building has been approved as following the Near Southside urban design guidelines and Vanston is currently awaiting building permits from the city. He plans to break ground by the end of May. Further information should be up on the Carillion Group’s web site, OldBuilding.com, later this week.
A Google Street View of the site today:
har har har, you had me until the bareview bottoms line
Kevin, is this an April Fool’s joke? I ain’t buying it. And the site cannot just opt-out of the Fairmount Historic District.
Har, har. Happy April Fools! Nice rendering, though — Where’d you get it?
Great story – but is this an April Fools day thing?
I’m waiting for the “April Fools!” announcement on this one. A nudist condo? Really?
Ha, you had us for a minute. Good April fool joke on your neighbors in Fairmount.
Go Eddie! This is great news. Everyone with an interest in the Near Southside has had great hopes for this property, and I have to say that, if completed, this development will far exceed my expectations. And already having tenants lined up is a great sign. A coffee bar and sushi place?!?!? Joy joy.
This could be a tipping point for the area.
Brilliantly executed.
I forgot what day it was. Ouch. Good one.
Clothing optional… where would you clip your iPod?
Finally, a place where I can really let my hair down.
I dunno… It’s on Pegasus too… I’m just sayin’
http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/apr/01/clothing-optional-loft-apartment-complex-coming-fo/
A better April Fool’s joke would have been to tell everyone that you were moving to Keller.
Needless to say, this is an April Fools gag. Eddie approached me about doing an April 1st announcement of a clothing-optional loft development and gave a few fake details. I took it and whipped up the post – the location at Fairmount & Magnolia was my idea, the content was my creation, and the rendering is, of course, not a depiction of anything being built on that lot. The building is actually the Enso Lofts in Portland, Oregon:
http://www.myhregroup.com/portfolio_idetail.php?project_id=107&ctgry_id=1
I picked it because the rendering was vague enough to pass for the Magnolia & Fairmount lot and because it was a style of design that I knew Fairmount would just love to have going up next to some bungalows.
Happy April Fools, everybody!
Good one. I was excited about this one.
I had written an aside explaining the name as being not based upon nudity and being just a happy coincidence, but I dropped it when we decided to make the post not so obviously humorous. Here it is (spot the reference, for fans of a certain webcomic):
“The development will be named “The Bareview at Fairmount Place,” after Ignacious Phinneas Bareview, a little-remembered Union general who visited Fort Worth on April 8, 1864. Gen. Bareview was leading a force of Union soldiers that were due to meet with Major General Nathaniel P. Banks’s forces in De Soto Parish, Louisiana. Bareview had stumbled into a hidden Confederate cache of “achewater,” a long-forgotten Southern alcoholic beverage made from “achewood,” a now-extinct plant similar to wormwood. Achewater drinkers experience hallucinations and euphoria, which led Gen. Bareview to turn off-course and cross the border into Texas, believing that his forces were pursuing a “golden-haired maiden from whose eyes emitted forth a bounty of wheat and spices” and who Bareview believed was leading them to “the promised land where we will find the key to Union dominance in the South and many tall lasses who shall provide for us in the manner of times of old.” Unfortunately for Gen. Bareview, the achewood oil found in achewater was a powerful depressant which causes irreversible neurological damge, and his drinking binge caused him to slip into a deep and long-lasting melancholy state. By this point, Gen. Bareview and his forces found themselves in Fort Worth, and while his soldiers surrendered peacefully to Confederate forces nearby (fearing for their sanity should they remain in Bareview’s command), Bareview stumbled to what is now the corner of Fairmount and Magnolia and proclaimed “Here so forthe upon these bottoms shall be a fyne example of a fjord” before collapsing into a long-term coma. Because of Bareview’s course change, Banks’s forces were routed and the Union abandoned major invasion efforts in Texas and Louisiana.
“Because the historic structures on the block have long since been demolished,” said Vanston recently, “we wanted to find *something* to connect the development to its local context. The story of General Bareview is certainly…well, it *happened,* and it’s probably inspirational to somebody.”"
There was also a note where I was going to mention the building as being designed by Carillion Group collaborator Robert W. Kelly, and an attempted interview about the architecture was rendered thusly:
“When asked to comment about the building’s modernist design, Kelly paused, took a sip from his absinthe, and responded “No.” He then added, “Aren’t you from that (expletive deleted) blog that likes that David (expletive deleted) Schwarz? Get the (expletive deleted) out of my (expletive deleted) office!” At which point, Mr. Kelly set loose a pack of wild dogs.”
Well done. That was an exceptional April fools.
Now that’s the kinda “quality economic development” on which I campaigned…
Eddie: Can I do the National Register nomination for this one? Even though it is less than 50 years old, we can argue exceptional significance as FW’s first “clothing optional” development.
Ha ha… the historical mystification is so great it’s sad you dropped it!
Pretty funny…
http://www.fwbusinesspress.com/display.php?id=9880
Sorry I missed this yesterday! Much better April Fools joke than my sinus surgery. Keep up the imagination!