T&P Warehouse Project Going In Front Of Landmarks Commission
October 13, 2009 at 10:39 am | Architecture & Urban Design, Preservation, Urban Development | Tags: Architecture, Downtown, Historic Preservation, Lancaster, mixed-use, Residential, Retail, SoDo, urban design
The long, long, long-awaited redevelopment of the Texas & Pacific Warehouse on Lancaster is going before the Historic & Cultural Landmarks Commission this month, seeking approval for changes to be made to the historic Art Deco structure. The list is as follows:
- 343 residential spaces on floors 2-8 with additional residential space on the roof (floor 9) that includes removal of current mechanical equipment
- Commercial space on the ground floor
- Cleaning and rehabilitation of the existing brick façade and decorative elements
- Restoration of existing steel frame windows in select locations
- Installation of sympathetically designed windows into new, elongated window openings that will be cut into the existing brick walls
- Restoration of existing overhead loading dock doors on the ground floor
- Restoration of the existing concrete canopies and iron tension rods on the north elevation
- Restoration of the existing metal fascia on the canopy at the southeast corner entry
- Restoration of the exterior scupper covers
- Installation of new membrane roofing
- Addition of a retail walkway and seating areas on the north elevation below the existing canopy
- Addition of new accessible ramps, stairs, and ground floor entries on the north elevation
- Removal of overhead doors and adjacent brick pilasters in the central block of the north elevation for first floor vehicular traffic and pedestrian sidewalk through access
- Addition of a bi-level parking garage (below and at grade) located to the rear of the building
The applicant is Gromatzky, Dupree & Associates, a Dallas-based architectural firm presumably hired by similarly Dallas-based Cleopatra Investments (the T&P Warehouse’s owner) to come up with plans for the redevelopment of the building. These plans must go to the Historic & Cultural Landmarks Commission before anything else, as the building is a fully protected landmark.
The city has been pressuring the building’s owner to start redevelopment of the building or lose out on tax breaks – could it be that the building might finally start to see some redevelopment work soon? Getting the warehouse redeveloped would be a major boon for Lancaster and the rest of the south end of Downtown, so we will set phasers to “cautiously optimistic” on this one.