The much-anticipated new Kimbell Art Museum Building will be unveiled tomorrow. The new building has been designed by Renzo Piano. Controversy erupted earlier in the year about the building, when it was revealed that Piano and the Kimbell were considering building the new building on the much-loved lawn to the west of the Kimbell’s main entrance, and not on the parking lot to the east as had been discussed previously.
Will the new building honor the Louis Kahn original? Will it be restrained and tasteful or an example of modernist starchitect excess? Will it be built on the parking lot, preserving the greenspace, or are the lawn’s days numbered? We’ll find out tomorrow. Speculate away in the comments.
At Museum Place, the Flatiron building is really coming together. I expect it won’t be too much longer before this one’s complete.
Further into the development, the 7-Eleven signage is going up on the 7-Eleven Corner Store/condo building at 7th & Arch Adams, including the partially neon variant on the left.
In the West 7th development, the office building at 7th & Foch is getting some facade work. It must be said that this does not appear to be the most attractive building - simple horizontal bands of windows set into concrete panels. Perhaps it’ll get a little better as it finishes.
Further into the development, these two buildings (which will be apartments over retail) are progressing upward as well. I’m glad the street wasn’t widened through here - with these buildings at their full height (which should be five stories), there will be a good sense of enclosure here.
Across Currie, the building which will house things like the Movie Tavern Premiere and Lucky Strike Lanes has made a lot of progress as well.
Earlier in the year I reported the news that the United Way Building downtown next to the Convention Center would be demolished and that Pearl Real Estate would be building a Hampton Inn on the site. Well, it looks as though those plans have been shelved, unfortunately - the demolition fence surrounding the building has been removed, and “For Lease” signs have reappeared around it. It would appear that the Hampton Inn is the latest casualty of the current economic climate.
Scharbauer Hall at TCU is now rising from its construction site. The new building, which will sit behind Reed Hall at the eastern end of the new Campus Commons, will allow the consolidation of AddRan College into Reed and the new Scharbauer. Rather than being connected to Reed, as the old Brown-Lupton Student Center on this site was, Scharbauer Hall will be separated from Reed by a courtyard. Above, you can see the columns of the building starting to rise. Click the thumbnails for a larger view.
The view from a bit more to the west, showing the columns rising alongside the tower crane that is now in place on the site.
Finally, a view from the new Union, looking east across the new Campus Commons at the Scharbauer Hall construction site.
At long last, the funding for improving the West Rosedale streetscape and re-narrowing the street is finally in place. Last month, the Board of Directors of Tax Increment Finance (TIF) District #4 voted to contribute funds to the project, to go along with funds from the city and the North Central Texas Council of Governments. Fort Worth South, Inc. says that final design will last through most of 2009, with construction likely to begin in early 2010.
The improvements to West Rosedale come after the street was converted to a six-lane high-speed arterial by federal funds. Because the federal dollars dictated the un-urban six-lane highway configuration, the city agreed to retrofit the street into a slower and more pedestrian-friendly design after TxDOT finished the project. As it exists now, West Rosedale is far too wide, too fast, and very pedestrian unfriendly. The improvement project seeks to correct those problems. Sidewalks will be improved, street trees will be planed along the sidewalks and in the median, and the outside lane on each side will be converted into on-street parking with curb bulb-outs and such.
A couple of comments left over the last few days shed some light on projects that had slipped off the radar. First, thurman52 reports that the garage and associated development at The Village at Camp Bowie seems to have been shelved, at least for the time being:
It looks like the developers have canned the garage plans. The building in the back that was going to be demolished as part (La Playa)is under going a facelift. I guess the garage can move further West and scale it down but he Lay Playa people said the deal was dead.
Over in the Cultural District, JP writes of the planned Presidio townhomes by CityHomes across the street from Montgomery Plaza:
I talked with a Centex rep yesterday. He said that they are pulling out of this proposed project on Carroll because there’s too much competition with Montgomery Plaza and So7 (and even those places aren’t selling as quickly as planned).
Received this from the city:
“Join the City of Fort Worth and the American Institute of Architects for Two Public Meetings To Discuss Sustainability in Fort Worth.”
The meetings will be held November 3rd and November 5th at 7:00 PM in the Council Chamber at City Hall. Here’s the associated flyer:
For your viewing pleasure, here are three rough views of the streetcar starter system. Now, for the disclaimers:
This map is not final and all routes are subject to refinement based on engineering processes. This should not be taken as a final, officially endorsed map. This map is solely to give a general idea of the initial streetcar system. It is based on the voted and established corridors and general buzz coming from the streetcar committee meetings but is subject to change.
There are three views - a satellite view, a satellite view with labels, and a map view. This is not final or official but should give at least a good idea of what the initial system is planned to be - just an idea of the general layout of things and what to expect. A visual to help summarize the recent news coming from the committee.
(It would especially surprise me if the actual streetcar wound up on such a big loop in the Cultural District, but for the purposes of this visual it will work.)
At a meeting held last Friday, the Streetcar Study Committee finally decided on what route the modern streetcar line will take through the Near Southside. While there was a push originally for Hemphill and Rosedale, in the end the selection went to the alternative. The Near Southside streetcar alignment was chosen to be the South Main/Magnolia/7th Avenue to hospitals alignment shown previously on Fort Worthology.
EDIT: Based on Mr. Brennan’s comments below I have edited the post to include an alignment which will likely be closer to the finished product, as the line will not go down to Henderson. I’ve changed it to the simple loop by Cook Children’s, as this is closer to what was discussed.
View Larger Map
Personally, I think this is a good thing. Magnolia and South Main are both designated Urban Villages, and both are identified by Fort Worth South’s new zoning and development standards as “main streets” for neighborhood development. Bringing the line down South Main will be a boost to the redevelopment efforts already underway there (along with many cool things in planning), and it will only bring more activity and new development to Magnolia. Bringing the line down to Magnolia puts it within easy walking distance from JPS, and the rest of the alignment links Baylor, Plaza, Cook Children’s, and Harris. It’s an alignment that connects the establishments that make the Near Southside the second-largest employment center in town behind downtown with the current (and future) destination streets that are encouraging so much new interest and activity in the district.
Previous posts revealed some desire to have the line on Rosedale to spur development on that street. I understand these desires - Rosedale is pretty sad in its current state. By looking at the experiences of other cities like Portland, though, the streetcar spurred new development and investment on more than just the blocks fronting the tracks. Rosedale’s two blocks away from Magnolia - I would expect it to get new development as well. I think this will also help to densify Oleander. Finally, Magnolia is not hurting for new development potential - there are still plenty of vacant lots on the street, not to mention some unremarkable existing buildings (mostly post-WWII) that could come down without much real loss.
So that’s my take - what’s yours?
The Trinity River Vision has just purchased three more properties in the path of the new bypass channel and bridges, according to Max B. Baker’s Star-Telegram story. This brings the total number of properties purchased thus far to nine: The Sweet Shop at 2000 White Settlement Road, the Sims Motel (already demolished) at 901 N. Henderson, 117 Commercial Street, Kenny’s Kustom Cards at 1850 White Settlement, Greenleaf Wholesale Florist at 337 Greenleaf Street, Tucker Agency, Inc. at 2005 White Settlement, Whataburger at 1720 White Settlement, Mirage Motors at 801 N. Henderson, and Xpedx Papers and Graphics/Nationwide Disc at 2017 White Settlement. The properties will be cleared in preparation for the construction of the bypass channel and the new Bing Thom bridges.
As the project moves forward, the number of properties required for construction is declining as the design is refined, according to TRV head J. D. Granger:
The Trinity River Vision Authority, a political subdivision of the water district that is overseeing Uptown’s construction, identified more than 80 properties that would be needed for the project under its current design. Properties are being dropped from the list as the corps completes its design, Granger said.
So far, the water district has paid $10.8 million for nine properties. It is buying property as it is needed for construction; the land agreed on this week is required for construction of the White Settlement Bridge.
But officials hope to have all the land purchased within five years.
“We are ahead of schedule right now on our acquisition needs. We’ve had a good, fair process with every property owner, so I remain optimistic,” Granger said.
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