Aug 31, 2010 14

Streetfilms – No Need for Speed: 20′s Plenty for Us

By: Kevin Buchanan

20′s Penty For Us from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Streetfilms has a new video out exploring the rising demand for urban streets to be reset at 20 mile per hour speed limits.

Earlier this month, the New York City Department of Transportation announced plans to experiment with 20 mph zones — replacing the city’s default 30 mph speed limit in one pilot neighborhood. Whoever gets the first 20 mph treatment will see benefits that residents of British cities and towns have become increasingly familiar with in recent years.

In the UK, some 3 million people live in areas with 20 mph speed limits. The experience there shows that not only do slower speeds save lives, but lowering the limit to 20 mph improves the way local streets function in more ways than one. According to the 20′s Plenty for Us campaign, the change has produced wide-ranging benefits, including less traffic, increased walking and biking, greater independence for children, the elderly and infirm, better health, and calmer driving conditions for motorists.

The mission of 20′s Plenty For Us is to establish 20 mph as the default speed limit on all residential roads in the UK. I recently met up with the campaign’s founder, Rod King, as well as other advocates in the towns of Warrington and York, to understand how the idea of slowing down traffic has spread so fast throughout the country.

I’d add that besides changing the limit via signage and such, street designs themselves should reinforce the slower speeds through traffic calming, narrowing, and other design methods (as seen in several examples in the video).

Aug 30, 2010 0

Near Southside Bike Parking Improvement Plan Update

By: Kevin Buchanan

Things are progressing steadily on Phase One of the Near Southside Bike Parking Improvement Plan, a joint venture between us here at Fort Worthology, Fort Worth South, Inc., and Trinity Bicycles.  I thought I’d give everybody an update as to how things are going.

For those not familiar with the project, the Near Southside Bike Parking Improvement Plan was born from Fort Worth South’s desire to make the Near Southside a model of bike friendliness in Fort Worth.  This has already led to projects like the Magnolia Avenue bike lanes, and there are more bike lane projects in the pipeline.  Bike lanes are just one component of bike friendliness, though, and it’s also very important to have safe, secure, and easy-to-use parking for bikes at destinations across the district.  There were some racks already in place, but they were the city’s own “Texas Star” lollipop-style racks, which suffered from a couple of flaws:  one, there’s very few of them (something like ten or twelve in the entire district), and two, they don’t immediately look like bike racks, instead resembling some kind of old-timey Texas heritage street art.

Clearly, there was room for improvement, so Fort Worth South got with us at Fort Worthology and the guys at Trinity Bicycles to come up with a plan to make things better for bikes in the Near Southside.  Together, we identified numerous destinations across the district, concentrating for Phase One on Magnolia Avenue (a designated Urban Village and home of the district’s most celebrated collection of destinations), Jennings Avenue (a designated Bike Route, potential location of new bike lanes, and an important connector with Downtown Fort Worth) and South Main Street (another important connector, as well as a designated Urban Village in the beginnings of revitalization).  The plan was to use a simple, easy-to-use, and instantly identifiable rack design (the classic “staple” rack, seen in the photo above), and provide multiple racks at each location to give plenty of bike parking at popular stops and redeveloping sites, supporting the Near Southside’s existing bike culture as well as encouraging more people to get out on two wheels and explore the district.

With funding in place from the Near Southside TIF District, things have been progressing steadily.  We recently walked all the locations with our contractor, AUI Contractors, and marked out the final physical locations of all the racks, one of the last steps before installation can begin.  During the course of setting the locations of the racks, it was discovered that we actually had more room in several spots than expected, so we are happy to announce that we’ve picked up an additional ten rack installations, with the expected final count for Phase One now running just over 80 new racks.  These will be grouped to provide parking for multiple bikes at each location.  The lowest-demand locations will get two racks (parking for four bikes), most locations will get three racks (parking for six bikes), and a few high-demand locations will get at least five racks (parking for ten bikes) up to seven racks (parking for fourteen bikes).

Further, Saris Racks, the company we’re ordering the racks through, is so excited about the project that they’ve given us an upgrade from powder-coated to galvanized racks.  This will means that the Near Southside racks will be incredibly durable and weather-resistant.  (All the racks will be black.)

The first batch of racks should be in within a few weeks, so it won’t be much longer before you start to see some pretty dramatic bike parking improvements happening in the Near Southside.

Aug 26, 2010 7

Stayton Progress

By: Kevin Buchanan

The first of three towers at the Stayton retirement condo development in So7 has topped out, and the building’s distinctive swooping roof is going up.  It also appears that they’re getting closer to having some facade work underway.  Towers 2 and 3 aren’t far behind – the development’s already making a pretty noticeable addition to the Cultural District.

If you’d like to get a sneak preview of the Stayton, check out our in-depth look at the project from last year.

As an aside, can I point out a problem with the new So7 sidewalks?

The width’s pretty good, but the arrangement of the lamps and trees is awkward.  You’ll be weaving your way between the two when you encounter them together, and when just passing trees their location inboard towards development means pedestrians will be out on the edge by the curb, next to traffic.  From a pedestrian standpoint, it’s better to have all the objects like lamps and trees in the area of the sidewalk next to the curb, to provide a physical and psychological barrier between pedestrian walking space and traffic.  (Picture all the trees lined up on the same side as those lamps, and you’ll get the idea.)  Minor?  Perhaps, but I wanted to point it out all the same.

Aug 23, 2010 2

Dunn-Haven Building Redevelopment Progress – New Blanchard Schaefer Headquarters

By: Kevin Buchanan

The former Dunn-Haven Apartments building at Adams & Magnolia’s already come a long way.  There’s a lot of interior work underway that’s, obviously, a little difficult to see from many outside vantage points, but what’s not hard to see is the exterior renovation work.  In particular, the building’s now got a ton of new windows.  It’s always amazing to see how new windows can make such a huge difference in the appearance of a building.

The Dunn-Haven building is one of the older structures on Magnolia, having been built in 1914.  It shows elements of various styles, including the Prairie School. It is of a configuration not common in this area, with its three stories and full porches at each level. A similar structure can be found in the nearby Fairmount neighborhood south of Magnolia, the currently vacant Bomar Apartments at 1507 Alston, built in 1907.

The building is being redeveloped into the headquarters of advertising & public relations firm Blanchard Schaefer, who are relocating their business from Arlington to be in a walkable & bikeable neighborhood with a strong community and creative feel.

Aug 13, 2010 14

Last Call for the Ridglea?

By: Kevin Buchanan

Things are looking grim for the Ridglea Theater.  It’s my understanding that Bank of America has been meeting with the building’s owners, Fix Funding, as well as Councilman Zimmerman, about moving forward with purchasing the structure.  BoA may even already have the building under contract.  Councilman Zimmerman does not seem to be responsive to efforts to save the building.  He apparently believes Bank of America’s plan to demolish everything but the facade of the theater to build a drive-through bank branch to be a positive proposal.  Given the opposition from Historic Fort Worth and large numbers of Fort Worth residents who may not even care for the metal acts that frequent the Ridglea today but who wish to see the building saved and not replaced with a generic drive-through bank hiding behind the shell of the facade, this attitude from the district’s elected official is deeply disappointing.

I feel that the best hope now is to tell Bank of America of your opposition to the proposal.  In other words, a large national corporation must act based on the community’s wishes where its own elected official will not.  Here is the contact information of the BoA reps involved:

Diane Wagner:  312.828.2932, diane.wagner@bankofamerica.com
Mike Pavel: email via mandy.kizer@bankofamerica.com

And of course, you can still e-mail Zim via the following link:

Zim Zimmerman – 817-392-8803 - District3@fortworthgov.org

Personally, I feel that demolishing a historic theater and performance venue, along with its associated mixed-use historic building, just to replace them with a generic drive-through bank branch making a half-hearted attempt to “fit in” by hiding behind a tiny sliver of the original structure is no progress at all (especially given Ridglea’s status as a designated Urban Village, an area the city wants to see grow denser and more walkable with more mixed uses).  Replacing something as iconic and unique in Fort Worth’s history as the Ridglea with another generic pod of cookie-cutter suburbia, yet another bank branch on a formerly important street that is increasingly home to bland and generic junk, is a terrible mistake.  I’ve seen buildings in far worse condition be saved .  Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever – I hope we won’t make this mistake.  If you agree, please let the powers that be know.

And check out the Save the Ridglea Theater group while you’re at it.

Update:  Got forwarded a letter sent to Bank of America and Councilman Zimmerman from Steve Smith, partner at local marketing firm Starr Tincup, that quite eloquently states its case:

Dear Diane, Mike and Council Member Zimmerman:

As a Fort Worth business owner, I am deeply concerned by reports I see about Bank of America’s plans for the Ridglea Theater. My company works with clients all over the world, and when we bring them to Fort Worth, they are always surprised to discover that we are so much more than our Cowtown image. On the contrary, Fort Worth has become a cosmopolitan city – in large part because we are rich in cultural and architectural diversity. We embrace our past as we move into the future. However, transforming the Ridglea Theater into a bank is a step in the wrong direction. Destroying the Ridglea Theater costs Fort Worth a little piece of its soul.

I know that this may sound a little hippy-dippy to you, but my company is a $12 million business that can operate anywhere in the world. We choose to be in Fort Worth because it’s a great place to live and can attract the talent we need to compete on a global scale. The writers, coders, designers and creative types that I need are a lot more compelled to live in a city where the Ridglea Theater can thrive as a music venue or art-house movie theater, not be razed to build another bank. Destroying the Ridglea actually has an impact on my business.

I urge you to please consider other options before making this tragic mistake.

Thank you for your consideration,

Steve

–
Steve Smith
Starr Tincup
817.204.0279 || starrtincup.com

Aug 12, 2010 4

The Canopy at 8.0

By: Kevin Buchanan

A quick note:  there’s the new translucent canopy structure Sundance Square installed over the patio at 8.0 in Downtown.  Not too bad looking, though I hear it causes something of a greenhouse effect.  It’ll allow concerts in the rain while still letting the trees get sunlight.

Aug 11, 2010 11

Foch Office Development

By: Kevin Buchanan

The redevelopment of the Quonset hut and adjacent warehouse structure on Foch near the West 7th development is well underway – here’s a recent photo of the project.  There have been quite a few questions on this project, and what I know now is that it’s an office space project, and the architect for the redevelopment is Cunningham Architects.

Here’s the warehouse structure next door being heavily renovated.

The development looks intriguing – clean and modern.  With one exception…

It looks like no sidewalks on the side street!  There have been a few redevelopments in the West 7th surroundings that have left out sidewalks, either completely or partially (Capital Bar, last we noticed, had no sidewalks in front).  That’s unacceptable in a redeveloping Urban Village setting – I’d hope more of these projects would take their pedestrian-oriented location into consideration and put in sidewalks on all sides.  As it stands now, outside of Cypress Equities property the sidewalk situation in this area – even on newly renovated properties – is disappointingly spotty.

Aug 9, 2010 Comments Off

West 7th Phase II Progress

By: Kevin Buchanan

Phase II of the West 7th development is well underway now.  This view, taken from on high looking southwest into the Phase II block, shows the materials being staged on the main site of the new loft/retail building, as well as excavation and construction work for the parking garage that will sit behind Fred’s.

This new construction at West 7th will fill out the last vacant block around the development’s signature intersection at Crockett & Currie, and will add 96 new loft apartments atop 25,000 square feet of new retail space.  About 75% of the original phase retail is leased, and the current lofts are 99% leased.  The project is, as before, a development of Cypress Equities.

Below is an elevation drawing of the second phase loft/retail building, as seen from the north (the main Crockett Street facade).

Aug 5, 2010 5

Streetfilms – Copenhagen’s Public Spaces, Car-Free Areas, and Slow-Speed Zones

By: Kevin Buchanan

Another great video from our friends at Streetfilms, following up on the previous look at Copenhagen cycling.  Here’s Clarence Eckerson, Jr. with the description:

In Copenhagen, you never have to travel very far to see a beautiful public space or car-free street packed with people soaking up the day.  In fact, since the early 1960s, 18 parking lots in the downtown area have been converted into public spaces for playing, meeting, and generally just doing things that human beings enjoy doing. If you’re hungry, there are over 7,500 cafe seats in the city.

But as you walk and bike the city, you also quickly become aware of something else: Most Copenhagen’s city streets have a speed limit of 30 to 40 km/h (19 to 25 mph).  Even more impressive, there are blocks in some neighborhoods with limits as low as 15 km/h (9 mph) where cars must yield to residents.  Still other areas are “shared spaces” where cars, bikes and pedestrians mix freely with no stress, usually thanks to traffic calming measures (speed bumps are popular), textured road surfaces and common sense.

We charmed you last month with our look at bicycling in Copenhagen, now sit back and watch livable streets experts Jan Gehl and Gil Penalosa share their observations about pedestrian life. You’ll also hear Ida Auken, a member of Denmark’s Parliament, and Niels Tørsløv, traffic director for the City of Copenhagen, talk about their enthusiasm for street reclamation and its effect on their city.

Aug 4, 2010 8

Stayton Construction Progress

By: Kevin Buchanan

The Stayton retirement condo development has really leapt up into prominence lately.  The easternmost tower is nearing its final height, with the center and westernmost towers not far behind.  This shot, taken from the levee nearby, shows the presence the development has coming down Stayton from 7th Street.

Jul 30, 2010 3

Photos from the Ridglea Tour

By: Kevin Buchanan

Last night’s tour of the Ridglea Theater by Historic Fort Worth went off really well.  They had over 200 people attend, making it the largest by a pretty big margin of all the tours they’ve done.  Had the chance to meet with Levi Weaver, who’s trying to round up investors and make a go of purchasing the Ridglea before it can fall to Bank of America’s demolition crews.  He comes across as really dedicated to saving the place – let’s hope he can pull it off.  Things haven’t improved on the city side – Councilman Zimmerman still won’t move forward with designation, and in fact indications are he’s dead-set on seeing the building meet the wrecking ball for some reason.

So, here are some photos from yesterday’s tour.  Historic Fort Worth had to divide everybody into smaller groups due to the volume of people, and we went with architect John T. Roberts, he of the Fort Worth Architecture web site fame.  The Ridglea is in really quite decent condition – you’ll see some water damage in some of the last shots in an upstairs area, but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.  I’ve seen far, far worse buildings get restored in Fort Worth.  It would truly be a shame to lose the building, especially for such a regression as a drive-through bank branch that’s at odds with Ridglea’s position as an Urban Village.  And if the Ridglea falls, where will it end?  Will the rest of the original Ridglea Village complex, built as a group by A. C. Luther, be wiped out for bank branches, strip malls, and other trappings of generic suburbia?  There’s nothing stopping it.

Please, everybody, keep pressure up on the Fort Worth City Council to get the building designated.  And be sure to visit Levi Weaver’s site, RidgleaTheater.org, to learn more about the efforts to save the building.

Click on the photos for a larger view.

Jul 29, 2010 4

Hope for the Ridglea? Plus, Tour the Ridglea Tonight

By: Kevin Buchanan

The Ridglea is still more-or-less where we left it last time – the threat of demolition hanging over it, with Bank of America looking at demolishing almost the entire structure to build a drive-through bank branch.  Councilman Zimmerman still refuses to try to get the building designated historic (and when even Chuck Silcox said it should be designated and the current councilman won’t, that’s not a good sign), and preservation groups including Historic Fort Worth still arguing for the complex’s significance.

There may be a faint glimmer of hope if the events in this recent DFW.com article are to be believed.  Quoth the article:

I met with Levi Weaver yesterday, a stone’s throw from the Ridglea itself. He just might change everything — Weaver is a third party with no business ties to FixFunding or Bank of America or even the Ridglea’s current tenants (Richard Van Zandt and Wesley Hathaway).

A Fort Worth native, who got married at the Ridglea three years ago (he and his wife draped white linens over much of the main space to class up the joint), Weaver has an interesting proposal that would pull him and his family away from their current home in Nashville. Weaver, a musician, wants to buy the building, with help from investors, and reclaim it as an art house movie theater, as well as a part-time music venue. Think booking bands like the Granada in a space that also shows flicks suitable for the Angelika, but with the capability to host weddings or graduations or corporate functions or even theater performances.

The Ridglea’s too significant a building complex to be demolished for a generic drive-through BoA branch hiding behind the shell of its grand entrance.  Needless to say, I don’t agree with Councilman Zimmerman that the BoA proposal is “progress.”  Let’s hope Mr. Weaver can pull this off.  Check out the whole article.

Meanwhile, this evening is Historic Fort Worth’s tour of the Ridglea at 5:30 PM today.  The tour is free for Historic Fort Worth members, and guests are $10.  From Historic Fort Worth:

Don’t miss this chance to see the interior of this iconic theater, one of the last single screen theaters in Fort Worth. Architect John Roberts will lead the tour and the current tenants, Wesley Hathaway and Richard Van Zandt, will answer questions. Beer and wine will be for sale at the concession stand.

This would be a great chance to see the Ridglea’s beautiful original features, including intricate terrazzo floors and elaborate murals – most or all of which would be lost if the current plans to tear down all but the entrance for a Bank of America drive-through branch are carried out.  Again, the tour is at 5:30 –  you can RSVP to Corry Smith at 817-336-2344 x100 or Corry_Smith@historicfortworth.org.

Jul 23, 2010 6

America’s Favorite Art Museum – The Modern, or the Guggenheim?

By: Kevin Buchanan

ArtInfo is holding an online tournament to determine America’s favorite art museum, and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is in the running.  There are several match-ups to vote for.  In the current round, the Modern is matched up against the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.  A little birdie tells me that the Modern is actually pretty close to the Guggenheim in the voting, so spread the word and see if we can’t get the Modern a little more recognition.

So, what’s it going to be – Tadao Ando’s Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, or Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum?  Click the link and vote!

Jul 23, 2010 6

An Urban Jack in the Box, Because Why Not?

By: Kevin Buchanan

That, believe it or not, is a new-from-the-ground-up Jack in the Box.  It’s located on Berry Street, across from the GrandMarc and just down the street from places like Fuzzy’s and the new TCU bookstore.  It replaced a more typical suburban-style Jack in the Box on the same site.

Whatever one’s opinion of Jack in the Box as a place to eat, we have to give them kudos for building a store that actually fits into the more pedestrian-oriented goals of the Berry Street makeover.  This new store is right up on the sidewalk, has street-facing entrances, patio dining out front, plenty of windows on the street, and an at least somewhat interesting street facade design.  It’s not perfect (we’d have preferred it be more level with the sidewalk at the corner), but given the typical fast food box, it’s darned near miraculous.

We’re guessing a lot of city and neighborhood pressure was needed to get this result, but we’re glad to see a company like Jack in the Box willing to build something pedestrian-oriented.  We’ve said many times that the programming of the retail spaces isn’t as important as getting the form of the building right, and this is a great example – a lot of our readers are probably not big Jack in the Box fans, but by building a properly urban structure the restaurant is at least being a good citizen of the streetscape and helping to create a better, pedestrian-enticing public realm.

Jul 20, 2010 1

Tour the Endangered Ridglea Theater Next Week

By: Kevin Buchanan

CORRECTION:  The date of the tour is Thursday the 29th at 5:30 PM.

Historic Fort Worth will be going on a tour of the endangered Ridglea Theater on Thursday the 29th at 5:30 PM.  The tour is free for Historic Fort Worth members, and guests are $10.  From Historic Fort Worth:

Don’t miss this chance to see the interior of this iconic theater, one of the last single screen theaters in Fort Worth. Architect John Roberts will lead the tour and the current tenants, Wesley Hathaway and Richard Van Zandt, will answer questions. Beer and wine will be for sale at the concession stand.

This would be a great chance to see the Ridglea’s beautiful original features, including intricate terrazzo floors and elaborate murals – all of which would be lost if the current plans to tear down all but the entrance for a Bank of America drive-through branch are carried out.  Again, the tour is at 5:30 –  you can RSVP to Corry Smith at 817-336-2344 x100 or Corry_Smith@historicfortworth.org.

Jul 15, 2010 4

Urbanism Field Trip – Bastille on Bishop in Oak Cliff

By: Kevin Buchanan

Here’s a detour from Fort Worth coverage – took a field trip to the Bastille Day street festival in Oak Cliff’s Bishop Arts District to see how they did with a real, close-the-street-and-have-a-party street festival type event.  It seems planners were expecting around 300 people to come, but more like 1,000 showed up.  It was popular, in other words.

Bishop was closed for a couple of blocks in the heart of the district.  One portion was lined with tents for the mussel cooking competition that would be held later in the evening.  There were also wine-related events, and of course the many and varied merchants of the Bishop Arts District were participating as well.

At this end of the street, parking for bicycles and scooters was set up:

There were plenty of both, especially bikes (which spilled out across the rest of the Bishop Arts District as the parking area filled up).

The event was filled with, as our friends at Walkable DFW pointed out, Texans doing exactly what some people would have you believe Texans would never do – walking, riding bikes, socializing, and playing in an urban public setting, even when it’s hot.

Build spaces for people, and watch as people come from all over to use them thanks to our shortage of great places designed around human beings.

Outside of the core festival area, the sidewalks were bustling with life.

In the second half of the festival area, the street had been taken over by games.  One end held a biggie-sized chess board, while the rest of the space featured a dirt bocce ball field.

Bikes & bocce ball – always a fun combination for photos.

Crowds were impressive, and I’m betting the businesses were loving it – they were all packed.

Lovely cruisers parked at the other end of the street.

The view down the festival.

The always-tasty Eno’s was packed to the rafters with activity.

It was an impressive showing, and a big congratulations go to Oak Cliff organizers and activists for creating such a wonderful street festival.

It’s definitely the sort of thing we’d love to see in Fort Worth more often – more intimate and grassroots than the events around here tend to be.  The Bishop Arts District is a great example of a maturing Urban Village, with a variety of housing and retail destinations in a human-scaled, human-oriented form.

Jul 6, 2010 5

Fort Worth’s Remaining Single-Screen Theaters

By: Kevin Buchanan

The Ridglea
Year Built:  1950
Status:  In use, endangered by demolition
Location:  6025 Camp Bowie – Ridglea Urban Village

The Ridglea is one of the only remaining single-screen theaters still in use in Fort Worth for entertainment purposes.  It hosts live music.  Currently, the Ridglea is threatened with near-total demolition for a Bank of America drive-through bank branch.  Posts on the Ridglea’s current saga:  here, here, here, and here.

The Bowie
Year Built:  1940
Status:  In use
Location:  3859 Camp Bowie

The Bowie is currently housing a Frost Bank branch.  The building was kept mostly intact in its conversion to a bank.

The Berry
Year Built:  Unknown, presumed 1920s-1930s
Status:  Vacant
Location:  3021 Hemphill – Hemphill/Berry Urban Village

The Berry, at Hemphill & Berry, has been vacant for some time and looks rather run-down.  The neon sign is still in place, but the marquee appears to have been lost when Hemphill was last widened.

The Grand
Year Built:  Unknown, presumed 1910s-1930s
Status:  Appears vacant
Location:  1100 Fabons – near Evans & Rosedale Urban Village

The Grand was most recently in use as a church.  It appears to be vacant now.  The sign and marquee are still intact.  The last church to occupy the building added large concrete blocks to its street facade for some reason.

The New Isis
Year Built:  1935
Status:  Vacant
Location:  2401 N. Main – Stockyards

The New Isis is a 1930s renovation of the Isis Theater from the 19teens.  The sign and marquee are intact.  Signage on the marquee has promised “The New New Isis” is “coming soon” for years, but the building doesn’t appear to be in active restoration.

The Azle
Year Built:  1941
Status:  Vacant
Location:  2206 Azle

The Azle has been vacant for some time.  The sign and a marquee are intact.  It appears to have had its formerly colorful appearance painted white some time ago.

The Rose Marine
Year Built:  1918
Status:  In use
Location:  1440 N. Main – Historic Marine (formerly Mercado) Urban Village

The Rose Marine is certainly the most well-cared-for of the old theaters in Fort Worth.  It is currently a performing arts venue.

The Poly
Year Built:  1941?
Status:  Vacant
Location:  3001 Vaughn

The Poly’s signage and marquee are partially intact.  The building was a church at some point in the past after it stopped being a theater, but appears to have been vacant for some time now.

The Hollywood
Year Built:  1929-1930
Status:  Building in use, theater vacant
Location:  410 W. 7th – Downtown Fort Worth

The Hollywood sits entombed in the Electric Building in Downtown Fort Worth, the last of the old 7th Street “Show Row” theaters even partially intact.  The theater lobby on 7th Street is mostly intact and serves as office space.  The theater itself is vacant and sealed up in the building, but the lobby areas past the main lobby and the theater from the balcony level up are all reasonably intact.  The lower level of the theater was converted to parking for the Electric Building apartments.  See our old walkthrough of the Hollywood’s remains.

Unknown
Year Built:  Unknown
Status:  Vacant
Location:  Evans & Terrell – Evans & Rosedale Urban Village

This structure isn’t obviously identified as a theater, but it strongly resembles one (its form is very similar to the Grand a few blocks away).  Not sure of this one’s name or history.  The building is currently vacant.

Photo not yet available

Unknown
Year Built:  Unknown
Status:  In use as church
Location:  Sylvania near Race – near Six Points Urban Village

This building is potentially an old single-screen theater.  It resembles one in form, but we have no information about its history.  It is currently a church.

These are all the remaining single-screen theaters that we’re aware of.  Of them, only two are in active use as entertainment venues, and one of those is threatened with demolition.  One is in use as a bank and one as a church.  The rest are vacant.

Jun 28, 2010 6

An Architect Walks Through the Ridglea

By: Kevin Buchanan

Noticed a message from architect John T. Roberts of the great Architecture in Fort Worth site.  He got the chance to walk through the Ridglea a few days ago.  These are his initial impressions:

I had a chance to tour the inside of the Ridglea Theater this afternoon. It is really not in bad shape. Yes, there are a couple of roof leaks, one small ceiling failure, and several smaller ceiling failures. The building could easily be re-roofed, which would stop the leaks. The ceiling could be repaired with a small amount of plaster, plus one supply air register would have to be replaced. I have rehabbed buildings in far worse condition and they have been saved, so this one is not a loss at all. Actually, considering it’s age, it is mostly intact and in fairly good condition.

This seems to square with our own impressions of the building.  It’s certainly not perfect, but it’s a far cry from being in such bad condition it wouldn’t be worth the cost to restore, as Council Member Zimmerman said in the DFW.com article that helped launch this storm around the theater.  Seems an odd statement to make considering the building’s actual condition.

Again, at this point, because there’s not much in the proposed plan (which may not happen – Bank of America does not yet own the property) that needs city approval, about the only hope to save the Ridglea should BoA move forward is an outcry of public opposition to the plan sent to the Fort Worth City Council and support for designating the property as a Historic & Cultural Landmark, as was attempted late last year before being removed from consideration by the council.  Contact info can be found in this previous post.

Jun 25, 2010 1

Aggarwal Building Lofts

By: Kevin Buchanan

Finally got the chance to take a look at the lofts upstairs above Dr. Aggarwal’s office, located on Lipscomb just north of Rosedale.  The Near Southside’s NS-T4-N zoning in many areas of the district requires residential in some form (either all residential or residential and something else).  As a result, many of these small mixed-use infill buildings are popping up all over the district, usually with a doctor’s office downstairs and 2-4 apartments upstairs.

The Aggarwal building was designed by the Near Southside’s own TMA Architects, who have designed many of these small mixed-use buildings (their own offices are in such a building on Pennsylvania).  Upstairs has four lofts (three are still available) of various sizes around 700 square feet, with rents at about $1.00 per square foot.  We took a walk through all three remaining lofts.

Click the photos below for a larger view.  If you or somebody you know is interested in living here, it looks to use like a cool project – the lofts are really attractive (love the exposed wood ceilings), and the building’s only a short walk from Magnolia Avenue (about a block or two, depending on how you count things) and just down the street from Magnolia Green Park.  For more information, call 817-734-6475 or 972-849-8216.

Jun 24, 2010 4

West 7th Phase II Underway

By: Kevin Buchanan

Left-to-right:  Michael Wheat (Cypress Equities Senior Vice President of Leasing), Fernando Costa (Fort Worth Assistant City Manager for Infrastructure Services), Dale Fisseler (Fort Worth City Manager), Bill Thornton (President and CEO of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce), Tom Higgins (Fort Worth Assistant City Manager for Economic and Community Development), Kirk Williams (Cypress Equities Senior Vice President of Development), John Fainter (Cypress Equities Vice President of Development), and Joel Burns (Fort Worth City Council Member District 9).

Phase II of the West 7th development by Cypress Equities officially got underway today with a groundbreaking attended by several Cypress and Fort Worth city officials.  Phase II’s site is the “southeast block”, bounded by Currie, Crockett, and Foch, with a parking garage that will go behind Fred’s to the south.

The next phase of West 7th is comprised of 96 new loft apartments on the upper floors above 25,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space.  The additional residential and retail space comes thanks in part to the strong leasing of the original phase – around 75% of the original retail space is leased, and the loft apartments in the first phase are 99% leased.

Below is a rendering of the new phase, showing the new building’s Crockett facade.  Click to embiggen:

The new building is of complimentary style to those on the other three blocks from Phase I, and will fully complete the Crockett & Currie intersection, where unique corner elements come together in the center of the project.  Additional renderings of Phase II can be found in the gallery below.  Hats off to Cypress for keeping the project rolling during rough economic times – we’re looking forward to seeing Phase II rise.

Jun 24, 2010 5

A Look at a New Fairmount Bungalow

By: Kevin Buchanan

Here’s something more cheerful for you – our friend Joe Frank, a local developer who has done a number of infill bungalows in the Fairmount National Historic District (where new construction must fit in with the historic buildings) and has been expanding into mixed-use buildings, has completed a cute new bungalow on a vacant lot on Lipscomb that we got the chance to look through.  The bungalow is around 1408 square feet, and listed for $188,000 (it’s sold now).

We love looking at infill projects like this – they reinforce something we’ve been banging on about for a long time:  urban living encompasses an incredibly wide selection of housing types, from condos in skyscrapers to converted lofts to street-oriented detached homes and everything in between.  Urbanity isn’t about height – it’s about how building interact with the street and their surroundings and how we design neighborhoods that allow a diverse assortment of housing types, building uses, and transportation methods.

Anyway, here’s a few photos from Joe’s new house, along with a shot of its new owners.  You can learn more about Joe’s infill bungalows at his site, fortworthbungalow.com.

Jun 23, 2010 5

Councilman Zimmerman Issues Statement on Ridglea Theater

By: Kevin Buchanan

District 3 Council Member Zimmerman has issued the following statement about the Ridglea Theater:

Over the past several days, the District 3 Office has received numerous phone calls and e-mails regarding the fate of the Ridglea Theater. We’ve heard a great number of concerns, and I share many of those. The Ridglea Theater has been an important part of the Camp Bowie landscape, and citizens have a strong connection with this landmark. Unfortunately, the future of this property has been uncertain for quite some time.

All things considered, it’s important that we strike a balance between preserving the character of this community while at the same time encouraging positive redevelopment. This is a delicate balance, but it can be achieved.

Bank of America has shown interest in the Ridglea Theater. That’s good news. And while the proposed plans to remodel the building into a bank office would adhere to its present multi-use zoning designation, Bank of America has shown a willingness to be a good partner and consider preserving the building’s façade, including its marquee and tower. Although Bank of America has not yet purchased this property, we greatly appreciate their interest in maintaining the character of this important part of our city. Nothing has been finalized, but we will continue to work closely with Bank of America, city officials and the residents of the surrounding community to work toward a positive outcome.

I think I’m seeing that Council Member Zimmerman and the rest of us are approaching this from two very different positions.

He says we have to “encourage positive development,” and takes that to mean ripping out a mixed-use development featuring a live theater and replacing it with a Bank of America branch. The many, many folks who want to see the Ridglea saved do not consider that an example of “positive development,” for a variety of reasons. You’ve got the loss to Fort Worth’s indie music scene – local bands replaced with BoA employees. You’ve got the loss of another single-screen movie theater, a handful of which still remain in the city – a detriment to the city’s connection with an important social and cultural facet of its past. You’ve got the loss of a major historic structure on Camp Bowie that truly sets the architectural stage for several of the historic structures around it – an architectural loss. Hiding all this behind the “well, they’d keep the facade” argument just results in a hollow, false identity covering up another generic bank.

He also says the proposed bank branch would “adhere to the present multi-use zoning,” which is completely untrue unless BoA plans to be running a live music theater in their bank lobby. I’m not certain that “mixed-use zoning” and “Urban Village program” mean what he thinks they mean. My understanding is that the project would demolish all of the Ridglea except the facade, and would also demolish the adjoining office & retail building. The new construction behind the mask of the Ridglea facade would be a BoA branch, while the space currently occupied by the office/retail building would become…a parking lot.

Going from a complex with a live theater, offices, and retail space to a single-use bank branch is in no way “adhering to the present multi-use zoning.” It’ll just be…a bank. That’s one use. Parking does not constitute a second use.

The Ridglea area is designated by the City of Fort Worth as an Urban Village. The city’s web site states that the purpose of the Urban Village program is thus:

Urban Villages are small geographic areas (usually one square mile) zoned for dense, multiple-use development that is mass-transit and pedestrian friendly.

Parks, business, entertainment, homes, and stores — all within walking distance of each other in an area with a consistent look and feel that emphasizes the culture and heritage of those who call it home. A city within a city.

The City of Fort Worth is working with developers, business groups and neighborhood associations to revitalize older commercial districts using capital improvements, mixed-use zoning and economic incentives to help urban villages throughout the Central City.

In no way does the demolition of a historic mixed-use project for its replacement by a single-use bank building with a big new parking lot meet any of the goals of the Urban Village program. Put simply: by the city’s own stated goals for this area, this is a bad deal.

“Bank of America has shown interest in the Ridglea Theater. That’s good news.” Frankly, I think that’s horrible news, councilman. Why are we approaching this from the standpoint that “Bank of America ruining a historic theater & mixed-use building” is good news? That is an unacceptable baseline for the citizens of this city who want to see this beautiful building complex saved. New development along that stretch of Camp Bowie has been trending in a generic suburban-bank-branches-and-chain-restaurants way for a while now, and continuing that trend rather than pursuing the sort of development that the city itself says it wants to see in the area doesn’t strike me as progress, nor does development of another generic national corporate bank branch to replace something with real through-and-through local character and heritage strike me as progress.  In my opinion, this is a bad, bad deal – the loss of architectural value, the loss of cultural value, the loss of built heritage, the loss to Fort Worth’s music scene, and the creation of an inappropriate development form in a designated Urban Village.

I’d also like to add that, in a document dated October 2007 that outlines the master plan of the Ridglea Urban Village (PDF link), the following statement relating to Council Member Zimmerman’s predecessor, the late Chuck Silcox, can be found:

After a discussion of future uses for Ridglea Theater, Council Member Silcox said he would request that the City begin the historic designation process for the structure.

It seems even Chuck Silcox wanted to keep the Ridglea intact.  Clearly, the Fort Worth city government has dropped the ball.

I hope you’ll all keep telling the City Council how bad an idea this is. Keep e-mailing them and telling them to designate the Ridglea as a Historic & Cultural Landmark. Not all new development is good development. Even I, Mr. Let’s Build Cool New Stuff Dork, know that to be true. I’d like to think that Fort Worth has more ambition and creative value than to let such a wonderful historic resource like the Ridglea get consumed by a generic bank branch.

Jun 23, 2010 9

Ridglea Theater Follow-up

By: Kevin Buchanan

I wanted to collect a few bits & pieces here following up on yesterday’s awful news about the Ridglea Theater.

A lot of people have asked me how we could go about saving the building.  While banging on Bank of America over this is certainly not pointless, if you want my own opinion, the biggest power to save the Ridglea rests on the Fort Worth City Council.  The council has the power to designate the Ridglea as a “Historic & Cultural Landmark” (keep that term in mind when you contact them).  A Historic & Cultural Landmark designation is one of the highest forms of protection the city of Fort Worth can give to a building, and helps prevent demolition (there is a lower level, “Demolition Delay,” which is really rather toothless in that it only delays demolition for 180 days and has no real protection).  In fact, it’s been attempted before to designate the Ridglea.

The Designation Subcommittee of the Historic & Cultural Landmarks Commission recommended the Ridglea and its adjoining office/retail building to the City Council for Historic & Cultural Landmark designation late last year (full disclosure – I’m on the Designation Subcommittee and was involved in the efforts to designate the building at the time).  A resolution to designate the Ridglea went to the City Council on November 17, 2009, with the following result:

Council Member Zimmerman made a motion, seconded by Council Member Hicks, that the Resolution be continued until the December 15, 2009, Council meeting. The motion carried unanimously nine (9) ayes to zero (0) nays.

Source (PDF Link)

Council Member Zimmerman, for the uninitiated, is the representative of District 3, the Ridglea’s district.  The reasoning for continuing the vote likely happened behind closed doors before the council meeting.  Jump forward to the December 15, 2009 council meeting, and the result was this:

City Manager Fisseler requested that Agenda Item XIII (1) relative to a resolution nominating the Ridglea Theatre as Historic and Cultural Landmark, be withdrawn from consideration and that Mayor and Council Communication No. G-16804 be continued until the January 26, 2010, Council meeting.

Source (PDF Link)

Again, no further information is available, and the deliberating likely happened behind closed doors.  As near as I can tell, the resolution never appeared again on the City Council’s radar, and now we’ve got plans to demolish the theater, its office/retail building, and build a Bank of America branch behind the skeleton of the Ridglea’s facade.

(There’s some talk of the initial delay being due to wanting to talk to the building’s owners, but if that’s the case and the resolution was removed at the next meeting with no public discussion, that just goes to show how weak the city government is on preservation.)

As I said, perhaps the best hope of saving the Ridglea would be for the City Council to designate it a Historic & Cultural Landmark – just know that it’s an uphill battle, judging from the results above.  I’m not trying to be a downer, just realistic.  Even in the best of cases, preservation is difficult in Fort Worth – the city government doesn’t take it seriously, and oftentimes the results are apathetic.  It’s especially tough in times of budget shortfalls.

This is the way the game is played, though, so it’s up to Ridglea supporters to write to the City Council (all the City Council, and particularly Council Member Zimmerman, since it’s his district) and ask that the council designate the Ridglea as a Historic & Cultural Landmark.

Zim Zimmerman – 817-392-8803 - District3@fortworthgov.org
Mayor – Mike Moncrief – 817-392-6118 – mike.moncrief@fortworthgov.org
Mayor Pro Tem – Danny Scarth – 817-392-6187 –District4@fortworthgov.org
Sal Espino –  817-392-8802 – District2@fortworthgov.org
Frank Moss – 817-392-8805 – District5@fortworthgov.org
Jungus Jordan – 817-392-8806 – District6@fortworthgov.org
Carter Burdette – 817-392-8807 – District7@fortworthgov.org
Kathleen Hicks – 817-392-8808 – District8@fortworthgov.org
Joel Burns – 817-392-8809 – District9@fortworthgov.org

This leads us into another question I’ve heard a lot – why can’t Bank of America use the existing two-story office & retail building that would be destroyed by the new plan?

The answer is:  they probably could.  This isn’t something that’s falling over – it’s also in active use.  I’m instantly skeptical when a giant multinational says they “can’t” use a historic building for whatever reason.  The problem is, they don’t want to.  It’s an issue that is epidemic in the United States, and springs in part from the way these large companies operate (especially the way they build in the far-flung suburbs).  They design a basic stock building design or two that’s stamped out with a virtual cookie cutter across the country, and any deviation from the basic design is extremely rare.

Take a look – almost every new bank branch looks exactly the same as every other new bank branch of the same brand.  Sometimes, a token gesture of “fitting in” with the neighborhood will be made in the form of a different trim color or material, but it’s just simple dressing on the same shell.  Drug stores are especially bad about this – the average Walgreens or CVS is exactly the same as every other example, with just a thin candy coating of “uniqueness” sprinkled on top.

James Howard Kunstler spoke about this on his Kunstlercast show way back in 2008 with a good summary of the mindset (they’re talking about drug stores in particular, but the same sort of things apply to many big corporate chains with a suburban building mindset):

JHK:  Because of the sort of throwaway culture we live in, it’s more convenient for these big chains to just tear down whatever’s there and put up their own special purpose-built box with all of the things in the right place, so the building’s sort of pre-programmed.  It’s a machine for dispensing goods, it’s not even a building.  It just happens to come in a form that resembles a building.

…

Basically, if there’s a wonderful historic building that has, you know, 9,000 square feet of space, and the store needs 9,402 square feet of space, they’d rather knock down the historic building just to get exactly the right amount of space.

DC:  Yeah, there was a case in Albany, New York, where a drug store was purchasing an old school building, and next to the school building was a vacant lot.  And rather than rehab the school building and use the vacant lot as a parking lot, they wanted to knock down the school building for a parking lot, and build their building on the vacant lot.

JHK:  Pathetic.

If you want my personal opinion, I’d want to see Bank of America rehab the existing two-story office/retail building for their purposes, and leave the Ridglea Theater alone.  Or, go somewhere else in the Ridglea Village area and build an infill project that supports the goals of the Ridglea Urban Village designation the city has given – something that is arrayed to walkability and higher density.

So, there we are.  It’s my opinion that the Ridglea more than qualifies as something to save, both for the architectural value of both the theater and office building, their importance in setting the stage for the other historic buildings around the area, the theater’s cultural historical significance as one of our few remaining single-screen theaters, and its current and ongoing cultural value as one of a few outlets of Fort Worth’s independent music scene.  I hope a lot of you agree.

Jun 22, 2010 50

UPDATED: Ridglea Theater and Office Building Doomed to Demolition by Bank of America

By: Kevin Buchanan

Photo by John T. Roberts

Terrible news for Fort Worth historic preservation:  the Ridglea Theater, one of only a handful of remaining single-screen movie theaters in Fort Worth, and its adjacent office building would be nearly entirely demolished under a plan from Bank of America, who want to demolish everything but the facade of the theater and build a new bank branch on the site behind the facade.

It’s yet another black mark on Fort Worth’s track record of historic preservation, which (despite what City Hall would have you believe) is incredibly poor.  The Ridglea has no protection of any kind, not even Demolition Delay.  Historic Fort Worth added the Ridglea, along with the other remaining single-screen theaters, to their Most Endangered list this year.

The Ridglea has for years served as a live music venue, and still does, playing host especially to Fort Worth’s metal scene.  That track record of active use makes the comments from the Ridglea’s district’s council member, “Zim” Zimmerman, even more puzzling.  Zimmerman is quoted in the above DFW.com article as saying:

“The interior is [in] very poor shape, probably not worth the cost of rehab.”

What’s puzzling is that not only has the Ridglea been in active use for years (and is in fact still in active use), but having been inside it ourselves in the not too distant past, it hardly looked anywhere near as bad as indicated above.  We’ve seen theaters in far, far worse condition be restored and go on to live healthy lives.  Seems a very odd statement to make considering the Ridglea is in better shape than a lot of historic buildings that have been successfully rehabbed in Fort Worth and it’s still being used.

What’s doubly unnerving about the proposal at the Ridglea is that just down the road a short distance is an example of a bank that went into a historic single-screen theater and actually kept it intact – the Frost Bank that occupies the former Bowie Theater:

Photo by John T. Roberts

Seems to us that Bank of America is not such a one-of-a-kind flower that they couldn’t pull off something similar at the Ridglea, saving the building for other future uses.

Single-screen theaters in Fort Worth are an extremely endangered breed.  There’s the old Bowie (now the Frost Bank), the vacant Berry, the Ridglea, the New Isis, and only a tiny handful of others in various states of decay.  While Fort Worth likes to think of itself as being different from Dallas, in terms of preservation we’re right there next to our neighbors to the east.  This city does not take historic preservation seriously.  We’d hope that the city council would take this new threat to one of our few single-screen theaters as a wake-up call to stand up for preserving more of our built heritage – but how likely is that?

We hope a lot of you out there would contact the city council and express your disappointment in the sorry state of historic preservation in this city and this latest failure to save one of our rare single-screen theaters.

UPDATE: The management of the Ridglea (not the owner – the folks who run the music venue) have released the following statement on their web site, and are urging people to write to the City Council (especially District 3 representative Zim Zimmerman) and the Zoning Commission to express their displeasure with the proposal to demolish everything but the Ridglea’s facade for a bank branch:

As you may have heard, the previous owner of the Ridglea Theater complex lost the building to FixFunding, LLC, a funding company based in Dallas. The complex has been up for sale and may have already been sold to a bank. Richard has shown the Ridglea to their “team” of architects more than once.

However, the City of Fort Worth has requested that IF FOLKS DO NOT LIKE THE PROPOSED ZONING CHANGE, THEY SHOULD LET CITY COUNCILMAN W.B. “ZIM” ZIMMERMAN AND THE FORT WORTH CITY COUNCIL KNOW IMMEDIATELY!

Richard and I would love to get this stopped – not because of what we do here (after all, we need to retire sometime) but simply because this is the last of the grand old buildings in Fort Worth. It would be a shame to lose part of the heritage of Fort Worth, and it should be preserved! The paintings are original! The mosaic floor could never be replaced, and the structure itself inside is beautiful. Of course the present owners are probably not interested in the history, and I can see their point – they are in the business of making money.

This is going to hit the newspapers immediately, and we would like to let our loyal supporters know what is going on! It’s HORRID!!!! Our lease runs into early next spring, so we hope we can stay at least that long.

Meanwhile, it’s BUSINESS AS USUAL! Ridglea Theater needs the local support now more than ever. Please contact the Fort Worth City Council, and let them know how much you want the Ridglea Theater to stay!

If you would like to help support the preservation of Ridglea Theater, please use the contact information below to make your voice heard.

City Councilman W.B. Zimmerman
District 3 Office
1000 Throckmorton St.
Fort Worth, Texas 76102
Telephone: 817-392-8803
Fax: 817-392-6187
E-mail:District3@fortworthgov.org

Jun 18, 2010 4

New Book Looks at Fairmount Through Historic Photos

By: Kevin Buchanan

A new book, out now from Arcadia Publishing, promises to be a fascinating look at the history of the Near Southside’s Fairmount neighborhood.  Fort Worth’s Fairmount District, part of Arcadia’s “Images of America” series, uses incredible archival photographs and the research & writing of its author, Michael S. McDermott, to tell the story of the architecturally significant Fairmount neighborhood.

Fort Worth is called the city “Where the West Begins,” and 100 years ago, the neighborhood known as Fairmount was where the south side ended. Now considered inner city, the Fairmount Southside Historic District is actually numerous smaller subdivisions including the largest, the Fairmount addition, and the smallest, the dubiously named Swastika Place. The neighborhoods were home to early merchants, lawyers, judges, artists, and small-business owners-many of whom went on to local and national fame. Today that legacy continues. Fairmount welcomes new generations of urban pioneers and benefits from a neighborhood renaissance that has brought this historically and architecturally significant gem of the city back from the brink of extinction.

Michael is a 44-year resident of Fort Worth, and has lived in Fairmount for 25 of those years.  A founder of the Fairmount Southside National Historic District in 1990, a former neighborhood historic preservation director, and restorer of his own 102-year-old home, Michael has dug deep into the rich history of Fairmount to create a work that will truly be engrossing to anybody who loves Fort Worth history and looking at the connections from our past to our present.  An absolute ton of research went into Fort Worth’s Fairmount District, from dates to identifying everything in the beautiful historic photos.  From some of the photo’s we’ve seen from the book, this is something not to be missed by Fort Worth history buffs, architecture lovers, Near Southside enthusiasts, and fans of revitalizing our central city neighborhoods.

Fort Worth’s Fairmount District by Michael S. McDermott is available now – online from Arcadia Publishing, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Borders, and is also available in local Fort Worth brick & mortar bookstores like Barnes & Noble.

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