Posts under ‘Downtown’

The former United Way Building at 9th & Commerce across from the Convention Center will be demolished soon and replaced by a new 150-room Hampton Inn, being developed by Pearl Real Estate.

The restoration of St. Patrick’s Cathedral continues, and is presumably leading up to the finishing touch of the project - the completion of the church’s twin steeples, planned but never built.

The new city parking garage across from the Convention Center and behind the Omni is steadily rising. Not much to look at yet, but when complete it will have a very interesting facade. Not to mention its interior, which will play the “sounds of Fort Worth” as ambient noise and play musical tones [...]

My friend John Roberts, architect and creator of the great Architecture in Fort Worth web site, says the Omni’s got two more occupied floors and four mechanical floors left to go before it tops out. It is certainly starting to have a dramatic presence. Not much more to report, really, so just enjoy [...]

A lot of the work underway on the Carnegie now is the installation of the building’s ornate stone detailing at the top and ground-level. I really love the way the building’s turning out. Details:

There’s a pretty clear view of the stonework going in at the building’s upper levels. I like the design [...]

Trinity Terrace’s new City Tower is mostly complete - and apparently already sold out. Not much to say about this one, so just enjoy the photos. We’ll be seeing their third tower, called River Tower, rising near this location on 7th in the not-too-distant future, I believe.

So sayeth Fort Worthology’s friend, local architect John Roberts. It appears that they’ve just completed the 31st floor of the tower, which John says indicates that they’ve got two more occupied floors to go and four mechanical levels. Already, the Omni has been making a big impact on the downtown skyline.
In related news, [...]

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The United Way Building downtown, across from the Convention Center, has been purchased by Pearl Real Estate. Pearl has previously been behind the opening of the downtown Embassy Suites at 5th & Commerce, and is currently converting the old Care-A-Lot Inn on Lancaster near Henderson into a Holiday Inn Express. Sandra [...]

As I noted in a previous post, one of the items up for review by the Downtown Design Review Board this month was a proposal to light the top of the Texas & Pacific station/lofts. The proposed design would have seen the four domes at the roof’s corners and the parapet walls between them [...]

I’ve reported before on the sad state of Heritage Park, and the lack of any real information from the city on just what is going on with this neglected little bit of space on the Trinity Bluff. After a recent walk back to the park, I’m sad to say that nothing much has changed. [...]

Over at North Texas Historic Transportation’s web site, they’ve got scans of a 1974 document that shows an old plan to extend the Leonard’s/Tandy Center subway under the rest of downtown, complete with a route and station locations and designs. It’s an interesting bit of Fort Worth transit history that never was.
A Preliminary Engineering [...]

The DDRB has posted their agenda for July’s meeting, and here are the cases they will be reviewing:

609 Houston Street; Durty Murphy’s
Owner/Applicant: Trey Murphy/Michael Luscri
Requests a Certificate of Appropriateness to:
1. Add six (6) 3-foot by 8-foot French doors to the 2nd story front of building;
2. Add 4-foot by 17-foot exterior balcony with [...]

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Back in may, I reported on speculation that the (now former) United Way Building at 9th & Commerce had a date with the demolition team at some point before the end of the year, and now, it looks like that date may be sooner rather than later. A demolition fence has now [...]

At last, a couple of new images of The Shops at City Place, the next phase of the City Place project that’s redeveloping the former Tandy Center. The rendering above shows the new look of the former outlet mall structure, with its additional parking on top and new facade.
Below is a site plan of [...]

Details have come out about the likely plans for the remaining property that TCC acquired in downtown and across the river that they’re not going to need anymore:

The approx. 47 acres on the north side of the river will likely be sold.
The block next to the courthouse, planned originally for a sunken plaza, will likely [...]

The local architectural/development scene has been buzzing since the announcement yesterday that Tarrant County College was giving up on its new downtown campus and instead buying Radio Shack’s headquarters down the street. A lot has been said about the decision, and a lot of questions have been raised. One of the more thought-provoking [...]

Yep. As I’ve reported over at West & Clear, Tarrant County College is throwing in the towel on completing its new downtown campus, and is instead buying Radio Shack’s headquarters on the other side of the courthouse from their property. TCC is saying this will not affect construction of the first half of [...]

The Omni Hotel by the Convention Center is steadily rising towards its final height. Now taller than the AT&T Building, the tower has seven more occupied floors to go, and then four mechanical floors - 11 more in total before the building tops out. A lot more glass is being added to the [...]

I’ve reported on a bit of breaking news over on sister site West & Clear: Fort Worth’s own XTO Energy is buying Hunt Petroleum.
XTO keeps growing and growing - and they’re running out of historic buildings to buy and restore. Once they finish up with 714 Main and the Binyon O’Keefe Warehouse, I don’t [...]

Well, turns out my source was correct - Chesapeake Energy did in fact relight their newest purchase, the former Pier 1 tower, last night. I have to admit that I liked seeing those lights again. In fact, I decided to head out last night to the Lancaster bridge and take the photo you [...]

I’ve just written up a story over at our sister site, West & Clear, in which I detail the following rumor I’ve been hearing: Chesapeake Energy, new owners of The Building Formerly Known As Pier 1 Place, are planning an event June 9th to relight the building’s elaborate night lighting system, long dormant due [...]

I’ve previously displayed some HDR shots on here before, and I took the opportunity yesterday to take some more. For the uninitiated, HDR photography involves taking multiple photos of a subject at different exposures, then blending the exposures together on a computer to create an image with a much higher dynamic range than is [...]

Word on the grapevine is that the former United Way Building, the structure at the southeast corner of 9th & Commerce, has been purchased and will be demolished by the end of the year.
Sources have no word on what might be replacing the building - has anybody out there in Readerland heard anything about this? [...]

Sometimes, architectural history resembles archaeology or geology, and you get a rare glimpse into multiple strata of history. This is one of those times.
XTO Energy, the natural gas company that has been buying historic downtown buildings for some time, has now begun another of their celebrated historic restoration projects. The company has previously [...]