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 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.

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 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 16, 2010 6

Dunn-Haven Building Restoration Progress

By: Kevin Buchanan

The lovely old Dunn-Haven Apartments building at Adams & Magnolia in the Near Southside is well on its way to a new life.  The building is being extensively restored and redeveloped into the headquarters of a marketing company relocating from Arlington.  The building’s getting a complete makeover, from new windows and exterior restoration work to a new interior, new elevator (being built inside the building rather than as an addition due to the difficulty of matching the unique brick color), and more.

The Dunn-Haven building is one of the older structures in the area, 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 also-vacant Bomar Apartments at 1507 Alston, built in 1907.

While we’re disappointed that the Dunn-Haven building will no longer have a residential use (Magnolia desperately needs a lot more residential units than it has now to help add to street activity and multiple uses), we are pleased that it’s going to be serving a creative company instead of YAMO – Yet Another Medical Office.  It’s our understanding that the restoration is going to be extensive and first-rate, complete with new sustainable features included in the project, so it’s going to be good to see one of Magnolia’s prettiest buildings brought back to life.  Click the photos for a larger view.

Jun 11, 2010 2

Chunduri Building Progress

By: Kevin Buchanan

Progress on yet another small mixed-use infill building in the Near Southside.  The building above (which we’re calling the Chunduri Building after the doctor whose office will take the ground floor) is being built just off Jennings at Grainger & Cannon.  The building is ground-floor office space with second-floor apartments.

Click the photos to embiggen.

Jun 3, 2010 Comments Off

Mixed-Use Infill Near West Leuda Park – Progress

By: Kevin Buchanan

This two-story mixed-use infill project just off the new West Leuda Park in the Near Southside has made a lot of progress since the last time we looked at it – it’s now got facade materials going up, a mixture of brick and stucco.

The new building is apartments over ground-floor medical office.

May 25, 2010 7

Hantes Building – New Office on Hemphill

By: Kevin Buchanan

This new office building on Hemphill, just south of Magnolia in the Near Southside, has come a long way since we last looked at it.  The building will be the offices of Dr. Jeff Hantes, and it was designed by local architect Ray Boothe.

One thing to note on this building is the north wall, not seen in this photo – it’s solid brick, with no windows or doors.  This was done because the adjacent lot is owned by the same land owner (local investor Peter Lyden), and the building was designed so that a sister building could be built directly adjacent to it.

Apr 15, 2010 1

Bajaj Building Progress

By: Kevin Buchanan

Another update on one of the many small mixed-use buildings going up in the Near Southside.  The Bajaj Building is coming together pretty quickly now, and it’s easier to get a sense of the finished product.  The building is located on Lipscomb just north of Rosedale and is loft apartments over ground-floor medical office.  It was designed by the Near Southside’s own TMA.

Apr 8, 2010 22

Revealed: Comerica Building, 8th & Magnolia

By: Kevin Buchanan

For the uninitiated, a building known as the Brace Building used to stand at 8th Avenue & Magnolia in the Near Southside.  It was a two-story old mixed-use building that was in rather sad shape after years of neglect.  In late 2008, Comerica Bank announced they were purchasing the building with the intent to demolish it and build a slightly-modified version of a typical Comerica bank branch, reoriented a bit to face the street and with a set of fake windows on top to make it look more old-fashioned.  There was much debate about this plan from us, the nearby Fairmount neighborhood, and Fort Worth South, who has been championing multistory mixed-use infill on Magnolia.

Comerica took the Brace Building down in August of 2009, but agreed to go back to the drawing board on the design.  Behind the scenes, Comerica agreed to hire a Near Southside local architect to come up with a more sensitive design for the site.  Now, that design can be revealed.

The Comerica Building has been designed by the Near Southside’s own Quorum Architects (you may remember them from our profile of the firm).  They have crafted an elegant, very urban structure to house the bank.  Rather than the old plan of having fake “second floor” windows a la many new suburban “town square” buildings, the Comerica Building will be a full two stories tall.  As a compromise from Comerica’s earlier “single story only” intent, when in use by Comerica, the building will not feature a functioning second floor, instead featuring a two-story-tall ceiling with lots of light from both levels of windows.  However, the building has been design so that, should Comerica vacate the space, a functioning second floor can be added relatively easily in the upper space to create likely second floor residential units.

The building complies with the Near Southside urban design standards, is fully urban in form, and features a strong presence along both streets, as well as featuring a classic cut corner entrance.  All parking is to the rear or on-street.  In addition, the north facade facing the rear parking and bank drive-through has been designed to be as detailed as the street facades, creating an attractive appearance from further north along 8th as well.  That rear parking/drive-through area is also heavily screened by a decorative fence and plantings to avoid impacting the pedestrian experience too much, and the drive-through shelter is designed in a matching style.  Along Magnolia, the building features a wide, tree-lined brick sidewalk, and the corner features a large brick entry plaza-like space.  The building also features extensive ground-floor windows to ensure transparency of the facade as prescribed by the Near Southside design standards.

We are frankly very surprised by how this building has turned out.  Quorum has knocked this one out of the park in our opinion.  Though the Brace Building is long gone now, this new building looks to hold down the important corner of 8th & Magnolia with a similar level of grace and is a fully urban structure with great compliance with the Near Southside urban design standards.  The design strikes a good compromise between Comerica’s desire for a single-use structure and Fort Worth South’s desire for a mixed-use structure by being easily adaptable to mixed-use should the bank eventually leave, and in the meantime giving from the exterior a true two-story structure with real windows to help create the sense of enclosure by building facade that is key to an urban streetscape.  Fort Worth South is recommending to the Urban Design Commission that the building be approved, and we think we have to join them in this recommendation.  Kudos to Comerica for showing the willingness to create a far more appropriate structure for an urban setting, and to Quorum for what looks like an outstanding job of urban design.

For more views, click the thumbnails.

Edit:  We couldn’t stand the thought of this great comment from Michael H. just hanging out in the comments, so here it is:   Read the rest of this entry »

Apr 5, 2010 Comments Off

Bajaj Building Progress

By: Kevin Buchanan

A quick update on another small mixed-use building going up in the Near Southside.  This is the Bajaj Building, on Lipscomb just north of Rosedale.  It’s lofts upstairs and medical offices downstairs.

The building’s facade has been going up for a while now.  New is the popped-out corner window treatment there on the right.  The building was designed by the Near Southside’s own TMA Architects, who have done many of these single-lot mixed-use buildings.

Mar 22, 2010 14

Daiches Building To Be Saved, Restored

By: Kevin Buchanan


(Photo by John Roberts, fortwortharchitecture.com)

Fantastic news for Fort Worth historic preservation!  What is commonly called the “Daiches Building” sits at Houston & Weatherford in Downtown, right across the street from the Tarrant County Courthouse.  So-called for the jewelry store that has inhabited its ground floor for the last 81 years, the building was built in 1910 and is basically the only original “courthouse square” structure still standing in even somewhat original condition.  It was given a ground-floor modernizing in 1955 (when the blue mosaic tile was added), but otherwise looks totally original, if rather shabby.

With Joe Daiches relocating, there were many fears among Fort Worth preservationists and urbanists that the little building would be plowed into the ground for a parking lot, has happened to two neighboring buildings not many years ago.  We are very happy to report, though, that the building will live on.  We were contacted today by commercial real estate broker David Tuttle, who is announcing that he and investor Darwin German have acquired the building and  are restoring it to its original condition for adaptive re-use.

The building’s 1955 ground floor remodeling will be removed, and the entire original appearance restored.  Upstairs, the 2nd and 3rd floor were a hotel until the 1970s and have been vacant since.  Describing the 2nd and 3rd floor as being “like a time capsule,” the original suites still include tons of original details, including original doors, transom windows, hardware, wood floors, chair rails, molding and tin ceiling tiles.

The plan is to restore the 2nd and 3rd floors and lease the suites as office space with all the modern amenities.  It is intended that the ground floor be leased as retail space – ideally, the owners want to see a coffee shop or sandwich place go in.

This is a great victory for Fort Worth historic preservation, and it’s also a great victory to keep this building active and engaged with its surroundings instead of becoming another blank parking lot.  We are looking forward to seeing the building’s restoration progress and hope to bring you photos as it goes.

Mar 17, 2010 11

City Place For Sale

By: Kevin Buchanan

Color us not suprised:

The Dallas developer that owns City Place — the high-profile redevelopment of the Tandy Center twin towers in downtown Fort Worth — has put the property on the block.

A year ago, PNL Cos. put the vacant, 19-story One City Place tower at Third and Taylor streets up for sale. PNL’s original plan was to make that tower a condo building when the anchor tenant, RadioShack, moved out several years ago.

But now, Jones Lang LaSalle, the real estate broker representing PNL, said it might be easier to sell the 1.2 million-square-foot project in its entirety, not in pieces. The time to sell is right, the broker said, because credit is loosening in commercial markets and real estate investment funds are ready to start spending again.

We’ve been thinking for a while that the City Place project had stalled, given how each plan from PNL became progressively less and less impressive as time went on.  Most recently, they had abandoned the plan to demolish part of the old Tandy Center mall and re-open 2nd Street through the project – which was one going to be one of the more positive aspects of the plan, as the huge Tandy Center superblock seriously breaks up pedestrian patterns and getting 2nd back would have helped tremendously to re-open that part of Downtown and make it more walkable and connected.  (The image above is from the initial, much more impressive redevelopment plan, with 2nd re-opened and a better mix of uses.)  Will be interesting to see how quickly the property sells and what its eventual new owners plan to do with it – here’s hoping that the re-opening of 2nd Street and the outward-facing street level retail (not the existing mall style space) will be a part of the plan.

Mar 8, 2010 1

Chunduri Building Mixed-Use Underway

By: Kevin Buchanan

Yet another example of a small mixed-use structure is now under construction in the Near Southside.  This development, at Grainger & Cannon (just a couple of blocks from West Leuda Park), will feature a ground-floor office for Dr. Chunduri’s neurology clinic, and two apartments on the second floor.  It was designed by Gary Wood Architects.

The site is located in one of the Near Southside’s T4-N (for “Neighborhood”) zones.  The T4-N zoning requires all development to include a residential component (either residences as part of a mixed-use project, or entirely residential).  This helps ensure a wide range of housing choices and prevents monotonous commercial-only development, makes streets safer by providing round-the-clock use and more “eyes on the street,” and creates greater density of residences to give more support to local businesses as the district redevelops.

Below is an elevation drawing of the finished building:

Mar 5, 2010 4

West 7th Grand Opening

By: Kevin Buchanan

At last night’s West 7th Spring Bash, Mayor Moncrief and representatives of developer Cypress Equities were on hand to officially cut the ribbon on the big new mixed-use development.  Prior to the ribbon cutting, Mayor Moncrief spoke about the development, reiterating several of the points from his State of the City address – that Fort Worth must continue to encourage central-city growth with denser, walkable mixed-use developments rather than solely continue to sprawl.

Cypress shut down Crockett Street between Currie and Norwood, giving plenty of space for attendees to stroll around in a car-free setting.  Residents of the lofts upstairs were out on their balconies having their own parties and waving to Spring Bash attendees below.  Bars were set up in the central plaza, and of course the retailers open thus far were open and encouraging people to visit (Cypress, in fact, gave the mayor a pair of boots from Heritage Boots, one of the development’s ground-floor retailers).  Newly opened Terra Mediterranean Grill was showing off their very cool outdoor bar on Crockett, set up to face the sidewalk.  At the end of the block, a stage was set up where the band Reckless Kelly performed throughout the night.

It was a fun event and a great way to officially open the West 7th development.  Congrats to Cypress Equities on this impressive project – we look forward to seeing how it matures and continues to build out the remaining blocks and fill the last tenant spaces.

Mar 4, 2010 2

West 7th Spring Bash Tonight

By: Kevin Buchanan

Just a reminder that the Spring Bash at the West 7th development is tonight from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.  There will be a ribbon cutting for the development, a performance by the band Reckless Kelly, a beer garden, and more.  It will be held on Crockett between the two loft/retail buildings.  The event benefits Cook Children’s Hospital.  For more info, check our last post on the Spring Bash.

Mar 3, 2010 13

New Mixed-Use Infill near West Leuda Park

By: Kevin Buchanan

The Near Southside wave of small mixed-use infill developments continues.  This example is going up on St. Louis just south of Pennsylvania, right down the street from the nearly-complete new West Leuda Park (as well as the Leuda-May Apartments and Hattie May Inn, as well as just around the corner from the Rahr Brewery).

This building is another loft-apartment-over-medical-office development, of the kind that is becoming very popular in the Near Southside.  There will likely be even more to come – these small (often single-lot) mixed-use infill structures are a really interesting aspect of the Near Southside’s revitalization.

Mar 1, 2010 6

New Near Southside Police Station

By: Kevin Buchanan

The redevelopment of the building on Hemphill just off the corner of Magnolia & Hemphill that will be home to the Near Southside’s new police station is well underway.  The police station, currently in the ground floor of the building at College & Magnolia that houses Mamma Mia, The Salon Upstairs, Urban Green Build, and other tenants, is relocating to this larger facility and is bringing the gang unit (who had to move out of their old home on University after Botanical Research Institute took it over) with them.

Most people are probably familiar with the building as it has sat for many years – an ugly, blank concrete box with a handful of tiny windows.  It has long been an eyesore in the Near Southside, especially right off the ongoing revitalization success of Magnolia Avenue.  This development will finally do something about all that ugly – the project is completely revamping the exterior of the building to be compatible with the Near Southside’s urban design standards.  Already, many new windows have been punched in the formerly blank concrete walls.  As the project continues, the building will gain an all-new facade divided up into three bays, making its appearance more compatible with the classic urban buildings of Magnolia.

What isn’t as obvious is the lengthy, oddball history of this building.  From the street, the building is a dreary 1970s box, which is the result of additions and remodeling done in the ’70s to an existing building on the site.  You see, buried within all that ugly concrete is a building from around 1903.

The original building inside, one of the traditional urban structures which used to line the major streets of the Near Southside before demolitions and parking lots took over, was originally a Texas National Guard Armory and post office.  In the ’70s, Hemphill was widened from its older, narrower, more human-scaled form, and the old Armory had its street facade removed to accommodate the widening.  At that time, additions were made and everything was unified behind the blank concrete facade that’s been there ever since.

Hints of the building’s past are visible, however – most notably in the alley.  If you go around back and look at that side (the east side), you’ll see the concrete facade on each end, but in the center you can still see the original alley facade of the Armory, complete with arched windows and more.

This project will result in a major eyesore being transformed into a much more attractive and urban-compatible form, as well as the consolidation and expansion of the FWPD station and gang unit.  We’re looking forward to seeing how the building looks as the renovations progress.

Feb 26, 2010 3

New Office Building on Hemphill

By: Kevin Buchanan

Yes, truly, this is a new doctor’s office building being built on Hemphill just south of Magnolia in the Near Southside.  The building will feature a brick facade with arched windows on the second floor.  We believe the architect on this one is Ray Boothe.

At the moment, we don’t have a rendering available of the finished building, but what we have seen looks promising.  It’s great to see the ongoing infill development in the Near Southside now spreading out along Hemphill as well.

Feb 25, 2010 1

Aggarwal Building Update

By: Kevin Buchanan

The Aggarwal Building, a new mixed-use development on Lipscomb just north of Rosedale (across the street from the Bajaj Building), is pretty well complete at this point.  The building was designed by TMA Architects, and is four loft apartments upstairs with a medical office downstairs – another example of the small infill mixed-use buildings being built all over the Near Southside.

We’ve been in touch with some of the people involved in the building and are planning a walkthrough in the not too distant future.  We hear that of the four apartments, one is already occupied, and another has a tenant coming in this summer.  We’ll have an update with contact information on the lofts in another post.

Feb 25, 2010 Comments Off

Bajaj Building Update

By: Kevin Buchanan

One of the Near Southside’s ongoing series of mixed-use infill developments, the Bajaj Building, continues to progress at its site on Lipscomb just north of Rosedale.  The development will feature a ground floor medical office and loft apartments upstairs, and was designed by the Near Southside’s own TMA Architects, who have been specializing in these small single-lot mixed-use infill projects.

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