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.

Related posts:

1. UPDATED: Ridglea Theater and Office Building Doomed to Demolition by Bank of America
2. Councilman Zimmerman Issues Statement on Ridglea Theater
3. Tour the Endangered Ridglea Theater Next Week

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.

Related posts:

1. Aggarwal Building Progress
2. Aggarwal Building Update
3. Aggarwal Building Progress

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.

Related posts:

1. UPDATED: Ridglea Theater and Office Building Doomed to Demolition by Bank of America
2. Ridglea Theater Follow-up
3. Tour the Endangered Ridglea Theater Next Week

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.

Related posts:

1. Councilman Zimmerman Issues Statement on Ridglea Theater
2. UPDATED: Ridglea Theater and Office Building Doomed to Demolition by Bank of America
3. An Architect Walks Through the Ridglea

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

Related posts:

1. Councilman Zimmerman Issues Statement on Ridglea Theater
2. Ridglea Theater Follow-up
3. Tour the Endangered Ridglea Theater Next Week

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.

Related posts:

1. Apartment Building At Magnolia & Adams
2. Jarvis Building Restoration
3. 714 Main Restoration Progress

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.

Related posts:

1. Chunduri Building Lot Cleared
2. Chunduri Building Mixed-Use Underway
3. Dalal Professional Building Progress – Mixed-Use Infill

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.

Related posts:

1. New Mixed-Use Infill near West Leuda Park
2. Dalal Professional Building Progress – Mixed-Use Infill
3. West Leuda Park Progress

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.

Related posts:

1. New Office Building on Hemphill
2. UPDATED: Ridglea Theater and Office Building Doomed to Demolition by Bank of America
3. T&P Warehouse Project Going In Front Of Landmarks Commission

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.

Related posts:

1. Bajaj Building Progress
2. Bajaj Building Update
3. Bajaj Building Progress