9075

Aside from the high land prices, the current growth pattern of the metroplex also works against downtown Dallas's ability to attract new corporate headquarters/major offices.  Companies typically like their major offices to be easily accessible to employees and visiting consultants/vendors, so they tend to pick a central location. 

As indicated above, Dallas's demographics are pretty strongly divided by the Trinity River, with most of the white collar workforce living on the north side.  Downtown is nowhere near the geographic center of where the white collar workforce lives, rather it is on the southern edge, which can make commuting difficult for many people.  Plano, Richardson, and Irving are closer to the center, and they are more easily accessed by freeways, hence their current popularity for corporate campuses. 

This is also why the current proposal to move the stadium for the Texas Rangers to Downtown Dallas is met with controversy.

To add a personal anecdote - my office is currently working with a major corporation on the consolidation/centralization of their Dallas operations.  As far as I know, their real estate team never even considered space downtown.  In interviewing many of the local employees, we repeatedly heard remarks like "I live in McKinney; I really hope the office is not moving too far south."  The company ended up picking space in the University Park area, so employees could get to work via the Tollway, US 75, or Loop 12.

All that said, I'd like to see some more towers in Downtown Dallas.  However, I think most will be residential or hotels at this point.

What are the plans for and around Trinity River?

There are a number of recreational and transportation-related projects proposed.  Check out the Trinity River Corridor website (sorry; this site is acting stupid and won't let me link to it).

It will be neat if at least some of the projects come to fruition.  The current state of the Trinity River in Downtown Dallas is very sad.  The river has been treated as an overgrown drainage ditch, rather than a scenic amenity.

I was still a kid when all of this went down, but I do remember a few things about this period in Houston's history:

There were a lot of auctions. You saw them advertised everywhere.

My aunt and uncle bought a house in Clear Lake in 1987.  It was a foreclosure and they paid $18k in cash for it.

There was a large apartment complex under construction on Dixie Farm Road in Friendswood that sat unfinished for years.  All of the windows were broken out, and the exposed framing eventually started to rot.  It was finally torn down, and I think a nursing home was later built on the property.

The twin towers on the 610 West Loop near Memorial Park got into some sort of financial trouble and sat vacant until the late 1990s when they were renovated and received new curtain walls. 

There was another office building at 59 and Weslayen that sat vacant from the mid '80s until it was demolished about 5 year ago.

I had some other relatives that lived in Fondren Southwest.  Their neighborhood went from very desirable to a complete dump in a very short period.

Lots of gas stations closed, as this was also the period that new environmental laws regulating underground storage tanks went into effect.  Along with less revenue from lower fuel prices, many operators could not afford to replace their leaking tanks.

Dallas needs to get on the ball and fix its river area.

Part of the problem is that all of the improvement plans include the notoriously unpopular Trinity River Toll Road.  I doubt any proposal will move forward until the Toll Road is killed.

Anyway, this is the Fort Worth thread.  I also think Fort Worth probably has the best downtown in Texas.  All around, the city itself is pretty awesome.  I've seriously considered moving there on more than one occasion.

I'd look in Jersey Village.  It has some late '70s / early '80s contemporary houses in your price range.  Jersey Village is actually a separate city, so that has helped it remain more stable than the other areas mentioned.  Access to IAH would be easy via Beltway 8.

The main drawback to the area is the construction on 290 makes getting into town difficult.  However, this project will eventually be completed.

Getting back to the topic of the thread...

 

 

 

 

What do you mean "give your city an image"?  Does Dallas have a zoning code or something that encourages buildings that look nice like this, or is it just what the architects are inspired to do?

 

 

 

 

Also, remember from the sub forum description:

Dallas does have land use restrictions, but, more importantly, the local culture in Dallas tends to place emphasis on presentation and appearance.  This, in effect, holds developers, architects and urban planners to a higher standard.

Also, given the amount of new projects currently under construction in Dallas, there is fierce competition to secure tenants.  Aesthetics can be a way to "set oneself apart."

The 1935 Flood destroyed much of the inventory at the Houston Sears & Roebuck store on Buffalo Drive (now Allen Parkway).  This was the second such event at this store (it also flooded shortly after opening in 1929), and it spurred the company to build a new store on South Main St.  The South Main St store opened in 1939, and it is still operating today.

There are some great images online of the 1929 flood damage at Sears.  Unfortunately, I can't find them right now.

A few years ago, when N. Main St was being rebuilt through Sunset Heights, I remember seeing the work crew excavate some of the old railroad ties from the streetcar line.  The rails themselves had been removed in the early 1940s, and probably melted down as scrap for the war effort.

I'm glad they are keeping the historic steel windows.  Replacement windows in historic buildings never look right.

A new portion of the 635 main lanes is also covered in asphalt.  However, this portion is west of I-35E, and asphalt may have been used to achieve a smooth transition with the adjacent existing portion of 635, which was covered in asphalt.

I was told that Kenneth Schnitzer originally wanted to buy out the homeowners in Afton Oaks and extend Greenway Plaza all the way to the West Loop.

That did not happen, due to a variety of reasons, but it is interesting to think of how different that area of town might be, had his plans come to fruition.  I imagine in this scenario, most of the high rise development would be on the East side of 610, rather than the West side.  I wonder if that would have had any effect on the chronic vehicular access and traffic problems around the Galleria?

Glad to hear that you are saving a piece of Riverside Terrace, Rachel. 

In the early 1940s, my grandmother resided with one of the families that lived on your block.  (Unfortunately, I don't remember exactly which house, but I know it was on the north side of the street.)  She worked as a governess for the family and helped raise their children.  

I'm going to echo everyone's opinions.  Just do it!    Moving is hard, but from what you've told us, it sounds like something you really want to do.  The unknown is always scary at first, but the new experiences end up enriching your life and making you a better person in the long run.

I recently moved away from Houston after living there for 25 years.  It is a very dynamic city, and there is almost always something under construction.  People on this forum, who are interested in that sort of thing, basically get free entertainment watching their surroundings change.

One last word of advice: the moving process is a lot like removing a band-aid; it is much less painful if you do it quickly!

I never ate at The EL.  After hearing that a few people got food poisoning from eating there, I was always afraid to try it.  I'll probably try the beer place when it opens, though. 

Glad to hear that Town & City is doing well.  We've been patiently waiting for them to open, and we plan to make it over there in the near future.

There are a lot of neat projects mentioned in the 'New Dallas Development' thread. 

Just out of curiosity, what parts of the city are in a growth mode?  Likewise, which parts are in decline?

As of next month, I will have been in Sunset Heights for 6 years.  There were hardly any families with children living here in the first few years.  The neighborhood was turning around, but it still felt pretty sketchy with lots of stray dogs and shady people wandering in from Airline and North Main.  It was hardly a family friendly environment.   

Now, I see parents out walking with their kids almost every evening.  Granted most of these kids are probably under age 10, but lately I have noticed a few new families with middle school and high school age kids.  It seems like most of the new families around me are young couples with newborns/toddlers who have outgrown a townhome, or empty nesters who have decided to move back to city, since schools are no longer an issue for them.

I know Heights schools have come a long way, but I'm with Heightsfamily.  I have a lot of issues with HISD and their approach to educating children.  Regardless of what Houston neighborhood I live in, I will only consider private schools for my children.

Here's some more information on Sullivan's stuff in Independence Heights.

http://www.richmartinhomes.com/uncategorized/independence-heights-new-homes

It was originally a Weiner's store. There is a photo of it on the Houston Deco page.

http://www.houstondeco.org/1940s/weiners.html

WOW!

I'd like to see Chase do something with that low-density bank drive-thru at Nicholson and 19th. Street-facing retail there could really help tie 19th together.

Interesting, I was just driving down 19th yesterday and had the exact same thought.

Bank branches are getting smaller due to the proliferation of online banking and industry consolidation.  Several of the banks I work with have been trying to consolidate their real estate portfolios to reduce expenses 

I wonder if anyone has contacted Chase with a proposal to lease the land, in return for Chase getting an endcap space or pad site in a new development? 

I understand where you are coming from.  In all styles of architecture, there are buildings that are good, bad, and mediocre examples.

In my opinion, good Mid-Century Modern design compensates for the "lack of detail[/ornament]" with beautiful proportions, thoughtful sightlines, attentive use of rich materials, and integration with the surrounding landscape.  Unfortunately, it is difficult to apply all of these design elements to a suburban tract house, a problem that is not mutually exclusive to the Mid-Century Modern style.

In addition, the Mid-Century Modern style is such a strong aesthetic that it really has to be applied to all elements of the house to be truly successful.  Very few people (including me) actually possess the discipline to stay within one style, so things often look "off".  You can see this in the house pictured above, as there are a number of things that don't really fit with the design of the house (palm trees, traditional light fixtures + kitchen cabinets).   

I stumbled on this 1954 home movie on Youtube that shows the house in the top right, as well as some of the surrounding area:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o62M-m5Il3Q

The first part of the movie was taken at the Cotton Bowl.  The Riverside Terrace footage starts around 1:45.

It is amazing how the landscaping on that street has matured in the last 60 years.

Glad to see a Riverside Terrace house saved, and congrats to you for appreciating the original architecture and working to restore it!  So many homes over there have suffered from very insensitive renovations.

I read somewhere that Lenard Gabert had a penchant for grand staircases, which probably originated during his work as a set designer.

To go waaay back in the history of the Village:

Someone posted some 1940s photos of University Blvd in this thread back in 2007:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/13210-village-theater/?hl=%2Bvillage+%2Btheater

The building that houses Pier One on Rice Blvd & Kelvin was built as the original Rice Food Market, which later became a local chain.

Somewhere on YouTube, there is a home movie that someone took in the mid 1950s while driving around the Rice University area.  It has some great footage of University Blvd.  Unfortunately, I can't find it right now...

Never heard of a house with an escalator, but the Katherine Mott house in my earlier post had an elevator in it.  The elevator was similar to the one in the movie "Lady in a Cage".