dfwcre8tive

http://www.unitedcontinentalmerger.com

The DEIS for the DART D2 subway line through downtown has been published, which includes the alignment, detail and station proposals:

http://www.dart.org/about/expansion/downtowndallas.asp

Station Designs for the Orange Line: http://www.dart.org/newsroom/imagelibrary.asp#orange

University of Dallas

Las Colinas Urban Center

Irving Convention Center

Las Colinas Carpenter Ranch

North Lake College

Belt Line Station

Citywalk@Akard officially opened last night. A vacant mid-century highrise was converted to a mixed-income residential development (50 of the units are reserved for the formerly homeless). The building also includes 2 floors of office space and will contain a ground level 7-11 convenience store.

More here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38795277@N05/sets/72157623575399001/

Here's a good article about all the changes happening in Oak Cliff and some of the reasons/history behind it...

http://www.dallasobserver.com/2010-02-25/news/lord-love-a-developer/

Here's the Trailblazer later at Fair Park in Dallas:

And currently it serves as a house:

http://blogs.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/2009/01/a_trailblazers_resting_spot_1.html

Good news! Although, Fort Worth didn't get the money they were hoping for...

Dallas scores big in TIGER grants; Feds will fund street cars

9:51 AM Wed, Feb 17, 2010

Michael Lindenberger/Reporter

http://transportationblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/02/dallas-scores-big-in-tiger-gra.html

Dallas scored big this morning as Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the city will received $43 million in grants that will build a starter downtown streetcar loop that will cross into Oak Cliff, and will greatly reduce NTTA's cost to build the State Highway 161 toll road.

Its two projects were among 51 -- and the only ones in Texas -- to win out in the competition TIGER grant competition announced this morning. The federal government had reserved some $1.5 billion in stimulus funds for a grant competition aimed at providing funds for creative projects, especially those that achieve the Administration's sustainability goals.

Dallas' application for the street car funds was part of a joint application with Fort Worth, and it always was seen as a long-shot, even though that outlook brightened somewhat last month when the Obama Administration announced that it would reverse a Bush Administration policy of requiring all transit applications to be judged first on cost-effectiveness.

That departure made projects like trolley lines that remove relatively few cars from the highways more likely to pass review. (Fort Worth's portion of the application was not successful.)

The U.S. Department of Transportation described the $23 million street car grant like this:

The proposed streetcar line originates in Downtown Dallas at Harwood and Main Street, continuing down Main Street to Houston Street through the largest job center in the North Texas area. The line has a stop at Union Station in Downtown Dallas, which provides access to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Authority's Red/Blue Light rail lines and to Fort Worth via the Trinity Railway Express. It also includes stops at the Dallas Convention Center and Hotel, Trinity River Park (which will be among the largest urban parks in the United States), Methodist Medical Center, the Oak Cliff Gateway area and multiple residential areas.

The announcement was made by Lahood in Washington, but also to some Dallas officials by U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas.

...

As a DART employee (and Native Houstonian), I'm glad to see all the great comments about our system. I'm hoping METRO overcomes all the politics and becomes successful with their plans. It would be a great thing for Houston to have light rail. You won't believe the change it makes.

A question for DFWcre8ive: I believe the terminus for the DCTA A-Train has been moved to Frankford-North Carollton. Have you heard anything on that?

I haven't heard about the A-Train terminus change. All the recent documents I've read still have it ending at Trinity Mills, but I suppose that could change. Is there any room at Frankford Station for another platform?

DART Green Line construction photos from November. These are new images from DART's site (there are many more there not pictured below): http://www.dart.org/newsroom/imagelibrary.asp

Buckner

Lake June

Lawnview

Hatcher

Market Center

Southwestern Medical Center/Parkland

Inwood

Love Field

Bachman (3 tracks/4 platforms for interchange between Green Line and Orange Line)

Walnut Hill/Denton

Farmers Branch

Downtown Carrollton

Trinity Mills (an unusual design as it will be the terminus for DCTA's A-Train and has a separate track/shared platform for that service)

North Carrollton/Frankford

Here's the newly restored esplanade fountain that was dedicated in December 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwewB4uw1zo

Once the cafe opens in January there should be more activity, and those little green garden roofs and covered pavilion will have movable tables and chairs under them. There are a lot of little things that they are still working on, and the large green lawn in the center is roped off until the roots have a start. It's not a very large park, but it's the perfect size for this area of downtown. I'll try to get some ground level photos once things finally get more complete.

Here's a photo I took yesterday of Main Street Garden.

Not bad...

Oncor's decision to stay gives downtown Dallas more energy

12:00 AM CST on Friday, December 11, 2009

Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/sbrown/stories/DN-recol_11bus.ART.State.Edition1.3cf8fed.html

Oncor's 500 office workers would have been a nice package to put under some suburb's Christmas tree.

Instead, Oncor chose to invest more than just people downtown. It's in final negotiations to buy the 265,000-square-foot office complex near the Dallas Arts District.

That property – which is perhaps the biggest potential billboard on the Dallas skyline – has been empty for more than five years.

Dozens of potential tenants have kicked the tires on the complex, but no one would do the deal.

But with the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science going up across the freeway and construction on the Woodall Rodgers Park almost at the front door, even Mr. Magoo could see the potential of this property.

...

Oncor is the second major downtown office tenant in recent months to recommit.

In October, accounting firm Deloitte decided to consolidate its local operations in the Chase Tower on Ross Avenue after looking at options in other parts of the city.

And businesses moving into downtown from other areas this year have filled close to 400,000 square feet of office space, officials with the economic development group Downtown Dallas estimate.

"And there have been a ton of renewals and expansions," Downtown Dallas CEO John Crawford said. "Not only do we have a lot of companies relocating to the center city, but we are keeping what we have."

I've driven by Main Street Gardens several times. You can barely notice it. It is very small. I can't speak to the swankiness because I have never walked around. But I can tell you the part of DT Dallas that it is located feels dead to me. There is some large abandoned Mid Century hotel (with a lot of potential) that is right next to it. And lots of homeless people in the area.

I'm sure the Woodall Rodgers Freeway Park will be better situated given it's proximity to the Arts District. But that is also several times smaller than DiscoGreen.

True, Main Street Garden is pretty small compared to other cities' urban parks. Pacific Plaza will be a 3 acre park 2 blocks away, and The Park on top of Woodall Rodgers will have more in common with Discovery Green. But Main Street Garden has been very active since day 1. Unlike Discovery Green, Main Street Garden is framed by structures in the Harwood Historic District that represent a wide range of architectural styles. There's only one surface lot catty corner to the park that has the potential for new development. The cafe in the park should open next month to attract even more people. It's a great improvement over the old parking lots, garages and liquor stores that were there before.

As for the Statler (the Mid Century hotel you mention), there are talks of renovation and the overseas owner is finally interested in doing something with their building (LINK). City leaders know that this is one huge structure holding back progress in the district. Other surrounding buildings scheduled for renovation include the: Mercantile Continental building (apartments by Forest City), Atmos Complex (apartments by Hamilton) and Old Municipal Building (law school by UNT). Most of these, along with the Mercantile renovation, were in direct response to the City's commitment to build Main Street Garden.

Here's another one. Nobody's putting too much hope into it, since a new proposal for this structure comes around every few months. But, this may be the one...

1600 Pacific to become The Grand Ricchi, open in 18 months, developer says

4:22 PM Fri, Dec 11, 2009

Rudolph Bush/Reporter

http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/12/1600-pacific-to-become-the-gra.html

A San Antonio developer plans to restore the old LTV Tower at 1600 Pacific into a commercial, hotel and residential project.

Leobardo Trevino said his company, Ricchi Dallas Investments, will preserve the appearance of the building's exterior and its elaborate, wood-paneled second floor.

The rest of the building will be completely renovated, he said.

The first four floors of the project will be complete in 18 months and will include a bank, two restaurants, a bar and a gym, he said.

The remainder of the building will be converted into a hotel and residential condominiums, he said.

The condos will be built as they are sold, although some units will be built.

...

Not to pick on you njeppeson, especially considering that you are one of the few constructive posters on Dallas area topics, but it looks like, of the 10 'projects' you've listed, 4 are plans or talk, 1 is a demo, 1 is a park, and 1 is a rather mundane renovation. It appears that there are 2 actual construction projects, in addition to a recently completed one. But, hey, in this climate, that's better than nothing.

I agree that some of those projects I listed are just announcements and renovations, but I wanted to throw them out there for updates. Compared to a lot of areas in Dallas (and around the country), downtown is doing OK and the area hasn't been completely abandoned by developers. The City is trying to keep recent momentum going, despite the setbacks, to hopefully produce a more vibrant, livable downtown. The sum of all of these various renovations and "small" projects is greater than one or two new buildings that contribute nothing to the urban environment. The new Main Street Garden has changed the east end of downtown overnight, bringing families and downtown residents to an area that was previously desolate. Much like Discovery Green has done for downtown Houston, these new parks are going to change the perception of downtown Dallas.

Downtown is headed in the right direction and we've come a long way in just the past few years. But there are still a lot of transit gaps and underutilized structures in the business district. The new Downtown Dallas 360 Plan is going to merge all previous area plans into one strategic map for development. It includes connecting the disjointed districts with streetcars and sustainable development; creating affordable urban housing options; and expanding and promoting the area's identity. The slowdown in the economy may be the perfect opportunity to reevaluate the area's potential and wisely plan for the future. And until private developers start back with their plans (Victory Park included), the City and cultural institutions will keep up the pace.

Therefore, I'll keep posting about little things that may seem meaningless to readers 250 miles away but add up to big improvements for downtown Dallas. I think Houston and Dallas can learn a lot from each other's small and large scale urban development. Though we both have pride in our respective cities, we're not all that different.

I don't understand how those photos have anything to do with downtown Dallas.

Back on topic... here are some things from the past month relating to development, with only a few new cranes:

- Main Street Garden opened November 13th.

- The plan for Belo Garden, another downtown park on Main Street, was approved this week.

- There are 2 tower cranes up for the Omni Dallas Convention Center Hotel.

- The Perot Museum of Nature and Science (in Victory Park) broke ground November 18th.

- On November 23rd Central Dallas Community Development Corporation announced their architect selection for the Re:Vision Dallas project, which will turn a parking lot into the world's first truly sustainable city block.

- Reunion arena is no more.

- First Baptist Church Dallas revealed their new campus development program, which includes demolition of historic structures, restoration of the original church and construction of a new 1.5 million square feet, LEED certified 3,000-seat worship center and six-floor education building.

- The downtown YMCA (now the T. Boone Pickens YMCA) was rededicated after a $5 million renovation.

- Downtown Dallas 360, the new comprehensive area plan for the central city, has started their research phase.

- And of course, the AT&T Performing Arts Center opened, and construction is being made on The Park (covering Woodall Rodgers Freeway).

LARGER MAP

You can watch the documentary in its entirety here: http://video.kera.org/video/1340922147/

While focusing heavily on the Trinity's effect on Dallas/Fort Worth, it also talks about the Trinity Canal project all the way to the coast and the series of canals/locks/lakes that were planned.

Here's a video showing CityLights and the new Main Street Garden:

Not exactly DART, but here are new drawings of the DCTA commuter rail vehicles on order.

Before:

After:

Pretty spot-on critique of the project

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a018f4d6-bf63-11de-a696-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

The Arts District is the cultural version of that city. Here star projects sit in self-satisfied isolation, unrelated to each other, unconcerned. Valet parking attendants ensure that patrons arrive and depart without being contaminated by any sense of urban life. The two new buildings try, and broadly fail, to address the problems. Yet they are far from failures in themselves.

...

Both the new Dallas buildings function well; they do what was asked of them and provide genuinely world-class facilities by star architects. The problem lies more with the conception of the Arts District. Within minutes of the end of each inaugural performance, the only public animation of the surrounding spaces was a mass of shivering patrons waiting for their cars to be returned. And then nothing. It was all over.

If these buildings are supposed to be part of an effort to “regenerate” or “reconnect” the city centre, they have failed. Dallas is indeed special because it is so generic. Both buildings reflect on this. Koolhaas’s is critical and consequently compelling, Foster’s is didactic in its attempts to Europeanise the cultural quarter through an architectural style that is itself massively influenced by US corporate modernism.

Have you spent much time in the new AT&T PAC? I've been there the past 2 nights for performances and there is a lot of activity going on. Last night, for example, there were simultaneous performances at the Meyerson, Winspear and Wyly and a lot of the patrons were hanging out at One Arts Plaza before and after the shows. Until some of the gaps are filled in with additional development there activity will still be spotty, but it has definitely increased.

Here's a great article discussing all the features of the park which opens in a few weeks (with all of the rain we have had construction has been slow).

Willis Winters Gives Us a Slightly Soggy, Kind of Early Walking Tour of Main Street Garden

By Robert Wilonsky in News You Can Actually Use, Actually

Tue., Oct. 27 2009 @ 2:11PM

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2009/10/a_slightly_soggy_kind_of_early.php

​Willis Winters, assistant director of the city's Park and Recreation Department, was kind enough to give Unfair Park a tour of the $17-million Main Street Garden this morning -- and by "garden," I mean mud pit and swimmin' hole. Hence, Winters's acknowledgment that, yes, it's quite likely the garden -- the first of several planned downtown parks -- won't be quite ready for its November 13 official debut, especially with more rain in the forecast for week's end.

"The rain is killin' us," says Winters. "We were originally shooting for November 5, and actually there will be quite a bit done by November 5. It will be presentable by November 13. We're trying to prioritize what will be finished right now. There's a slight chance that date will change. But that's due to scheduling, not construction." He's referring to the fact several council members are scheduled to attend the National League of Cities convention in San Antonio that week.

​Still, he says, the park's "in good shape" for the November 20 City Lights Christmas-tree lighting ceremony, when DowntownDallas will debut New York-based landscape architect Thomas Balsley's 60-foot-tall tree. (Addison-based Excitement Technologies, which has done work at Cowboys Stadium, is handling the lighting and production, says DowntownDallas's Kourtney Garrett.)

"As you can see, we're trying to work around" the mud and water, Winters says. "All the activity today is on the perimeter, and we're trying to scrape the mud to the center. That's the easiest thing to finish at the last, so now they're just using it as a staging area."

After the jump, Winters walks us through the park's amenities. But first question's first: Will the Lily Pad, the city's first foray into the eat-and-drink business, serve alcohol? "They want to," he says, mentioning beer and wine and the TABC. So, with that out of the way ... jump, but watch the mud.

...

Which brings us to an area that, at present, looks like a cemetery -- but only because, well, it is. What you see here are rescued remnants of buildings that once stood on this part of downtown, which Winters, who's also a noted city historian, was delighted to keep in order to pay homage to downtown's past.

"For example, if you look across the street and look at the limestone on the original Hilton, we took the stone and saved them to redisplay them here," he says, noting that they do, indeed, look like tombstones. "It's an artifact to commemorate the buildings. And there will be an interpretive graphic that will talk about the history of this part of downtown and its development from the 1870s to current day and show how it transformed from small houses to big buildings."

​And, finally, our last stop: the stage. Though Winters says there will actually be two -- including a smaller one just to the left of the main one, closer to Commerce Street. Also near there will be the old neon "PARK" sign once directing people to the gold-ringed parking garage that used to sit on the spot. It's being refurbished for installation next month.

"I just love the fact this park is surrounded by so many eras of Dallas architecture," Winter says. "There's the 1913 City Hall, the 1926 Hilton, the Tiches building from the '20s, the Mercantile from the late '40s, the Statler and library form the late '50s and the Comerica building from the '80s. It's surrounded by all these significant buildings, and we felt by putting this park here it would open up all these great vistas and remind people of their prominence and importance."

...

Well first things first... I'm in love with the new Winspear, and have already bought tickets to Don Pasquale in February. What a beautiful Opera House!!!

Secondly, not loving what I've seen of the Wyly theater... it looks like something that Houston would build. It's gray, big/box, angular-ness is the antithesis of Winspear (which makes it even weirder to have them so close together). Hopefully when I experience the facility, I'll feel differently.

D-CPA isn't going to "enliven downtown"... it's too far away from the rest of downtown for that to happen. It's also not going to help Victory much. It's in a retail dead zone, and it will be a couple more years before anyone lives in the area. At best, it's going to create another "zone of activity" for the downtown area, but it won't cause people to actually move back and live there. The missing people of the puzzle in Dallas is still figuring out how to connect Downtown and Victory Park. Once that's done, the area will be able to revitalize.

Actually, people have been living in the Arts District for a few years now since the opening of One Arts Plaza (60 condos). The residents just had a hard time walking to everything since Flora was a construction zone until last week. An additional 228 apartments will be open next summer (Link) and other condos have just opened across Woodall Rodgers (Link). With the opening of the AT&T Performing Arts Center (or ATT PAC; formerly Dallas Center for the Performing Arts) Flora is now a full "avenue of the arts" with good pedestrian infrastructure connecting residences, offices and venues. There are 14 dining establishments in the district, but as more of the remaining lots are developed it will be important to include street level dining and retail that serves the neighborhood well.

Of course this is going to influence development and visits to downtown Dallas! The Arts District is only a few blocks away from the downtown transit mall and the extension of the MATA streetcar to St Paul Station next summer (and future modern streetcar) will help strengthen that connection (Link). The construction of The Park, which has already begun, will connect Uptown and Downtown in the Arts District (Link). The Arts District has launched a new website jointly marketing all of the neighborhood's veunues and activities (Link). While none of these things will single-handedly revitalize downtown, as a whole they make the downtown area a much more desirable, livable place.

Victory long ago chose to isolate themselves from the rest of downtown, and you can see the result of that thinking. With the Green Line now open there is daily rail service to the district, but until more density and a less-exclusive mentality is introduced it will be an area only utilized for sporting events.

The Park (formerly Woodall Rodgers Deck Park) has started construction. This weekend the freeway will be closed to remove some of the overhead bridges.

There's a new website here: http://www.theparkdallas.org/

Photos by Ninjatune:

(BTW)