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#1 Brian Luenser

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Posted 10 November 2008 - 09:46 PM

I took some pictures of the Carnegie Saturday evening at dusk with my tripod. The reason I did, was to show the new lighting. While the photo's were good enough, photographically, they are not worth posting. Why? Dull.

I have come to this conclusion in the last month or two. I do not like the Downtown Fort Worth lighting scheme. (White lights on the corners.)
Tired. Boring. Uninteresting. Unimaginative. Repetitive. So 60's or 70's.

When I get up in the middle of the night and look out my windows, I love it. (After 2am when they turn the icky lights off.) Also, I noticed coming home tonight, they don't have all the lights adjusted to the end of Daylight Savings Time and our short days. I very much like it. In particular, I noticed the two Bass Buildings. I like the looks of them and think they are holding up well to the decades, style wise. This evening, at 6pm, one of the Bass Towers was externally illuminated and the other wasn't. The one that was off, to me, by far, looked better.

I do understand it is more difficult to do fancy illumination on a glass building, and a string of lights is about all you can do. (Though no exterior lights looks better.) But how about the Carnegie? It could have had very pretty lighting shining on the sides. And how about colors. Other city's use more color. I loved the Chesapeake Building a week ago in Halloween Orange. They could have left it that way for me. I miss the City colors. The neon. The interesting displays. The pictures of Fort Worth 50 years ago look terrific to me.

The huge grain elevators on the East side of downtown. (Purina?) They are not illuminated at all. They would look great with colored lights on them at night. A couple of thousand bucks and we have turned an old eyesore into a pretty point of interest.

The Tower's Crown is magnificent. It is the highlight of driving toward downtown. It is interesting. People can use their imagination... "What's going on up there?" is it a restaurant or a revolving observatory or something?" It looks great. The Fort Worth Club looks nice with lights shining on the sides of the building. As does the W. T. Waggoner Building. Carter Burgess. Ick. Their lights are not as nice as those on the Bass Towers. They look extra dated and useless. Pull those white suckers and put blue lights in their sockets. Or red or something.

Fort Worth had a great idea decades ago to illuminate the corners of their buildings. Now it just looks like Christmas in a neighborhood full of identical houses. (Where they think they need to highlight each ridge on their roof or face eternal damnation. ) I guess I am tired of white lights. Life is too short for white lights. They are no longer elegant or classy. Just cheap and boring. Colors are best. Nothing is second best.
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#2 cbellomy

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Posted 10 November 2008 - 10:05 PM

Preach, brotha, preach!


#3 360texas

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Posted 11 November 2008 - 12:38 PM

We visit Cancun each year. While driving the Hotel Zone at night we saw that the La Isla Shopping Village Km 12.5 exterior (street side) is bathed in solid sheet of soft light cylcing every 20 seconds or so through red, pink, blue and green. The building facia is essentially white so it reflects the colors nicely.

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#4 JKC

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Posted 12 November 2008 - 04:44 PM

Opinions obviously vary.

#5 Phil Phillips

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Posted 12 November 2008 - 07:53 PM

The building lights are very traditional, even though now not limited to the holiday season, and the lights in the trees along the streets are attractive, IMHO. I would prefer wonderful neon signs and creative building lighting to supplement the traditional. Surely, there is a middle ground between boring and Las Vegas.

#6 John T Roberts

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Posted 12 November 2008 - 09:03 PM

When I was a kid, I always loved to see the downtown skyscrapers outlined in the yellow lights. Even as an adult, until the buildings started lighting up year round, it was a treat. I think the traditional lights started losing their luster when the building owners decided to keep the lights turned on year round. The 1995 hail storm put the first nail into the coffin on the tradition for Christmas, and the 2000 Tornado put in the final nail. I actually tried to use this forum as an avenue to bring back the tradition, but that idea fell flat on its face. Now, since the few buildings that use the traditional lights don't keep them maintained, it looks really bad. I'm in agreement here that there should be new and old styles mixed along with creative signs and new lighting ideas. That would give the skyline a unique and random look. I'm all for new ideas.

#7 Brian Luenser

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Posted 28 November 2008 - 07:39 PM

Last night at midnight, I look out my window and see this projection on the wall of the Kress Building. Have never seen such a thing here in Fort Worth. (Or anywhere, I guess)

It is not there tonight. Says Access Fort Worth if you can read it by the time I reduce this image to squeeze through the net.




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#8 David Love

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Posted 28 November 2008 - 09:28 PM

Use to be pretty common for clubs in California a couple decades ago, generally coincides with a sponsored event by a radio station or promoter of some sort. Kind of like the high powered light show courtesy of Maxim Magazine at City Streets a couple years back, it's easier to tell radio listeners to look for the "?" on the side of the building than tell them it's located between these four streets.

Perhaps they’re just testing out their new Gotham “Bat-Signal” for the growing numbers of after dark urbanites… ironic.

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#9 jefffwd

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Posted 29 November 2008 - 08:24 AM

Mystery solved. http://accessfw.com/

#10 Recyclican

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Posted 24 December 2008 - 04:23 AM

Monee (and John), it looks like you have a few Star-Telegram fans that read posts on the forum: http://www.star-tele...ry/1110573.html


Bud Kennedy: A dying Fort Worth tradition?
By BUD KENNEDY
bud@star-telegram.com

I hate to interrupt any last-minute holiday weapons shopping.

But something important is happening in Fort Worth, and we ought to speak up.

In this 50th year, the holiday tradition of lighting the downtown skyline has faded, mostly because of civic neglect.

The new Omni Fort Worth Hotel is 34 stories tall.

Nobody bothered to outline it in holiday lights.

Ever since 1959, when an insurance agent strung two office buildings with 25-watt amber bulbs, downtown Fort Worth has twinkled like a greeting card.

By the night in November 1963 when Air Force One made a special pass over the city for President Kennedy, 61 buildings were gleaming with light.

"Spectacular," he said.

Yet Omni Hotels’ manager and Dallas-based lighting designer both relayed messages this week saying that the skyline lighting just didn’t fit their plan.

Neither even bothered to return a call.

The hotel will have its own "dramatic" year-round lighting that will make the Omni "stand out as an ornament," designer Andy Lang wrote in a short e-mail relayed by a publicist.

Fine.

So why not add a row of twinkling holiday lights?

Why not get in line with a tradition that has made Fort Worth proud for 50 years?

Sadly, when it comes to our holiday lights, City Hall has been asleep at the switch.

The appointed Downtown Design Review Board approves uniform central-city signs, lighting and aesthetics, based on rules adopted by the City Council.

Yet even though the rules have been around for nearly 10 years, it was not until this year that someone suggested requiring the lights.

"It’s amazing to me that they weren’t required all along," said architect Ames Fender, a descendant of an established Fort Worth family and the immediate past chairman of the review board.

"It’s a unique tradition that you don’t find in any other city this size that I’m aware of. It’s a connection back in time — it speaks to how Fort Worth is a big city with a small-town feel."

The city-affiliated Omni was approved before the board discussed the lights, city senior planner Vida Hariri responded by e-mail.

Chesapeake Plaza, built in 2004 as Pier 1 Place, also has its own gaudy lighting scheme.

The original amber lights were strung at the suggestion of insurance agent Hubert J. Foster. The idea was promoted by business owners and the Building Owners and Managers Association.

A half-century later, BOMA still reminds landlords when to turn the lights on and off for the holidays and Fort Worth Stock Show. Newer buildings, including the repaired Tower and 33 blocks of Sundance Square, sport built-in white lights.

Architect John T. Roberts, the keeper of downtown lore at www.fortwortharchitecture.com, said he has been pessimistic about the lights’ fate.

"The tradition is pretty well gone," he said. "The tornado in 2000 wiped it out."

That was after a 1995 hailstorm, one of the most damaging in American history, pounded three-fourths of the old lights to dust.

Building managers have said for years that new lights cost too much, he said.

But what’s the price of a 50-year legacy?

#11 John T Roberts

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Posted 24 December 2008 - 09:48 AM

If I was designing a new high rise building in downtown, I would "build in" two different lighting systems. One would be the traditional white lights at fairly close spacing that would be only turned on from Thanksgiving until New Years and for the Stock Show. This would give the effect of outlining the buildings and would make the holiday season "special". The other would be a more dramatic type of decorative lighting that would burn for the rest of the year. The Christmas Lights would be LED type and the others would also be very energy efficient. The only thing about this idea is that it would add to the construction cost of a new building, but it might be worth it. The only fly in the ointment could be the new energy codes. I know that the latest versions also regulate exterior lighting, but I don't know how that works with decorative lighting. Highly energy efficient lighting of this type might still allow the building's exterior to pass the Energy Code Analysis.

#12 Now in Denton

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Posted 29 December 2008 - 01:32 PM

QUOTE (John T Roberts @ Dec 24 2008, 09:48 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
The only fly in the ointment could be the new energy codes. I know that the latest versions also regulate exterior lighting, but I don't know how that works with decorative lighting. Highly energy efficient lighting of this type might still allow the building's exterior to pass the Energy Code Analysis.


I say turn off all decorative lighting at 1 AM. Midnight would be too early especially during Christmas time.

#13 Brian Luenser

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Posted 06 October 2009 - 10:07 AM

Now this may fall under the "Hasn't this guy got something better to do" category but I can't help myself.

This morning at 6am I look outside to see the Carter Burgess lights going on and off. Like a bad short circuit.

If you are a building maintenance guy or a Carter Burgess person or just have an extra 25 seconds for something silly, check out this 25 second video. Shot with my 5D Mk II handheld with my 50 1.2L
I fully expect this to go viral and win video of the year! I also expect taxes to go down next year.



BTW I see flags atop the Transport Life Building for the first time in this video!
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#14 BlueMound

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Posted 25 November 2009 - 11:00 PM

Thumbs up to the Museum Place building (the one with Eddie V's).
I really like the single neon light line that vertically runs down its front.


#15 mmiller2002

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Posted 30 November 2009 - 01:16 PM

The problem I have with the lights is that there's always burned-out bulbs, so it never really looks good. It's a maintenance problem and wastes energy. I like the holiday season-only idea. Makes it special.

#16 Volare

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Posted 09 December 2009 - 08:18 AM

QUOTE (Recyclican @ Dec 24 2008, 04:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
...

Yet Omni Hotels’ manager and Dallas-based lighting designer both relayed messages this week saying that the skyline lighting just didn’t fit their plan.

Neither even bothered to return a call.

The hotel will have its own "dramatic" year-round lighting that will make the Omni "stand out as an ornament," designer Andy Lang wrote in a short e-mail relayed by a publicist.
...


Ok, your building is done. Where is the lighting? Putting a few spotlights on your ugly AC tower doesn't count and certainly doesn't qualify as an "ornament"

#17 Volare

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Posted 09 December 2009 - 08:26 AM

I noticed last night that the Chesapeake building is doing some experiements with lighting. Back when all the building were going purple for the TCU games, I recall the Chesapeke folks saying in the FWST that they had to purchase gels to go over the spotlights, in order to do their color changes, but that they were looking for more flexible and permanent solutions going forward. Well, it looks like they have found something. Last night, in addition to the standard green and red Holiday colors, one small section of the east facing portion of the top was doing the rainbow dance. I stopped and took a short video that you can check out here:

Video Link

#18 Brian Luenser

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Posted 09 December 2009 - 10:34 AM

QUOTE (Volare @ Dec 9 2009, 08:26 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I noticed last night that the Chesapeake building is doing some experiements with lighting. Back when all the building were going purple for the TCU games, I recall the Chesapeke folks saying in the FWST that they had to purchase gels to go over the spotlights, in order to do their color changes, but that they were looking for more flexible and permanent solutions going forward. Well, it looks like they have found something. Last night, in addition to the standard green and red Holiday colors, one small section of the east facing portion of the top was doing the rainbow dance. I stopped and took a short video that you can check out here:

Video Link



Fun clip!

I do wonder how they do it. Of course Santa weighs 350 lbs. and goes down chimneys so anything is possible at Christmas.
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#19 jamaicabraden

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Posted 01 September 2010 - 07:07 AM

I took some pictures of the Carnegie Saturday evening at dusk with my tripod. The reason I did, was to show the new lighting. While the photo's were good enough, photographically, they are not worth posting. Why? Dull.


I feel you. I do feel that same way here in our place. Dull lighting which reminds me of old crap lighting from 60's. I wish they could provide better illumination at night just like with Hinkley Lighting.




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