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#1 Austin55

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Posted 04 January 2018 - 04:24 PM

The Tandy Center talk has got me interested. I've never seen any photos of the library at ground level before the shell addition. Anyone have any/find any?

 

This photo is one of the few I've ever seen of the place.



#2 txbornviking

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Posted 04 January 2018 - 06:29 PM

Great question. I hope we get some good stuff. I remember visiting the downtown library quite a bit growing up as a child, but 100% of the time visiting by taking the Tandy Subway into downtown. I don't believe I ever once entered from street level.



#3 John T Roberts

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Posted 04 January 2018 - 08:07 PM

I'm not coming up with much luck in finding photographs.



#4 Now in Denton

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Posted 05 January 2018 - 05:04 AM

All I can tell you it was not much to look at in the inside. As a kid I entered the tiny building at street level. I recall a reception desk and not much else. If I remember right . I even think it had a escalator and not steps to and from the below ground library ? I think it had elevators also ?  I think part of the reason why they added a full street level building. It would leak when it rains. And even today it still leaks in some outer walls.  



#5 John T Roberts

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Posted 05 January 2018 - 08:13 AM

Now in Denton is correct about adding the street and second level.  That was done to stop the leaks.  The foundation was designed for an eventual above grade building as expansion was needed.



#6 JBB

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Posted 05 January 2018 - 09:45 AM

I've only been in the Central Library a few times and I remember entering at ground level and taking the escalator to the basement.

 

Growing up, we lived in a suburb and we used to go the branch libraries on the south side like the one behind Seminary South and the one on Trail Lake.  A big treat was to go to the new fancy regional library on Hulen.  At some point, the Fort Worth libraries stopped allowing non-residents to get library cards, so we quit going.

 

Here's a tiny photo of the Central Library from the city's website:

 

newcen.gif



#7 jefffwd

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Posted 05 January 2018 - 11:44 AM

Does anyone remember when 105.3 Young Country nearly destroyed the Central Library???   

 

In a stunt-gone-wrong...as part of a Young Country promotion in April, 1994, DJs announced that money had been hidden inside certain books at the Fort Worth Public Library, and fans converged on the library and nearly tore the place to shreds!



#8 Austin55

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Posted 05 January 2018 - 03:51 PM

I've only been in the Central Library a few times and I remember entering at ground level and taking the escalator to the basement.

 

Growing up, we lived in a suburb and we used to go the branch libraries on the south side like the one behind Seminary South and the one on Trail Lake.  A big treat was to go to the new fancy regional library on Hulen.  At some point, the Fort Worth libraries stopped allowing non-residents to get library cards, so we quit going.

 

Here's a tiny photo of the Central Library from the city's website:

 

newcen.gif

 

Just what I was looking for! 

 

Was the Library always incorporated in with the Tandy Center? As in, an always part of the plans sort of way?



#9 John T Roberts

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Posted 05 January 2018 - 04:01 PM

Austin, they were separate projects, but since Tandy Tower II & the mall and the library were on the boards at the same time, and both had basement levels, the Tandy Corporation worked with the City of Fort Worth to make a connection between the two projects.  It also made sense because the subway tunnel extension was below Taylor Street.  I also know that this still would have worked with a future subway extension, since the subway proposals have been posted on this forum.  The plan was to route the subway over to Throckmorton to avoid the already blocked area beneath Taylor Street due to the construction of the Fort Worth National Bank in 1974 (The Tower). 



#10 Dylan

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Posted 05 January 2018 - 04:41 PM

Why was the library built underground to begin with?


-Dylan


#11 John T Roberts

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Posted 05 January 2018 - 07:30 PM

Back in the mid to late '70s, the rage in energy efficient design was underground buildings.  During that time period, two FWISD elementary schools and the Central Library were constructed underground.  Within the last couple of years, the two schools were rebuilt above ground and the underground buildings were demolished, dug up, and filled in.  The library was a little more unique in that it was built underground to be energy efficient and space efficient.  It was designed to have more floors built above grade as the library grew and expanded.  As I had said in an earlier post, the main reason that the building was expanded above grade was to stop the leaks, not to provide for library expansion. For a few years the ground and second floor were basically just "shells" and were not finished out because the City didn't have enough money for the finish-out and the facade and roof were just the method to stop the leaks at the time.  Also, the primary reason Washington Heights and Van Zandt-Guinn Elementaries were placed in the bond was to solve the leaks, not remedy growth of the school. However, I also think over the course of the bond election process, project team selection, and design, the programs for the two schools were changed.  I do know that Van Zandt-Guinn was enlarged to handle the students from the closed I.M. Terrell Elementary School due to the fact that it was selected to be the STEAM academy and converted back to a high school.



#12 jmcgee

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Posted 09 January 2018 - 01:01 PM

Our FWTV studios are in the newer Central Library building.  The space was created when they built a building over the existing Central Library.  That old roof is inside our building.  As are the original exterior walls. We are on one corner, Taylor and 2nd.  Another corner is vacant, another is a garage, another is Friends of the Library I believe.



#13 John T Roberts

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Posted 06 February 2018 - 09:43 PM

Austin, I was on the Fort Worth Public Library’s website today, and i found some good exterior photographs of the building before they built the portions above grade.





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