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UWS: State National Bank (4 ST/2007)


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#51 Sam Stone

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Posted 05 June 2007 - 10:29 AM

I'll have to reserve final judgement until I see it in person. For now it looks like a C+. I think the scale is very appropriate. The decoractive brick columns help it out a lot. Imagine the building without them. It would look a lot more like the many indistiguishable 1960s-1980s boxes around the city. No, the problems with this building that I can see from the picture are:
1. The lack of a decorative cornice to visually distinguish the parapet from the rest of the building. I think this could have been done very easliy and cheaply with a few courses of decorative brickwork.
2. Reflective windows on the groundfloor. I like that they used storefront style divided light windows on the ground floor, but they are undone by the reflective windows.
3. The building appears to be set back too far from the corner. This is likely in response to the grade changes on the site, but there might have been a more elegant solution that could have brought the building up to the corner.
4. The decorative corner treatment is on the wrong corner. It should very obviously be facing the intersection. This is probably the most boneheaded mistake in the design.


#52 cberen1

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Posted 05 June 2007 - 12:49 PM

QUOTE(Sam Stone @ Jun 5 2007, 11:29 AM) View Post

. The decorative corner treatment is on the wrong corner. It should very obviously be facing the intersection. This is probably the most boneheaded mistake in the design.


I generally agree with your post (although I'm a little more optimistic), but I disagree on this point. With the Klabzuba building to the northeast having a similar corner treatment, there is an opportunity for a recurring architectural element in that five or six block area.

Also, I don't think it makes sense to have buildings facing 7th street as though it will ever be a pedestrian friendly boulevard. Who in the world wants to walk down 7th? There is too much traffic now and it is only going to increase. The area north of 7th should face inward and the area south of 7th should face inward. 5th street could have some great, pedestrian focused businesses as could 10th.

#53 Sam Stone

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Posted 06 June 2007 - 12:01 PM

You think that how pedestrian friendly a street is is a function of the number of cars traveling down it? I beg to differ. Pedestrian friendliness has to do more with the quality of the traffic than the quantity. A pedestrian friendly street is one on which the pedestrians feel adequately buffered from car traffic. Wider streets, faster moving traffic, and greater number of cars do require more buffering. Therefore, with the proper amount of buffering pedestrian friendly streets could be achieved with any amount of traffic. In practice, this may not be true. There are places in FL where 8, 10, and even 12 lanes are common. The sheer walking distances preclude these areas from being pedestrian friendly. But 7th St is hardly built on that scale.

There are indeed other factors that help determine how pedestrian friendly a street is. These include the number and variety of destinations, level of activity, visual interest of buildings, locations of entrances, etc. What that means is that a street can be made to be pedestrian friendly. It is not forever fated to be one way or another. If the all future buildings constructed along it are required to include pedestrian friendly features, then 7th St. has a good chance of becoming pedestrian friendly. But when we drop the ball (or in the case of State National Bank, only partially drop the ball), then we get a street that is less pedestrian friendly.

#54 Fort Worthology

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Posted 06 June 2007 - 12:23 PM

Exactly.

As for some of the other streets becoming the pedestrian streets - the SNB building kinda ruined that idea, too, thanks to its ridiculous parking system. That parking garage consumes all the land down to 5th, so now going down fifth you just get the Mallick Tower garage and the SNB garage. Ick. That parking structure is way overblown - no way a four-story bank needs that much parking. And thanks to it, we can forget about filling out that block with more development - half of it was consumed for that parking structure.

--

Kara B.

 


#55 vjackson

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Posted 07 June 2007 - 07:55 AM

Well said Sam. W7th could easily have become a pedestrian friendly connection from DTFW into the cultural district. The city of FW needs to be pushing some sort of development plan and stop leaving the "vision" solely to cost-cutting developers.


#56 cberen1

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Posted 07 June 2007 - 01:03 PM

QUOTE(Sam Stone @ Jun 6 2007, 01:01 PM) View Post

You think that how pedestrian friendly a street is is a function of the number of cars traveling down it?


I never said it was the only factor. My point is simply that 7th is not now pedestrian friendly nor is it likely to ever be. There is little opportunity for buffering because the set-backs are so small. The street isn't particulary wide and neither are the sidewalks and there's no on street parking. SNB didn't do this to 7th street, it just didn't help matters any. If they had tried to be the first pedestrian friendly, 7th street facing business, it wouldn't have brought any pedestrians. No one would walk to that bank that isn't willing to do it as it sits now.

Forget 7th. It's just what you drive down to get from DT to the cultural district. No one wants to walk from Summit to Stayton, regardless of the arcitecture and options along the way because of the distance. No one wants to walk back because it is uphill.

Start at Cherry st. and go west.

Burnett Parking Garage: Never gonna change
Methodist Church Parking Lots (4 of them): Never gonna sell.
Parking Lot (next to Burnett Garage): Could become something...
Limestone bank: Never gonna change
Firestone Apartments: Residential, trees, not bad
Smith Sweeney lot: HUGE pedestrian opportunity
Cattle Raisers Building: Not a pedestrian destination, but maybe could be...
FW Weekly: Pedestrian possibilities
Empty Lot: Pedestrian opportunity
7-11: Pedestrian neutral, not an attraction
SNB: Apparently a huge blight on dowtown
Two demolition ready blocks (mechanic, old houses): Pedestrian opportunity.
EECU: Not friendly, never gonna be
Bank: Pedestrian neutral, not an attraction
Cash America: Not friendly, never gonna be
Law Firm: Not Friendly, never gonna be
Long Bridge/River: Narrow Sidewalks, pedestrian neutral, no shade, down hill, poor river access
Park: Never gonna change, pedestrian friendly enough, not a destination
Woodmont Office: Pedestrian neutral, not an attraction
Blocks from Woodmont to Stayton: Huge Pedestrian Opportunity

I have trouble seeing there ever being enough pedestrians east of the river who want to walk across the river and back up the hill to get back. There is too much along 7th that is already destined to never contribute to a pedestrian friendly area. It just doesn't make sense to spend money accomodating walkers that aren't ever going to be there.

I agree on the suckiness of the SNB parking structure. But if the economics warrant, you can always tear it down later.



#57 vjackson

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Posted 07 June 2007 - 02:22 PM

^^^^
I came to FW last weekend with a girl from DC. It was her first time in FW and after showing her around the Southside, TCU, Cultural District and Camp Bowie her comment was that on a beautiful sunny Saturday, there was absolutely no one walkiing...anywhere. (Except downtown which she said was "cute")

You made a good point...one of the reasons no one walks on W7th is because there's really nothing to walk to. Put something there like, I don't know...a light rail station and TOD, and you'll see the foot traffic something like that can bring. I still think the potential is there. This is Texas and few if any of the older commerical corridors here will ever go totally urban. But I still think the right developments with the right draw can have people trotting down W7th.

Of course that's never going to happen if crap like UWS continues to litter the street.

#58 cbellomy

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Posted 07 June 2007 - 04:12 PM

QUOTE(vjackson @ Jun 7 2007, 03:22 PM) View Post

^^^^
I came to FW last weekend with a girl from DC. It was her first time in FW and after showing her around the Southside, TCU, Cultural District and Camp Bowie her comment was that on a beautiful sunny Saturday, there was absolutely no one walkiing...anywhere.


"Come back next month and you'll get a pretty good idea why."



#59 RD Milhollin

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Posted 07 June 2007 - 11:47 PM

QUOTE(cbellomy @ Jun 7 2007, 04:12 PM) View Post

"Come back next month and you'll get a pretty good idea why."


If developers and the city are going to get serious about having vibrant pedestrian areas there are going to have to be trees planted next the walkways.

#60 John T Roberts

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Posted 30 January 2008 - 11:06 PM

Brand new "State National Bank" Signs to come down due to bank purchases and mergers. This is on the Downtown Design Review Board's February agenda:

DG08-014 1400 W 7th Street; Compass Bank
Owner / Applicant: Compass Bank / Philadelphia Sign Company
DUDD
Requests a Certificate of Appropriateness to remove existing State National Bank
signage and to install:
1. Two (2) sets of 42-inch high by 40-feet 2-1/2-inch wide LED painted illuminated
aluminum letters reading “Compass Bank” on the upper East and upper West
elevations. (Signs #1, and #2);
2. 24-inch high by 24-feet 1-inch wide LED painted illuminated aluminum letters reading
“Compass Bank” on the East lower elevation;
3. Three (3) sets of 9-inch high by 6-feet 6-inch wide non-illuminated painted aluminum
letters reading “Compass Bank” on the Northwest, Northeast, and Southwest
elevations of cube sign. (Signs #4, #5, and #6);
4. Vinyl decal with logo and hours that is 24-inches high by 20-inches wide on entrance
to building on East elevation;
5. Vinyl decal with logo and hours that is 24-inches high by 20-inches wide on entrance
to bank in the interior;
6. 5-inch high by 22-inch wide vinyl decal for drive-up hours on drive-up window on East
elevation;
7. Painted aluminum with lexan face 12-inch high by 3-feet 1 1/2 inch wide single faced
illuminated ATM box reading “24 Hour ATM” on the South elevation; and
8. New single faced illuminated ATM topper onto ATM machine located on the South
elevation. Topper is painted aluminum with routed faced and is 1-foot 4-inches high
by 3-feet 6-inches wide.


#61 John T Roberts

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Posted 16 January 2019 - 10:06 PM

The last post on this building was by me about changing the signs from "State National Bank" to "Compass".  Eleven days ago, I was driving by the building and the Whitley Penn signs were still on the north and west sides.  As of today, they have been replaced with D&M Leasing signs.






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