We went on a construction tour of this project earlier in the week, but a busy week has made it difficult find time to write about it.
The different elements are at different stages of completion, but as you would expect with the various opening targets, the project is pretty far along.
It is clear that it is a project with both careful intentioned planning, and also a willingness to do more; invest more, if it creates a better end result. Whereas “value engineering” is about costs-first, and perhaps making design compromises, this project gives good attention to the non-dollar-sign columns of the spreadsheet too. This is done not by being extravagant, but by doing everything that is necessary to make an elegant, functional, and aesthetically beautiful complex that serves many roles: hotel; restaurants, bars, event space, spa, office space, and living space. Even the integrated parking is well thought-through.
It had not really sunk in what a wonderful location this is in the cultural core of our city. Not only do you have views of The Modern, The Kimbell, Will Rogers, Dickies, the downtown skyline, but there are an abundance of trees all around. The project itself has the courtyard and balconies and outdoor spaces on different levels to make you feel connected to outside more than most projects.
It is oriented in a way that from some locations it feels as though you are suspended out over Camp Bowie with views up and down the street in both directions. It will look like a glowing lantern for people driving by.
The building itself is built with steel and concrete rather than wood, even the apartments. It has a sense of sturdiness and longevity to it — like an investment meant to last. The same is true of the finish materials used.
The whole project is a clear statement that you do not need to drive to the east to get these things, we can have them in our city too. It took someone with confidence in our city to make this kind of investment.
I can’t help but feel like this project starts to fill a void our city has had. Developers have used the risk of the unknown to not to build out this part of the market, or maybe because we just don’t look as good on paper as our neighbors. But it might just be that we didn’t think there could be patronage for projects like this, not because there was not enough demand, but because there has been no supply to test the theory. Indications seem to be that if you put nice products on the shelf, Fort Worth just might buy them also. This is important. We should always have a full range of options for our city, and something like this is certainly not going to be the fix for all of the usual city growing pains. But maybe it can show other developers that we can support the full scope of development.
The other great documenter of the project’s progress on this forum was with me on this tour, and he might have captured some more interesting pictures than I did.
