Jump to content


Photo
- - - - -

1972 WFAA report on rumors of the Tandy Center


  • Please log in to reply
16 replies to this topic

#1 Austin55

Austin55

    Skyscraper Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 9,657 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Near Southside

Posted 03 January 2018 - 11:03 AM



#2 Dylan

Dylan

    Skyscraper Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 2,346 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Suburbia

Posted 04 January 2018 - 12:40 AM

What a blast to watch! It's great to see footage of what the city used to look like.

 

Took a while to figure out what building he's standing on, but I think he's on the criminal courts building.

 

It's real unfortunate that the Leonard's complex, rumored ice rink, and subway are now gone.


-Dylan


#3 JBB

JBB

    Skyscraper Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 7,421 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Dirty suburbs

Posted 04 January 2018 - 11:16 AM

That is a great video.  Good call on his location.  He looks to be on the end of the building where Throckmorton dead ends.

 

I'm way too young to remember Leonard's, but I have fond memories of the mall and the subway.  When I started working for my current employer in the late 90s, we would occasionally park in the lot and ride the subway in for lunch.  My last time in the mall was on September 12, 2001.  I was serving on a jury on the days surrounding 9/11 and I went to the food court for lunch on the last day of the trial.  It had to have shut down for good within a couple of years after that.

 

In looking for when it closed, I found a great Flickr set of photos inside the mall from 2004 when it was largely abandoned. https://www.flickr.c...57621906083264/

 

And a WFAA story on the Outlet Square opening in 1996: https://youtu.be/r5rq_-LQ2Rg

 

Edit: Hmm.  For some reason, the link to the Flickr set isn't working if you click it.  If you copy and paste the link into a browser, it works.



#4 John T Roberts

John T Roberts

    Administrator

  • Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 16,367 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:South Fort Worth
  • Interests:Architecture, Photography, Bicycling, Historic Preservation

Posted 04 January 2018 - 12:09 PM

The reporter is standing on the roof of the Criminal Courts Building, which is the white county structure that sits at the end of Throckmorton Street.  The Tandy Center was actually built more or less to the master plan, at least when it comes to building locations.  More on that later. 

 

I do remember Leonard's and I also remember when the subway opened.  One of you wished that Leonard's had remained.  That was where the hotel was slated to be built in the Master Plan.  It actually was built in that location, but the Tandy Corp. partnered with the Bass Family and what was a 2 block hotel project, became a 3 block hotel project.  The Americana Hotel, now the Renaissance Worthington was built on the main store locations of Leonard's and Stripling's.  If you ask me from a teenage and early 20's future architect's point of view, Stripling's was a much better example of Art Deco and Early 20th Century Architecture than Leonard's.  Even back then, I would have preferred to demolish Leonard's and keep Stripling's.  The mall section and the two Tandy Towers were built where smaller Leonard buildings were located and where their latest construction was completed in 1963.  That was the Home Store across Throckmorton Street. 

 

If you look at the video, you can see the AT&T Building and the Fort Worth National Bank (The Tower) were under construction. 

 

Finally, on to the Master Plan.  The 50 story building had been planned for the westernmost property, and actually the Technology Center was built on that site.  Therefore, all of the master planned buildings were actually constructed in the locations scheduled in the plan.  Finally, those renderings of the Tandy Center are actually located on this site in the Jack White Collection.  Here are two views:

 

 

tandygeneo1.jpg

tandycenter2.jpg



#5 JKC

JKC

    Advanced Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 489 posts
  • Location:Fort Worth

Posted 04 January 2018 - 03:14 PM

A couple of things I have never seen before. Thanks for posting the master plan and that news clip..



#6 Austin55

Austin55

    Skyscraper Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 9,657 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Near Southside

Posted 04 January 2018 - 03:32 PM

The Tandy Center consists of a lot of disappoint to me.

 

Disappointed that the original complex tore down many block of wonderful architecture for some fairly mediocre and not at all city friendly architecture.

 

Disappointed that I never went. Riding a subway to go ice skating? Sounds amazing! And something that will likely never happen again in Fort Worth.

 

Dissapointed that the Technology Center was built the way it was, full of surface parking and fenced off park spaces. And not 50 floors. 

 

Dissapointed that the beautiful proposal for the 2004 remodel was never built.

 

Dissapointed with how it looks now. The Towers have been done up nice, but that garage and retail section in the middle is flat ugly.



#7 John T Roberts

John T Roberts

    Administrator

  • Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 16,367 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:South Fort Worth
  • Interests:Architecture, Photography, Bicycling, Historic Preservation

Posted 04 January 2018 - 04:03 PM

Austin, I do agree with you in that the Tandy Center has been full of a lot of disappointments.  I also wanted to say that I agree with you in that it was a shame that the center demolished several blocks of urban downtown buildings in order to build the complex.  Another thing to bring up is that the original street grid was in place in all of that area of downtown.  The Tandy Center created several superblocks that still have not been fixed.  In my comments about demolishing the old Leonard's Department Store, that was meant to indicate that if you sacrificed either Stripling's or Leonard's to build the hotel, I would have preferred to keep Stripling's, and I have always considered it to be a better example of that period of architecture.  I am glad that you found a photograph of how the Tandy Center originally looked.  Although I do agree with you in that the 2004 proposal was much better than what was actually rebuilt, I do think that each time the center has been remodeled and rebuilt, they have been better than the previous version. 

 

Even though the mall was not pedestrian friendly, it actually had two nice interior spaces.  The most dramatic was the ice skating rink connected to the subway entry point in the basement.  I remember when I was in college riding the subway and the going skating on the rink.  Back in the day, I thought the rink was one of my favorite places in downtown.  Even before the rink was built, I still liked riding the subway into Leonard's.  The store was like its own shopping mall.  You could buy everything there. 

 

I will have more later. 



#8 JBB

JBB

    Skyscraper Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 7,421 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Dirty suburbs

Posted 04 January 2018 - 04:07 PM

I completely forgot about the 2004 proposal.  That would have been great, especially restoring the one street.  The real estate market collapse and pending financial crisis likely doomed that one.



#9 John T Roberts

John T Roberts

    Administrator

  • Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 16,367 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:South Fort Worth
  • Interests:Architecture, Photography, Bicycling, Historic Preservation

Posted 04 January 2018 - 04:08 PM

JKC, one of these days, you and I should get together and I can tell you about how downtown was when I was a kid.



#10 John T Roberts

John T Roberts

    Administrator

  • Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 16,367 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:South Fort Worth
  • Interests:Architecture, Photography, Bicycling, Historic Preservation

Posted 04 January 2018 - 04:12 PM

JBB, considering what we know now from the demolition and the rebuild of the center, I'm not real sure that reopening the street would have been possible.  If you remember, a major utility line was constructed through the basement of the Tandy Center, within the right of way of 2nd Street.  Due to the cost of relocating or rebuilding it, part of the structure supporting it was left in place and the new construction was built around it.  It may have not been able to support the loading of a street and traffic.  The cost may have also been to prohibitive to move it, along with the disruption it would have caused.



#11 Austin55

Austin55

    Skyscraper Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 9,657 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Near Southside

Posted 04 January 2018 - 04:14 PM

The pedestrian passage of 2nd street is the highlight of the existing setup to me. I'm glad they opened that up, but didn't open the street to vehicles. It's a nice urban space.



#12 Austin55

Austin55

    Skyscraper Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 9,657 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Near Southside

Posted 04 January 2018 - 04:22 PM

JBB, considering what we know now from the demolition and the rebuild of the center, I'm not real sure that reopening the street would have been possible.  If you remember, a major utility line was constructed through the basement of the Tandy Center, within the right of way of 2nd Street.  Due to the cost of relocating or rebuilding it, part of the structure supporting it was left in place and the new construction was built around it.  It may have not been able to support the loading of a street and traffic.  The cost may have also been to prohibitive to move it, along with the disruption it would have caused.

 

Here's a gallery where that line is clearly visible.

https://theissphotoc...Worth/i-Wz6Nwrt



#13 JBB

JBB

    Skyscraper Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 7,421 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Dirty suburbs

Posted 04 January 2018 - 04:41 PM

I completely forgot about the utility line.  Austin makes a good point.  The pedestrian pass through is a nice space.



#14 John T Roberts

John T Roberts

    Administrator

  • Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 16,367 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:South Fort Worth
  • Interests:Architecture, Photography, Bicycling, Historic Preservation

Posted 04 January 2018 - 04:48 PM

The pedestrian passage space is definitely a plus.  The 2004 proposal actually put the street back into place.  From those aerials, it appears the line runs directly down the center of the old 2nd Street right-of-way. 

 

As an aside, if you look at the closely spaced columns under Throckmorton Street, you can see the only remaining part of the old Leonard's 1963 or earlier construction, except for the remains of the subway tunnel.  Everything of the Leonard's of my youth has been demolished except for the tunnel under Throckmorton Street and the tunnel under Taylor Street for the subway.  Some of the parking lot and stations are still left along the river, as well.  There is a small portion of existing construction left above grade of their first downtown operations (pre-1930).  Their original location was on Houston Street in the block immediately west of the Courthouse.  Three of their buildings are left there, but all three have been radically altered.  Texas de Brazil is one of those buildings.  If you look at the old photographs of the Leonard's empire, you can see those structures.  After Leonard's moved down the street, their old store across from the Courthouse was converted into a store called Everybody's.  It was Leonard's discount store.



#15 cbellomy

cbellomy

    Elite Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 652 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Meadowbrook

Posted 05 January 2018 - 02:40 PM

Also prominently visible at the very beginning of the clip is Monnig's, replaced by one of our many beautiful surface parking lots.



#16 John T Roberts

John T Roberts

    Administrator

  • Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 16,367 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:South Fort Worth
  • Interests:Architecture, Photography, Bicycling, Historic Preservation

Posted 05 January 2018 - 04:13 PM

Chris, I am hoping there will be a remedy to that issue, soon.



#17 Austin55

Austin55

    Skyscraper Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 9,657 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Near Southside

Posted 16 March 2018 - 03:06 PM

Here's another video from SMU, this time on 1973 recommendations for the City to buy and expand the subway.

 






1 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users