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cberen1

Member Since 23 Jun 2004
Offline Last Active Oct 31 2019 11:29 AM
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#91344 Solving the "No Market" Situation in Sundance Square

Posted by cberen1 on 04 May 2015 - 08:40 AM

I would think the parking lot along side Kress would work well for a temporary market.




#91231 Trinity River Vision

Posted by cberen1 on 24 April 2015 - 09:10 AM

I like it.  I also very much like the Bluebonnet traffic circle and hope this one is nicer.  The Weatherford traffic circle seems fine to me, but I only drive through there once in a while.

 

I don't much care for the 183/377 traffic circle.

 

 

 

Hey, this is my 1,300th post.   Sometimes, I can't believe how long I've been on this forum.




#91149 Fort Worth Law School to get major upgrade

Posted by cberen1 on 16 April 2015 - 03:12 PM

It is the goal of the system to provide top notch education across a broad spectrum of disciplines to the residents of Texas at a reasonable cost.  To accomplish all of that it has to operate as a collection of diverse campuses that provide different components of the over plan.  In that context, a law school was a noticable gap in a system that has a dental school, a medical school, a veterinary school, graduate programs accross a wide spectrum of sciences and engineering and a strong business school (the law school gap directly impacts the business school).  So they added a law school. 

 

They have a planning horizon of many decades.  Texas A&M will likely invest in the law school consistently over the next 50 years and at some point you'll look up and no one will realize that it wasn't always there.  The "prestige" of the other law schools in the state is imaginary except from SMU and UT.  St. Mary's, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, UNT, Baylor (yes, even Baylor), UH, etc. might as well not even exist as far as the rest of the country is concerned.  So it is entirely possible that the Texas A&M School of Law will overtake several of these programs over the next 50 years.  None of that is a shot at those other schools.  Most of them are fine schools and Baylor produces some of the best legal theoreticians in the business, but outside of Texas no one cares about any of them.

 

As far as competing goes, it's irrelevant.  The current administrations probably feel like they're competing, but at the end of the day it's all about each of them benchmarking for improvement and "competing" isn't a bad way to approach it.




#90772 Quik Trip zoning case very near Central Market

Posted by cberen1 on 24 March 2015 - 01:49 PM

I think that will make hulen a traffic nightmare with people trying to turn left into the store and those trying to head north out of the store.




#90694 Frost Tower - Jetta Operating to Build Downtown Office Building

Posted by cberen1 on 19 March 2015 - 02:46 PM

Hard to believe we're getting hung up on this, but, what the hell, I'll weigh in.

 

By definition, if the design of a building is so impactful as to be considered "remarkable", I believe it would be so immediately.  You would take one look and say "Wow, that's remarkable."  I would suggest that this really only applies to a small percentage of buildings. 

 

For arguments sake, let's arbitrarily say the top 2 - 5% of designs are "remarkable."  Compared to the last 20 new skyscraper designs I've seen, is JOT clearly at the top of the list from a design standpoint?  Well, no, it probably didn't jump out at me to that degree.  I do definitely remember not having any particular negative thoughts about it, which puts it in the top third.  But I can't recall any part of it making me say "Wow, that's really unique or innovative." 

 

The shame of it is that we're judging it solely on it's shape and assumed materials.  Good design encompasses so much more.

 

Overall, I like it.  I think it's a good project and good for downtown, and might even be the best thing you can do with a rather small L-shaped lot.  I'm exceedingly glad to see it underway.




#90199 Proposed new development - Riverside Area at Oakhurst Scenic

Posted by cberen1 on 19 February 2015 - 02:44 PM

Hope the rumors are unfounded.  We need positive growth in areas east of DTFW.

 

BTW, Riverside Park would be a great site for an annual event like a Mayfest.

Mayfest is put on by Junior League, so my bet is it stays in the 107.




#86794 Dickies Arena

Posted by cberen1 on 22 August 2014 - 07:01 AM

 I still think they are being short sided only have 14,000 seats.  They could cut out a lot of the "fluff" and get to 18,000 seats easily.

 

When you look at the scale of this proposal, it's hard for me to imagine that this is anything less than exactly what they want.  By that I mean, if they wanted 19,000 seats they would have proposed 19,000 seats and money would not have been a limiting factor in any way. 

 

The real question is how did they determine that 14,000 seats is the number they want?  What's the basis for it?  I'm sure there's a reason, even if it's one I may not agree with.

 

By the way, the only rationale I've heard for 19,000 seats is that other cities have venues around that size.  I'm not sure how that makes it the right size either.




#86298 West 7th Development

Posted by cberen1 on 30 July 2014 - 02:40 PM

Carshon's Deli is first rate.  If you haven't tried it, you're missing out.




#86256 The WORST Decision for Downtown Ever Made

Posted by cberen1 on 29 July 2014 - 02:14 AM

One word:

Superblocks.


#86231 Lancaster Avenue Apartments/Retail/Garage

Posted by cberen1 on 28 July 2014 - 06:58 AM

I still think the T&P warehouse would make a great data center.  Won't need much parking.  Built like a bunker.  Close to the business center.




#86182 DT - Lancaster and Main: What should this space be?

Posted by cberen1 on 25 July 2014 - 07:15 AM

If you did put something tall there, it would potentially become Fort Worth's Reunion Tower.  For a lot of people sitting in cars it would be the most visible building at the busiest intersection.  I don't know if that's a good thing, but if it was visually appealing, it would likely become the defining building of a skyline otherwise devoid of perticularly interesting sky scrapers.

 

Alternatively, I think there's an opportunity to do something on a small scale that's mirrored on the other side of Lancaster (in the Sheraton's backyard) to make it a gateway of sorts into the Lancaster corridor.  Something that visually anchors the East end of the corridor.  Giant twin statues, or something that follows the curve of the small circle in that intersection, or some quirky 5 story buildings on either side.  I don't know.  Just spitballin'.




#86086 Fort Worth Transportation Authority (Combine, Rebuild, Delete?)

Posted by cberen1 on 22 July 2014 - 08:40 AM

I believe mmmdan is essentially correct that development follows urban rail transit and that it's tough to try to make urban rail transit fit an existing suburban auto centric environment.  In my mind, it's critical to get the rail foundation laid quickly because every year that goes by means a bunch more develoments that are strictly car accessible rather than public transit accessible.




#86048 Dream Vision/Celebrate Fort Worth June 1st

Posted by cberen1 on 21 July 2014 - 10:36 AM

FOUR. BILLION. That's nearly twice Ed Bass's wealth. Good lord.

 

I don't want to start a separate discussion, but the way they estimate wealth for Forbes and other publications is prone to wild inaccuracies.  If you could really dig in, which you very deliberately can't, I'm pretty sure you'd find Ed's wealth is WAY over the $2 Billion that it's estimated to be.  They've estimated it at $2 Billion for over ten years.  And in those ten years oil has been high, real estate has rebounded, and the stock market it up considerably. 

 

Ed's team is made up of VERY adept investment professionals.  These guys are incredibly good at what they do on all fronts.  And the uber wealthy have investment options available to them that we never will, particularly around issues like taxes.  I absolutely will not believe that Ed Bass put all that effort into staying even.

 

Sorry.  Rant over.




#86044 Fort Worth Transportation Authority (Combine, Rebuild, Delete?)

Posted by cberen1 on 21 July 2014 - 10:17 AM

RE: Unicorns - Fort Worth is not a unicorn, but it is still unique, like everyone else.  There seems to be this underlying notion in the dialogue that there's a single well-travelled roadmap for "successful" public transportation.  Well, there isn't.  Whatever we do will be in many regards unique to Fort Worth and while its success factors and failure factors may overlap those of other cities, it will not be a perfect alignment.  Be the same or be different, I don't care, we gotta pick something and get started.

 

RE: Suburb versus CBD development first.  Personally, I think a spoke without a hub is just a stick.

 

RE: Choice Riders - I don't care if it's egalitarian or not.  I want the city to invest in transportation that encourages development and makes Fort Worth a better place to live.  It would be great if I could leave my car at home most days.  Is there some moral failure in wanting my tax dollars to benefit me more than the poorest and most deserving?  Probably, but I believe everyone in Fort Worth benefits when the Fort Worth economy is humming along, and no amount of easier public transit for the poor and down trodden is going to lift the economy.  I get it, I'm a bad person, I'm getting used to it.




#85980 STEM & VPA: Fort Worth ISD

Posted by cberen1 on 18 July 2014 - 12:35 PM

You could make an argument for putting it next to TCU so you could have cooperative programs between the institutions.  In fact, an expansion of Alice Carlson might work geographically really well.

 

What's the anticipated enrollment?