Project Sundance
#51
Posted 06 June 2012 - 09:02 AM
#52
Posted 06 June 2012 - 11:11 AM
Hear my original music (and other stuff) at RPQx2 Music
#53
Posted 06 June 2012 - 12:04 PM
#54
Posted 06 June 2012 - 02:53 PM
.... How could would it be to make it a pedestrian mall? I think you'd need to leave 4th, 5th, 6th & 7th Streets open to carry traffic from the freeway into the west side of downtown, but in between? Maybe put a bike lane down the middle and make the rest of it a pedestrian mall.
Love your idea; one that I have blog for in the past. How cool would it be if there was "pedestrian/bike/horseback-trail linear brick parkway" on Main Street stretching north from 4th to the Courthouse. Bring back the hitching rails along Main Street; they have been absent for far too long.- What an amazing public space that would be!
Keep Fort Worth folksy
#55
Posted 06 June 2012 - 03:28 PM
[edit] I mean they've done the pedestrian part - everything but the livestock. I'm not opposed to that, but you need to factor in money for janitors to walk around behind the horses "cleaning up". [/edit]
You've got my vote!
#56
Posted 07 June 2012 - 09:04 PM
Shouldn't effect much if they close that section of main st. I think the city should build a huge parking complex on the edge of the center city and have motorist catch some type of public transit into the center city or other popular areas.All of the big shots Downtown want to shut down Main Street for the plaza. But they admit it is very hard to get approval for such. The company designing the plaza, best in the World (PPS... Also see Times Square), would like to think they can convice the City it would be a smart move. No doubt, the Sundance people want this area to be an amazing draw to the City.
#57
Posted 27 June 2012 - 06:18 AM
#58
Posted 27 June 2012 - 07:07 AM
Kinda like little old Freds being surrounded by cement walls.
#59
Posted 27 June 2012 - 07:38 AM
If you want to see how the new 5 story building will look next to the Land Title Block (Old Flying Saucer) you can go to the renderings here: http://www.fortworth...indpost&p=67158
#60
Posted 27 June 2012 - 08:34 AM
Hear my original music (and other stuff) at RPQx2 Music
#61
Posted 29 June 2012 - 06:54 AM
Lot is going on each day now in Sundance construction. If I had to guess, the old Flying Saucer annex is in its final hours.
Look at yesterday's shot above, and then today's.
#62
Posted 29 June 2012 - 07:26 AM
We drove by the construction about a half hour after you took this and could see through the gaps in the fence - it looked like the demolition of the annex has begun!
Hear my original music (and other stuff) at RPQx2 Music
#63
Posted 29 June 2012 - 10:55 AM
#64
Posted 29 June 2012 - 11:06 AM
It would be nice to get a webcam or two set up
I have the place and the money. Lacking only knowledge to execute. (Bummer. Have been wanting to do just that for years, Jeff.)
#65
Posted 30 June 2012 - 10:33 AM
#66
Posted 01 July 2012 - 08:26 AM
It would be nice to get a webcam or two set up
I have the place and the money. Lacking only knowledge to execute. (Bummer. Have been wanting to do just that for years, Jeff.)
Try getting in touch with the folks at www.wxnation.com they are actually based in north Fort Worth and have a couple North FW cams as well as this national weather site... Here is a North FW weather shot (refreshes every five seconds) http://www.wxnation.com/livecam/
#67
Posted 03 July 2012 - 07:25 AM
#68
Posted 03 July 2012 - 09:25 AM
Hear my original music (and other stuff) at RPQx2 Music
#69
Posted 03 July 2012 - 09:37 AM
#70
Posted 03 July 2012 - 10:02 AM
I knew it wouldn't take long to clear it out. I had a meeting downtown yesterday afternoon, but I forgot to drive by the site. However, I had another meeting in the Cultural District yesterday evening, and I drove by there after dark. The building was gone by then. I could see piles of bricks through the construction fence.
It doesn't look as though there was any attempt at an historical archaeology survey of the ground before large scale excavation took place. Too bad, this is close to the earliest settlement in Fort Worth. The parking lot paving would have preserved a lot from usual deterioration since the last buildings were torn down in that area.
#71
Posted 03 July 2012 - 10:38 AM
As for the western portion of the site, they have run into the basement walls of the Westbrook Hotel.
#72
Posted 03 July 2012 - 11:58 AM
This is perhaps tangential to the discussion of the actual development, but I thought it was worth saying and didn't want to start a new thread. It would be interesting to see some detailed concept designs of what the plaza will end up looking like.
#73
Posted 03 July 2012 - 02:22 PM
#74
Posted 05 July 2012 - 08:46 AM
crop
#75
Posted 05 July 2012 - 09:28 AM
Hear my original music (and other stuff) at RPQx2 Music
#76
Posted 05 July 2012 - 10:37 AM
#77
Posted 05 July 2012 - 10:53 AM
Brian, you have confirmed my memory of 1978. I thought they used the remains of the Westbrook Hotel as fill for the parking lot. Here's a photograph of the building right before the button was pushed to implode it.
Gosh... Downtown used to be ugly! Thank God (and the Bass family) for cleaning the place up!
#78
Posted 05 July 2012 - 12:05 PM
I spent some time this spring walking around San Antonio downtown (street level, not Riverwalk), and old Fort Worth looked a lot more like current San Antonio than I realized. Preserving the old is admirable, but sometimes you need to tear down before you can build up.
Also, thanks John: I first arrived in Fort Worth in 1987, and up until seeing that picture the Westbrook was nothing more than a word to me, a ghost of some former Fort Worth life.
#79
Posted 05 July 2012 - 12:26 PM
If I had to guess, the old photo was taken from around floor 11 of the First National Bank building. (The Tower). And it was taken by a camera with that special gelatin silver paper for recording images. (I think they called it film?)
#80
Posted 05 July 2012 - 12:41 PM
Brian - I too remember some sort of mylar-type product which went in the back of the camera where my batteries go now. Seems I was limited to a dozen or two shots with several days to wait and see what came out and what was trash...
Hear my original music (and other stuff) at RPQx2 Music
#82
Posted 05 July 2012 - 03:00 PM
Here's a good one: Count the number of trees in the 1970s photo....
Wow. That's why I am not a detective. Did not notice the lack of trees.
#83
Posted 05 July 2012 - 04:55 PM
Too bad I probably won't be around when someone on the Fort Worth Forum in 2047 compares today's Sundance Square picture to the hologram that will reflect the progress of the next 34 years. (BTW, I wonder if the next generation of the Bass family will have the same level of interest in downtown Fort Worth in future decades that the current generation has demonstrated?)
#84
Posted 05 July 2012 - 05:34 PM
http://www.fortworth...?showtopic=1676. If you want to see other Sundance Square buildings before they were restored, go to the Stripling's Department Store Implosion photographs here: http://www.fortwortharchitecture.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1677&st=0&p=27595&hl=stripling's&fromsearch=1&entry27595. Stripling's and Leonard's were demolished specifically for the developments we have today.
The photo of the Westbrook, probably shows downtown close to it's rock bottom. The only time it probably looked worse was when Leonard's and Stripling's were piles of rubble, Main Street was torn up for re-bricking, and the buildings in Sundance were being gutted for restoration. At that time, it looked like a bomb had gone off at the intersection of 2nd and Main. All of you were commenting on how bad the Jett Building looked at that time. You have to remember that in order to implode the Westbrook, the old McCrory's store, which surrounded the Jett Building. McCrory's was built after the alleys were closed because you can see the bricked up windows on the west side of the Jett Building, yet the south side did not have any windows because it was butted next to another building.
Downtown didn't have many trees back in the 1970's. Also, notice the lack of surface parking lots in that area in the 1970's.
#86
Posted 05 July 2012 - 06:10 PM
#87
Posted 05 July 2012 - 06:18 PM
I will agree that it looked bad after the tornado, but there weren't blocks of the city in piles of rubble. At least after the tornado, the structures were still mostly intact. The tornado cleanup was done fairly quickly, except for the Tower and the Landmark Tower.
When I first moved downtown the rooftops looked that bad, then Google Earth came out and in about 2 years they were all cleaned up.
Better Business Bureau: A place to find or post valid complaints for auto delerships and maintenance facilities. (New Features) If you have a valid gripe about auto dealerships, this is the place to voice it.
#88
Posted 05 July 2012 - 06:59 PM
Annex gone.
Better Business Bureau: A place to find or post valid complaints for auto delerships and maintenance facilities. (New Features) If you have a valid gripe about auto dealerships, this is the place to voice it.
#89
Posted 05 July 2012 - 08:56 PM
#90
Posted 05 July 2012 - 09:01 PM
#91
Posted 07 July 2012 - 04:15 PM
#92
Posted 12 July 2012 - 09:37 AM
Here is a shot from this morning. The hole is bigger than it looks...
#94
Posted 12 July 2012 - 12:03 PM
Hear my original music (and other stuff) at RPQx2 Music
#95
Posted 12 July 2012 - 03:01 PM
#96
Posted 14 July 2012 - 10:16 AM
70-200mm and cropped
#97
Posted 14 July 2012 - 10:25 AM
All of the big shots Downtown want to shut down Main Street for the plaza. But they admit it is very hard to get approval for such. The company designing the plaza, best in the World (PPS... Also see Times Square), would like to think they can convice the City it would be a smart move. No doubt, the Sundance people want this area to be an amazing draw to the City.
Better Business Bureau: A place to find or post valid complaints for auto delerships and maintenance facilities. (New Features) If you have a valid gripe about auto dealerships, this is the place to voice it.
#98
Posted 16 July 2012 - 07:18 AM
#99
Posted 16 July 2012 - 08:06 AM
Dave still at
Visit 360texas.com
#100
Posted 16 July 2012 - 03:46 PM
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