So, about 3 years ago I really started looking at what I love about Fort Worth. It turns out; I love about everything. I love how we are the 16th biggest city in the U.S. but retain our small town feel. I like how we act more as a community than similar sized cities. I love that Dallas is more well known, but anyone from DFW knows that the FW is the straw that stirs the drink. I’m going to try and tackle some of Fort Worth’s neatest subjects and talk about my take on them. Please note my grammar and spelling are open off, and most due to laziness. Without further ado. My latest goal was to tackle the 10 tallest buildings in Fort Worth. They are in order: So, as I went about my list, I contact the leasing agent for Sundance Square. Little did I know, Sundance Square in the leasing agent for the Wells Fargo Tower and the D.R. Horton Tower. Just for some fun facts about the Towers. DR Horton Towers: Built in 1984. It stands 38-story and has 820,509 square feet of office space. It was designed by architect Paul Rudolph. This building has 20 high speed elevators. The building is about 98% rented out and runs about $28.80/rsf (Rentable Sqaure Feet) + electric Wells Fargo Building: Built in 1982, 33 stories, and 763,579 square feet. 16 high speed elevators. Also designed by Paul Rudolph. Almost the whole building rented out. Ok, so you gave us some facts and pictures of the 2nd and 5th tallest buildings in Fort Worth. What else did you learn? Well. If you have been downtown in the past couple month, you notice there is a ton of construction going on. I figured it was city maintenance, or repairs, maybe a new building or two. I guess I should have paid a little more attention before, because Sundance Square has some big plans. Check out this. They are building basically a two block plaza between 3rd and 4th (N and S),and Commerce and Houston (W and E). Main Street will be a walking only street in the section of the plaza. It is exactly what Fort Worth needs downtown. The “Plaza at Sundance Square”, will in my opinion become THE place for public outdoor gatherings, concerts, and nights out in downtown Fort Worth. I believe they purposely made the space extremely flexible. This should allow them to accommodate concerts, Super Bowl parties, and a fun place just to drink a coke zero, read the paper, or do a yoga class . When I first saw this flexible space, I thought of cities like D.C. Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. A few just cool things about the Plaza 1)Fountains - That are meant to be walked in. They can be turn off. They can turn off parts of them or all of them 2) Umbrellas - They are 37 feet tall and never seem in America. They are being constructed as I type this in Germany. They will light up at night and be a nice feature. 3) Public Restrooms - As a parent, can you put a value on a clean public restroom? 4) Wifi - Free Wifi throughout the plaza. This makes this place the place to hang out. 5) Free Parking - After 5 and weekends. Obviously, Fort Worth takes this for granted. Go check out any major city if you don't believe me. Sundance foots the bill for this. Thanks. 6) Extra Security - Ever felt like you were about to get robbed in Sundance? Of course not. It isn't Dallas. Well, there is a reason for that feeling. Sundance has their own private security force that patrols Sundance Square, along with Fort Worth PD. This in turn makes Sundance as one of the safest urban areas in the U.S. In addition to the plaza, they are adding three pretty nice buildings around the plaza. The Westbrook (425 Houston Street), The Commerce Building (420 Commerce Street) and The Cassidy (407 Throckmorton Street) These buildings will add almost 300,000 sf of office, restaurant, and luxury apartments to Sundance. They also have been real carful to make sure these new buildings will fit in with older historic buildings downtown such as the The Land Title Building (Old Flying Saucer) and the Jett Building (400 main Street). It was suppose to look much like the Frank Lloyd Wright's Larkin building and has that famous "Chisholm Trail" mural. All photo credits belong to: Sundance Square, http://www.fortwortharchitecture.com, and Brian Ketcham
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30? Are you serious? Today is my 30th birthday. It seems impossible, but it's true. I double-checked and everything. At 30 years old, I just realized that there's 1 phrase that will never get to say again: “When I grow up…” Well, actually, there are probably tons of things I’ll never say again, stuff like, “gosh, math is hard,” and, “I can eat whatever I want.” But the phrase to focus on right now is “When I grow up.” It’s just so odd. When we talk about baseball players, we talk about the downside of their career after 30, and it worries me a little bit. Joe Mauer is 11 days younger than me, and about 184 million dollars richer. Heck I remember turning 19, starting a softball team, and joking that we could whip up on those 30 and 40 year old. Now I am one of them. It just seems so far ago! When I graduated college and started teaching at 23, I got a lot of that, you are just a kid stuff from co-workers. I guess I never quite advanced past that "you're just a kid" mindset. I always felt like one of the fun, younger teachers who would be more in touch with the younger crowd and make learning fun. I really felt like I never grew up past age 25. I mean sure I have a kid and a wife now, but I still have operated on that, I can do what I want mindset. Today, I suddenly aged about 5 years. Who knows, maybe humans are like Cherry RC cola -- that we get better with age. Ten years ago I was a person who thought he knew it all, and now I’m just kind of an idiot who is learning as he goes. By the time I’m 40, I may very well be smart. Well, Doubtful. I just want to age like Jamie Moyer did. I think the most important thing is to never let your best days get behind you. That’s called giving up. If you go and play 2 softball games in a night, take an Advil before the game and keep playing. I plan to live to 2076 to see the tri-centennial and there’s no reason to give up when the ride isn't even halfway over. I really like what I saw in the last baseball season of life, but I’m also pretty darn psyched about where this season is headed. I used to be much better at updating this - Coach Ketcham Sorry, it’s been a long time since I last posted. Ten Things: 1) Go see Lincoln. I loved it. Such a good job. Spielberg captured the genius of Lincoln as a politician and the homespun humor of a wise story teller. (His Benedict Arnold story cracked me up) The plot twists kept me and everyone else on the edge of their seats even though they know the story’s end. Highly Suggest! 2) Boston Tea Party Tea – Guess who has 2 thumbs and owns some… This guy (points to self, with thumbs) 3) D.C. – I am ready for June. D.C. is going to be a lot of fun and I am looking forward to seeing the addition of Philadelphia. 4) This year is a total 180 from last year. I feel so energized this year at work. Love the changes that took place. Hillwood once again is THE place to be. 5) It is great seeing old students come visit. I have had several great kids come visit the past few weeks. Sandburgerler, Bartle, and Smecky. I also got to see the T.Ward and Emily Hoskins at the Lincoln movie. 6) How the States Got Their Shapes. – The episode is called “Mess with Texas”. We rocked it. I hope the paparazzi to leave me along soon. Everywhere I go, camera, autographs, camera. Come on, I just want to eat with my family. 7) When does the winter arrive? It is crazy that the leaves are starting to fall… in late November. Heck, I mowed this week. 8) Bold predictions on what the Rangers will do this offseason? Seems to be a lot of waiting and seeing. Will the Twins do ANYTHING? Anything better than a pitcher from the scrapheap? 9) I want a shop. I want like a 2 car garage sized shop. How awesome would that be? I wish I had a job that could provide that. Is there anything better than building something yourself? 10) Happy Holidays if I don’t see you before then. I will try and update again. Everything has it pinnacle. It’s top. The Super Bowl if you will. Tonight, I achieved the Historian Super Bowl. I will be on the History Channel. I made it onto my favorite show, How The States Got Their Shape. I am so excited, but it didn’t happen how you think it might of. Back on Sept. 8th, my BFF, Brittany Hafner and I went downtown Fort Worth and just experienced Fort Worth, and all the goofy landmarks we had. We toured the stock yards and really had a lot of fun. We used a fun little app called RoadsideAmerica. I remember mentioning we need to do this more often… check out our hometown. Fast forward one week to Sept. 15th, and while my cousin Jordan is in town, we take him down to see some of Fort Worth. I could have sworn I saw a TV crew downtown on Main and Exchange, but blow it off. I get home and check Twitter that night and see that How The States Got Their Shapes is filming in Fort Worth. I am so frustrated I missed my chance. I saw they posted another video online Sunday, so I grabbed fellow history and friend Lynn Shelton and headed downtown. Turns out that while we are cruising around the stockyards, they were at LaGrave Field. I got a Tweet back from the host that they were heading to Dallas the next morning. My history teacher heart is broken, as I never go to Dallas and Hate Dallas with a passion. Over Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I had people Tweeting all sorts of things at Unger and his crew. Such as… " @bungerlaWhere is dinner tonight? Several of us hungry history teachers could eat all of Texas or IN, OH, PA, NY, and all of New England combined #HTSGTS" "Davy Crockett, told his Tennessee peers in Congress, "Y'all can go to hell. I am going to Texas to have dinner with @BUngerLa and #HTSGTS" "@bungerlaWhere is dinner tonight? Several of us hungry US history teachers could eat Texas or 257 Rhode Islands? #HTSGTS#dontstateblockus" "bungerla FW history teachers want to meet #HTSGTS tonight. Where will you be tonight at 7:00?" He remained aloof. Finally, Wednesday after school, feeling like the ship had sailed, and having accepted defeat, I see a picture of him in Dallas. I’m not sure where, so I text the picture to old friend and Fossil Ridge graduate Kassi Nopratvarakorn. She's a fan, knows where it is, fights traffic, drives over there, finds him, takes a picture, and gets his next location. I kiss my wife goodbye, hop in the car, pickup Magen Rabatin on my way, and drive as fast as I ever have to Dallas. Just a FYI, I do hate Dallas. I filled up with gas before I get to Dallas County, as I try to avoid spending any money in the Dallas economy. However, a funny thing happened on the way to Dallas. The traffic just, disappeared. We flew to Dallas at record speed. The people were shockingly friendly. I must assume that some of them must of been (817) people. We get there, park as fast as we can, and basically run to the park. I go crazy being so excited. He says, perfect, I need to interview 3 people from here. I said, We have 3!!! i explains my path to get on the show, and funny enough, he said, "You must be Coach Ketcham". He interviewed me about Texas and why Texans love themselves so much, He proceeds to interview Magen, Kassi. It was pretty fun, and some of the questions were pretty tough. I made them promise we would not be cut, and he promised we were on the show for sure. The episode should air on November 24th (9 Pm) on H2. I won’t type all the details, but the night was pretty awesome! Every year, I write a letter to every former President, asking him to visit my class. So far, am 0 for 6. Carter, Bush 41, Clinton, and Bush 43 are on my request list. I feel like Obama would be a little busy right now to ask. Today, my mailbox was full with a rejection from Bush 43 and Carter. Come on Clinton and Bush 41! This has been the most excited I have been to start school since 2006. In service this week has been awesome. I can't wait!
See Everyone Monday! |
Author : Coach KetchamTeacher, Lover of U.S. History. None of my thoughts are deep, and spelling and grammar are rarely double checked. Archives
February 2016
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