Fort Worth (817) - Tall Tales

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.

        Also, I now know the Bass Family owns some, well, make that pretty much everything in Sundance Square.  Ed, Sid, Lee, and Robert Bass are the brain children behind Sundance, which is the centerpiece of downtown Fort Worth.  They turned a sometimes dangerous part of Fort Worth in the 1980's into a fun and safe place to visit and go.  Another fun tidbit, while I was a Boy Scout and know that Sid Richardson was a wealthy man around here with a big heart, I learned a little bit more about the oilman today.  I did know that when Richardson passed away (he was a bachelor), that he gave most of his estate to his foundation.  What I did not know he left several million dollars to his nephew-partner, Perry Bass (Ed and Robert's father) and John B. Connally, ( the future governor and who was in the car with JFK).

          I was lucky enough to contact Robert Gamblin and he was so graceful to talk to me all about Sundance, the building, the history, and the future.  While going  up in the Wells Fargo tower, was cool, what I learned inside trumped it all.  Before I get into that, I bring you the Towers.

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