Street Cars to Return to Downtown Dallas

The City of Dallas received a $23 million discretionary funding grant from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) group to move forward with plans to re-introduce streetcars to Downtown Dallas.

(right: Looking down Main Street in downtown Dallas; circa 1951)



"This project will improve transportation within downtown Dallas by creating a seamless transit connection and providing a multi-modal link between jobs and residents," said Mayor Tom Leppert. Mayor Leppert. US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood visited Dallas himself to see how the city's streetcar plan would improve interurban transportation, help boost local businesses and lower Dallas's carbon emissions.

"This project specifically targets commuters in mixed use districts adjacent to downtown and will help create a transit network linking urban areas by providing multiple transportation alternatives," said Councilwoman Angela Hunt, whose district includes downtown.

The proposed line originates in Downtown Dallas at Harwood and Main Street. The line includes stops at the Convention Center Hotel, Trinity River Park, and Union Station, and continues into the North Oak Cliff Methodist Medical Center District.

"Clearly, this project will link walkable, mixed use neighborhoods in the urban core with employment centers throughout the region, as well as create hundreds of new jobs in Dallas," said Councilwoman Linda Koop, Chair of the Council's Transportation and Environment Committee.

The Recovery Act application, submitted in coordination with the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) and the City of Fort Worth, included a total budget request of $96 million. The City of Dallas requested $48 million for its portion of the streetcar project, with a total project cost of $58 million.

"To me, this is the next evolution in downtown Dallas," says Councilwoman Angela Hunt, who helped push the idea for Dallas after visiting Seattle and riding The S.L.U.T. The unfortunate yet hilarious acronym for the Seattle Lake Union Trolley. 

The City of Dallas and Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) are pleased to receive the grant money to fund the new street car system since the idea is to allow riders to ride the system for free.

"It needs to be free," Hunt says. "You want people to ride it and if it's free they're gonna jump on it. They're gonna leave their car behind."

Woodall Rodgers Park:

THE PARK: Or as it's known to the locals, The Woodall Rodgers Park has just released a pre-visualization fly-through of their new public space which will span the Woodall Rodgers highway making a tunnel beneath for existing traffic to flow.

The park will connect Uptown and Downtown Dallas creating a unified public area for residents and visitors to enjoy. Along with three other downtown parks in the last year either being completed or slated for construction, THE PARK hopes to provide a visual connection between two parts of the city which has been divided by a busy highway for years. Just North of the Dallas Arts District, THE PARK is a much needed escape for the urban residents of Dallas.

Check out the video and visit THE PARK DALLAS website!

Deep Ellum Bowl: Coming Soon!

The Deep Ellum Bowl is coming soon!

Checkout the welcome message from their website!

Hello everyone. We've been working on putting a 10 lane bowling alley, bar, and restaurant in Downtown Dallas for nearly 3 years. We've locked on a spot and are ready to get it going.

It's going to be fun. 10 bowling lanes, restaurant, and bar in the heart of Deep Ellum. Live music, bowling leagues, great food and late hours. Neighborhood atmosphere with local owners.

Stay tuned for updates on our progress. If you have any questions, please let us know or post a new thread below. Visit their website.

Interview with Santiago Calatrava: Designer of the new Margaret Hunt Bridge

Two decades ago, Tom Fisher, now dean of the University of Minnesota College of Design, visited Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava in Zurich, where he has a staff of 40 and a lakeside villa.
As he was ushered into the architect's office, Fisher noticed an odd artifact hanging above the desk: the skeleton of a dog. "I thought it was his long-lost pet," he says. Read the full interview at Fast Company.com

Continental Ave. Bridge By November 2012

 Rudolph Bush reports that the major gift to the Trinity River project is a $10 million gift to convert the Continental Avenue Bridge to a pedestrian bridge.

The gift is anonymous, but in honor of Mary McDermott Cook, who chairs the Trinity Trust Foundation.

The existing Continental Avenue Bridge is next to the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, which is under construction north of downtown. The Hill bridge is the first Trinity bridge from Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who was in town for today's gift announcement.

"This landmark $10 million anonymous gift given to the City of Dallas gives us the funds to convert the Continental Bridge into a pedestrian and living bridge for everyone in Dallas to enjoy," said Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert.

He praised Cook for "her tireless vision for Dallas."

Cook said: "This gift will transform the Continental Bridge into an outdoor venue for walkers, bikers, and potentially, a future trolley line across the Trinity River. It will be beautifully landscaped and include the infrastructure and facilities for recreational events, markets and fairs."

Cook is the daughter of Margaret McDermott, for whom a second planned Calatrava bridge is named. That bridge would replace the existing Interstate 30 bridge over the Trinity. Read More

New Life for the Former First National on Elm Steet?

No need to mourn the demise of Elm Place, set to shutter for good on January 29 -- not when someone's already figured out what to do with the former First National Bank of Dallas, among George Dahl's myriad local icons. That someone: Colliers International, which is handling the sale of the 50-usable-stories, 1.1-million-square foot tower with a Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail station right downstairs. Read more.

Main Street Garden Park

Main Street Garden (which opened in this month) now has it's Christmas tree up and ready to ring in the holidays! I snapped this picture while taking a morning walk with the fam and thought it looked a little postcard-like. So I posted it.

I'm looking forward to spending more time here since it's only three blocks from home, and it's sure to be a great place to sit out in the sun during the summer for a little R&R.

Texas State Fair

This weekend marked the opening of the Texas State Fair! The State Fair can be traced back over 120 years. Back then the exhibits consisted of finest cattle, farm equipment, and summer concerts. Now the exhibits that are the most popular are the number of strange and weird items that can be battered and deep fried! Fried Twinkies, Snickers, and butter are some of the more unhealthy but delicious items on the menu.

We met some friends in Richardson Sunday morning for Dim Sum at Kirin Court and parked at the Aprapaho DART station to catch the rail into the city. After getting off at the Pearl Street station we switched to the newly open Green Line which took us directly to the front entrance of Fair Park! It was the perfect way to get to the fair and avoid the traffic and parking issues that have plagued the fair for years...

Having the kids with us made the fair extra enjoyable (for me anyway). There's nothing like watching them jump in all the show cars and pretending like they're driving... and they did this over and over in almost every car on the show floor until we finally left the building! Of course, since they're mine it's probably a lot more annoying than I thought it was. :)

The ride back to Richardson was long but enjoyable after being outside and on our feet all day long.

If you can make it to the State Fair this year I definitely suggest taking the DART Rail.
It's better for the environment and for your budget. Tickets were only $4 which is worth the hassle and every time we ride the DART Rail we're proving that residents of this city can appreciate and understand urban transportation instead of having to show up and get their BMW dinged in the cramped parking lots around the fair grounds.

RE:Vision Dallas Winner: Entangled Bank

The winner of the RE:Vision Dallas competition has been named. The North Carolina firm Little has won with their Entangled Bank design.

From the UrbanRevision.Org website:
Something incredible is about to happen in downtown Dallas. Soon, a single block will be transformed into a place that creates economies, supports community, facilitates relationships and generates resources. The winners of Re:Vision Dallas have created plans that challenged us, engaged us, and inspired us. And their ideas, from local materials and vegetated screens to integrated greenways, will shape how people will live and work here in the future.


Entangled Bank is a complex yet simple network of elements. Each piece whether it is the bird, the plant, the worm or the soil personally contributes to the growth and ultimate survival of each. They are all very different from one another but each is very dependent on the other. For without them the bank would unravel and fail. Within the network still a very personal cycle of life persists that starts with conception, continues with growth and ultimately flourishes or sometimes fails. But the bank itself is meant to sustain and offer every opportunity for its constituents to succeed. This same notion can be related to the natural environment as well as the social landscape of Dallas and also our site.

 

What if we not only sought to teach and educate about the importance of living sustainably out of respect for the environment but we actually sustained and rehabilitated those among us who were struggling? What if we welcomed them back within the comfort of the entangled bank and as they grew and flourished we watched them begin to contribute to the bank themselves? It is our belief that true sustainability relates not only to the environment but also has key economic and social impacts.

 

Read more at the competition website.

Terrorist Plot on Fountain Place

Yesterday Dallas FBI agents intercepted a Jordanian terrorist in an attempt to detonate a car bomb to blow up the Fountain Place building. Fountain Place is a 1.2 million-square-foot office tower of green reflective glass rising 60 stories from a beautiful water garden located at the corner of Ross Avenue and Field Street in downtown Dallas. This is one of my favorite modern buildings in downtown Dallas. I see it everyday on my way to work and on the drive home.

Designed by I.M. Pei & Partners, the original plans were for the development of a second twin tower that was not built. It's location was just north adjacent to the existing tower. The second tower was also to include the famous plaza and water gardens with connections to the first tower. Although it was not built I can only imagine what the two towers would have looked like peering over the Dallas skyline.


The alleged terrorist mentioned during the planning stages of the attempted bombing that he wanted to blow up the tower because it reminded him of the World Trade Center in NYC. An eerie thought for sure. It makes me happy to know that the F.B.I. are diligent in their mission to seek out and uncover terror activity, and we can all see the value in their efforts especially on a day like yesterday.