This Friday evening, the Trinity Trust Foundation is throwing what it’s calling a “bridge fair” on the Continental Bridge to celebrate the progress being made on the Marget Hunt Hill Bridge (full release after the jump). Santiago Calatrava will be in attendance. The band Boys Named Sue will play, and the foundation promises other “delectable delights.” Tickets cost $150, a price point established, I believe, to keep Jim Schutze from attending. D Magazine is a media sponsor, so I’ll be there. Look for me wherever the delectable delights are located.
Frank Bliss is executive vice president of Cooper & Stebbins, which developed the phenomenally successful Southlake Town Square. Even as large as that project already is — the size of downtown Fort Worth in terms of acreage — Bliss said they’re still only about 35% finished with their vision. In particular, they have more office and residential offerings in mind.
When I asked his thoughts about Downtown Dallas, he was quick to answer: “Downtown Dallas has no soul … Dallas never planned for a soul.”
To reclaim its soul it needs a true center. As do many others, he cites the construction of the tunnels years ago as one major mistake, sucking away the street life.
There’s a thoughtful post today on FortWorthology about the greatest loss to Fort Worth’s history. Their answer is the decimation of Hell’s Half Acre, downtown’s “red light” district until the 1960s.
It’s worth a look for the amazing contrast of two photos of the south end of downtown Fort Worth — one from 1956, the other from Google Earth (a few years ago). You’ll see an unfortunate transformation:
The biggest change you’d see now is the completed Omni Hotel, which is just under construction in this image. This shows the amount of change and destruction brought to the south end: block after block after block of urban, humanly-scaled buildings, replaced by massive superblocks (such as the Convention Center) that impede walkability, overscaled architecture, and seas of storage for cars. The loss of density and walkable fabric is incredible.
You’ll remember that Wick argued for human scale in downtown Dallas.
Over on Renegade Bus, Peter Simek compares the Woodall Rodgers Park with Millennium Park in Chicago (a comparison the Woodall boosters themselves have made) and asks some good questions. Worth a read.
The Talking Heads musician turns out to be a student of cities.  In the Wall St. Journal Friday, he put together the aspects of city life that he finds beguiling.  He also takes a few shots:
In Dallas livability might mean that you live near an expressway that isn’t jammed up, at least not all the time, and your car runs most days. For some it might mean super fast Wi-Fi, the possibility of lucky and lucrative business opportunities and plenty of strip clubs. If that’s what rocks your boat then try Houston, though to me that city, oil money made physically manifest, is my worst nightmare.
Saying something disparaging about Dallas is merely a sign that one doesn’t know it well. Saying something disparaging about Houston is a sign of a discriminating intelligence.
Let me give you a hint on how to live a peaceful life. It’s simple.  Never write an editorial dissing engineers. I don’t want to suggest engineers are senstive, but if you ever have the misfortune of stepping on one’s toes, be ready to call an ambulance.
Luckily, Geoffrey Orsak, dean of SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering, doesn’t seem so easily perturbed, probably because as an academic he’s developed some tough skin and sharp elbows of his own. In the forthcoming issue of Design News, he continues the debate we started on KERA’s Think a couple of weeks ago about engineering and the city.
