Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

I like the pattern we are following, intentionally or not, of building deck parks next to existing assets like the Arts District and the Dallas Zoo. By that logic, support for Heritage Village and Fair Park decks would follow but not one connecting the Convention Center to the Cedars.

Heritage Village is such a wonderful asset and developers would be wise to start surrounding it now with new construction... compare that to building around Fair Park, which would be a toxic mess of a story.

Heritage village is under appreciated

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:Heritage village is under appreciated

True, I have lived here for 27 years and have never been.

Tnexster wrote:

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:Heritage village is under appreciated

True, I have lived here for 27 years and have never been.

Check it out. It's quite lovely. I took some friends from Ireland there. Real Charming.

Tnexster wrote:

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:Heritage village is under appreciated

True, I have lived here for 27 years and have never been.

I appreciate you, Tnexster. Which cabin are you in?

Tnexster wrote:

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:Heritage village is under appreciated

True, I have lived here for 27 years and have never been.

32 years and same. I only found out about it earlier this year too. I'll make it out there at some point.

tanzoak wrote:

Tnexster wrote:

Tivo_Kenevil wrote:Heritage village is under appreciated

True, I have lived here for 27 years and have never been.

I appreciate you, Tnexster. Which cabin are you in?

Hahahaha!

Speaking of Dallas Heritage Village, they have just updated their master plan that includes an expansion outside their fenced-in museum. The block between S. St. Paul and Park Ave will have a pond, pavilion and visitors center and makes a big bet on future development surrounding this area. Separate from the master plan, Jim Lake Co. wants the city to abandon S. St. Paul behind the Ambassador for direct access to the park.

I'd personally like to see the parking lot redeveloped, but that may be for the next master plan.



You can read about the plan here: https://dallasheritagevillage.worldsecu ... an-for-dhv

Very cool, really hope this does end up happening. There's a lot of land to play around with in the Cedars, so I'm exciting for things to really kick off in this area.

Also, does that proposed mixed-use multifamily say "Uptown #2" on it (The building bounded by Beaumont, St. Paul, Hickory, and Park Ave)?

I think this park deserves a thread considering how it was the first city park, the victim of bad interstate highway planning and now the centerpiece of a growing Cedars neighborhood.

One of the things I'm curious about is its original layout and what the park would look like today if it hadn't been for I-30. I've superimposed a postcard drawing of the park on a satellite photo to give an idea.



Aerial from 1930:



And aerial from 1975:

Such a forgotten park, I'd bet half the people in Dallas don't even know it exists. I've never been there, but doesn't the park have an active calendar of events like Jazz Age Sunday Social?

Number One mandate-candidate for TXDoT to repair with a deck park over a sunken highway; number two mandate-candidate connects the convention center to The Cedars.

tamtagon wrote:Such a forgotten park, I'd bet half the people in Dallas don't even know it exists. I've never been there, but doesn't the park have an active calendar of events like Jazz Age Sunday Social?

Number One mandate-candidate for TXDoT to repair with a deck park over a sunken highway; number two mandate-candidate connects the convention center to The Cedars.

Yes, Jazz Age Sunday Social was last weekend and it's a fantastic event. I can't believe more people don't go because it's a perfect alternative to the St. Patrick's Day shitshow. People dress in period costume, and you can bring a picnic. It's like Easter in the Park + Comic Con in one. The other main event that I'm aware of is Candlelight Celebration in December. Again, a very cool event.

The park should be more aggressive in hosting more events. There's no reason why there shouldn't be a fall/Halloween festival, overnight camping and something in the summer.

If the Confederate War Memorial is removed from Pioneer Plaza, Old City Park/Dallas Heritage Village could be an appropriate place to send it. It was the original location for the memorial (it was moved for freeway construction) and putting it in a "museum" setting would allow for educational discourse and interpretive information around one era of Dallas history.

dfwcre8tive wrote:If the Confederate War Memorial is removed from Pioneer Plaza, Old City Park/Dallas Heritage Village could be an appropriate place to send it. It was the original location for the memorial (it was moved for freeway construction) and putting it in a "museum" setting would allow for educational discourse and interpretive information around one era of Dallas history.

That is a great idea in theory, but I'm not sure it would execute well. Sending that monument back to "Heritage" Village might be a PR nightmare even though there are plenty of references to slavery in signage that describes the Millermore home and other structures.

Given that it's impossible to place it in the exact location where it once stood, I like the idea of keeping it in a cemetery.

lakewoodhobo wrote:

dfwcre8tive wrote:If the Confederate War Memorial is removed from Pioneer Plaza, Old City Park/Dallas Heritage Village could be an appropriate place to send it. It was the original location for the memorial (it was moved for freeway construction) and putting it in a "museum" setting would allow for educational discourse and interpretive information around one era of Dallas history.

That is a great idea in theory, but I'm not sure it would execute well. Sending that monument back to "Heritage" Village might be a PR nightmare even though there are plenty of references to slavery in signage that describes the Millermore home and other structures.

Given that it's impossible to place it in the exact location where it once stood, I like the idea of keeping it in a cemetery.

Good points, and the operators of Heritage Village may not want to take on the responsibility. It's a complicated issue and it sounds like nobody wants it anyway. Link: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/dallas- ... te-statues

On a lighter note, they could turn a corner of Heritage Village into an en exhibit of architectural salvage items from the city's boneyard. Demolishing buildings (and saving a few) is another part of Dallas history.

Candlelight, the annual holiday fundraiser at Dallas Heritage Village, is this weekend. If you've never been to this park or haven't been since your elementary school field trip, this is the time to check it out. Dallas is full of swanky $50+ fundraisers so it's hard to believe that for $12 and under you can spend hours at an event like this. Sat and Sun from 3-9pm. Tickets here: https://www.prekindle.com/promo/id/2567 ... OEbzcVr-RA

I only recently found out about Dallas Heritage Village a year or two ago, and I keep saying I'll try and go to this event. I'm not sure if I will make it out this year, but thanks for sharing!

Dallas museum turning to coworking as a solution for historic preservation
https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news ... s_headline

The Dallas City Council approved a development agreement Wednesday to allocate up to $650,000 from the Cedars Tax Increment Finance District Funds to support the restoration of the house as well as another historic home next to it.

Prycer and her staff saw coworking as a creative way to fund the costly historic preservation for the house and add another source of revenue while also addressing a growing need in the surrounding neighborhood.

The Cedars is evolving quickly in the midst of new development, resulting in some small businesses, and especially artists, getting priced out of the neighborhood. Prycer said she plans to charge 20 to 30 percent below market rate for the small offices that will be converted from the home’s sunny sitting rooms and bedrooms. An unofficial waiting list of eager potential tenants has already formed.

Glad to see them finding a good use for this building. Coworking may have jumped the shark downtown and in other big employment centers, but after touring places with historic charm like Wax Space at Tyler Station I can see how people would want to rent space here.

It's too bad they can't find more sustainable revenue-generating uses like this. There was a restaurant in a different historic home at the park that closed in 2003.

Hopefully there is no "old wiring" in either of these buildings.

exelone31 wrote:Hopefully there is no "old wiring" in either of these buildings.

Yeah this part of the Cedars lost a lot of its magic with the loss of the Ambassador. Its like if Cinderella's castle at Disney World got burned down.

I didn't realize this until this morning, but the "Destination Residences" condo building across from the Lorenzo Hotel is well underway and looks pretty much topped out. When I saw the original plans I honestly didn't think it would go anywhere but the construction team was buzzing.

As a reminder, it is this "interesting" looking building:



https://dallas.towers.net/2017/09/18/tw ... -heats-up/

I wasn't able to locate any sales info or floorplans.

Matt777 wrote:I didn't realize this until this morning, but the "Destination Residences" condo building across from the Lorenzo Hotel is well underway and looks pretty much topped out. When I saw the original plans I honestly didn't think it would go anywhere but the construction team was buzzing.

As a reminder, it is this "interesting" looking building:



https://dallas.towers.net/2017/09/18/tw ... -heats-up/

I wasn't able to locate any sales info or floorplans.

Oh yeah, I forgot about these horrendous apartments.

^Ugly or not, it's just nice to see the corner anchored by the Lorenzo and the Buzz develop into a sustainable center of gravity within the neighborhood. As it relates to Old City Park, I would like to see more development along Griffin to connect this area with what eventually is built on the Ambassador site, but with the one-way streets here (Griffin St E and Griffin St W) you can forget about it being walkable.



The Cedars could use a master plan that guides development around a shared vision.

lakewoodhobo wrote:The Cedars could use a master plan that guides development around a shared vision.

Whatever they were "sharing" when they came up with the vision for these buildings seems pretty potent.

How is the Lorenzo hotel doing? Has anyone stayed or heard of occupancy rates? It sounded like an ambitious project and it is quite large in scale, so I'm curious to see how it's doing considering it isn't a normal hotel flag.

Old City Park selling nearly 22,000 artifacts
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local ... d273b16a53

A couple of things about this:

1) The demise of Dallas Heritage Village as a museum operated by Dallas County Heritage Society should shock absolutely nobody. They've been bleeding cash for decades and just couldn't find enough support from the city, the general public, or the philanthropic community to keep going. The band-aid has been ripped, now let's move forward.

2) Old City Park is not going anywhere, and neither will most of the historic buildings there...although they'll be closed to the public most likely. The city needs to make sure they remain secure and not fill up with squatters.

3) The federally funded pedestrian bridge connecting this park to the Farmers Market effectively (re)makes Old City Park part of Downtown, and so the next update to the Downtown Parks Master Plan not only needs to include Old City Park but make it its top priority. Where the five newest Downtown parks are sleek and modern, a new master plan for OCP (not to be confused with Robocop's OCP) should make it look like it did in 1881 and show people why they need to care about the city's first public park.