Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

joshua.dodd wrote:how many cars will that garage be able to accommodate? I can imagine the traffic congestion all these cars will bring will turn Olive and Ross into an absolute nightmare. The cladding looks really nice up close.

itsjrd1964 wrote:Is the cladding a mesh or a more solid kind of material?

itsjrd1964 wrote:Is the cladding a mesh or a more solid kind of material?

ContriveDallasite wrote:Does anyone recall how large the retail space at the base was planned for?

After almost a year of construction, work crews revamping downtown Dallas' landmark Trammell Crow Center are in a race toward the finish line.

The $140 million redo of the Ross Avenue skyscraper will be mostly done by the end of the year.

The project - by owner JP Morgan Asset Management and Stream Realty - is the most elaborate renovation yet of one of downtown's iconic 1980s towers.

"We are excited because we are getting close to the end," Stream Realty Partners' managing director Ramsey March said giving a tour of the project. "The response from the market has already been strong.

"We have more prospects and proposals than the space we have left."

Stream Realty still has to fill up a 175,000-square-foot block of space in the building being left vacant with accounting firm PriceWaterhouseCooper's move to the new Park District tower in Uptown.

But since starting the high-rise renovation last year, new office tenants including Goldman Sachs, coworking firm Common Desk and other companies have taken large blocks of space in the Trammell Crow Center.

Quoted rents in the building have increased from near $25 per square foot to more than $30 per square foot.

That's still cheaper than in nearby Uptown where new office space can top $50 per square foot.

"We're still a great discount," said Stream Realty's senior vice president Sara Terry.

And those deals were done before the construction was even finished.

Contractors are just topping out the 10-story parking garage and retail building going up adjacent to Trammell Crow Center.

And ground floor lobby and exterior upgrades are still on the way.

Already most of the dark stone and bright brass that characterized the original postmodern style of the 3-decade old, 50-story tower is gone.

"We argued about the brass," said project architect Ben Crawford of HOK.

"I think brass is coming back," he joked.

The new lobby is knocked out with polished stone from Brazil, France, Turkey and Greece.

"We kept it constrained with light stone and bronze metal," Crawford said.

Big glass framed openings on the Ross and Flora Street entry allow light into the 30-foot high "grand hall" that now cuts through the tower at street level.

"We want people and light to pass through the building," Crawford said. "Before, the whole project was a bit of a fortress, which reflects the era it was built.

"It really needed to reinvent itself."

That reinvention includes a Royal Blue grocery boutique store on the ground floor of the skyscraper along with a new full-service restaurant by Dallas' NL Group.

On the second floor of the tower there will be a conference center and exercise facilities, with open-air terraces overlooking Ross Avenue.

The Harwood Street side of the tower facing the Dallas Museum of Art gets a large outdoor patio and seating area with a tenant lounge opening to the new plaza.

"I am really bringing the vitality of this building right to the street," Crawford said. "It's going to feel much more connected to the city.

"In the universe of commercial offices now, tenant amenities are vital."

So is parking. The new garage across the street will have 2,000 spaces plus a hotel, apartments and retail fronting on Ross.

The garage is now being converted in panels of white fritted glass made in Italy.

"It's going to be lighted and look white and elegant in the evenings," March said. "We won't be using red, purple or blue - we'll stick with white lights."

lakewoodhobo wrote:Oh Steve, if only you could pick up the phone and ask the press contact about that hotel.

eburress wrote:You've got a good view of this and Artelier...thanks for the photo! Incidentally, is that a gash in the roof of the parking garage across the street or am I just seeing things?

Tnexster wrote:So work on the roof continues, I swear this is the largest parking garage in the city....but they are clearly placing a decent sized wall around the roof and there is some indication that they are still moving up. They have been setting some forms in various places on the roof, just not sure what they have planned but there is at least still some kind of upward momentum.