Two Arts Plaza

[dzh]

Found a brochure for Two Arts Plaza on the Billingsley website. I'm inclined to believe that it's a relatively recent plan seeing that Playwright Pub is included in the brochure (and that bar didn't open until earlier this year). It's definitely about time that they got something rolling over here. They have more land than the Epic Development, so in my opinion they really should be trying to fit a development like that back there. I think some luxury apartment towers with good retail, and a cohesive walking plan would be very successful here. Would also help add more activity to the Arts District.

http://billingsleyco.com/wp-content/upl ... 9-7.19.pdf

[Tivo_Kenevil]

12 - stories? They waited all this time to develop this? I thought they had plans of grandeur

[dzh]

Yea I don't think Billingsley really knows how to create more than an office park unfortunately. They need to hire a good urban architect and create an actual master plan.

[Tnexster]

12 - stories? They waited all this time to develop this? I thought they had plans of grandeur

Not, this design is an improvement over the last one but it still fails. This might be okay if it were about 30 floors, included a hotel and a large mixed use design incorporated around the base or at least facing Pearl. And the parking needs to be sunk below grade.

[muncien]

I've always felt that corner of the CBD was pretty limited due to the massive freeway interchange that pretty much isolates any activity from the North or East. If ever there were to place a campus style office building in the CBD, this is probably it... not that I like it. But, I agree with the attitude that such isolation and minimal street interaction does allow for something with greater height. They certainly missed with that regard. Perhaps they are just done sitting on this property... who knows.

[cowboyeagle05]

Billingsley is focused on North Lake anyway. This is just a refresh just in case someone shows up needing a place to land. Billingsley lost focus on Downtown when 7ELeven wanted to move to the burbs.

[Kelley USA]

It doesn't make much sense for Billingsley to invest much time in Two Arts... They have their hands full with Cypress Waters! Plus they're getting ready to start another huge mixed-use project in Fairview. I mean they're crushing it at Cypress Waters. The number of companies that they've been able to attract along with the apartments and retail is staggering.

But with that being said the above link for Two Arts was updated back in July, so it is fairly new. I also don't actually hate the design if I'm being honest. I've seen much worse!

[eburress]

Though it could be taller, like others have said, I do like the building's design.

[R1070]

I like it. I think Three Arts Plaza is supposed to be the tallest plot of the development.

[cowboyeagle05]

If three arts ever moves past the concept boards. At this point they haven't been able to get Two Arts off the ground they may never even propose Three Arts and sell off the land or as part of the sale of the entire project.

[dzh]

If three arts ever moves past the concept boards. At this point they haven't been able to get Two Arts off the ground they may never even propose Three Arts and sell off the land or as part of the sale of the entire project.

I wish Billingsley would just sell if she doesn't intend to build anytime soon. The reality is that she's sitting on a prime piece of land and doing nothing. Yes the land backs up to the highway, but there's also a lot of it and it's very close to the Arts District.

At the very least, I wish she would look into joint venture projects with developers that have good track records for urban projects. A KDC-Billingsley collab would be fantastic here.

[cowboyeagle05]

She tried to sell it when she started Cypress Waters I believe but no one wanted to pay what she wanted so it made sense to hold on to it and hope another big name swings into town that wants an urban locale.

[BigD5349]

It's really a shame how Billingsley has boxed in the Dallas Black Dance Theatre even further; first she cut it off from the rest of the district by a massive (and frankly ugly) cinder block building, and now it's wedged behind parking lots and parking garages.

[tamtagon]

At one point, Crow/Billingsley was going to give this land for the Museum of Nature and Science.

[tamtagon]

While even the former Spire acerage is getting play, this prominent development is hybernating. Guess the Cypress campus is too appealing.

[cowboyeagle05]

Billingsley put One Arts up for sale a while back I think that speaks volumes; plus, keep in mind developers only have so many projects that can float and market at once without being overextended. Sure, you can hire more people, but you only do that if you are sure you have the financing in place to run that many developments. Cypress is very successful and very, very large compared to this project, and it targets what 90% of office tenants want suburban office complexes.

[Tucy]

All that, plus the Two Arts Plaza site is pretty badly compromised. Far from an ideal site for downtown offices.

[CTroyMathis]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure all that was given up on years ago, regardless of relic signs.
This one just for fun, it's fourartsplaza.com: https://web.archive.org/web/20110208090 ... plaza.com/
Back, when 2 and 3 were mentioned, might as well try for 4 because why not.

[cowboyeagle05]

At this point, I am surprised she hasn't sold the land for a Luxury Apartment project with at least one more ground-floor restaurant/retail space.

[CTroyMathis]

Perhaps just build a college there. Maybe call it The Center but in another language.

[The_Overdog]

keep in mind developers only have so many projects that can float and market at once without being overextended

Yes, and Billingsly also has a large mixed usage project in Plano that sat on deck for 5 years, kicked off this year, and is currently under construction.

[I45Tex]

Perhaps just build a college there. Maybe call it The Center but in another language.

[nth016]

Came across these rendering recently from GFF, might be old but looked new to me.

https://gff.com/view/two-arts-plaza/

[I45Tex]

BTW, Troy, You for some reason have got a submarine sense of humor but I depth charged it eventually.

Hey let's bury Central Expressway and cap it with that college. That would fit the name perfectly.

কেন্দ্ৰীয় এক্সপ্ৰেছৱে

Assamese looks cooler than Spanish, I have to say, but uh let's not change the highway signs just yet

[DalnHou]

Re nth016 Great find in those images.

[lakewoodhobo]

Perhaps just build a college there. Maybe call it The Center but in another language.

Funny, and a bit off-topic here, but despite Spanish being my first language I never knew that "Centro" means "Downtown" until I moved to Dallas.

Guess that makes sense when you grow up in a city (San Juan, Puerto Rico) without a typical downtown core.

[I45Tex]

Re nth016 Great find in those images.

Right?! They do look new to me.

It’s better than One Arts and than the original building proposal for the site, to boot.
I think, though, given the arts branding, that the new design and the neighborhood would both benefit from a more creative color. A tint of a color like purple would still be close to ho-hum bluegray curtain wall grids but would make the foreground vertical elements of the tower unexpectedly pop even more, don’t you imagine?

[I45Tex]

Maybe a bit more iridescent or opalescent purple glass than my avatar. Keep the grid elements a brighter matte whitish color

[CTroyMathis]

Perhaps just build a college there. Maybe call it The Center but in another language.

Funny, and a bit off-topic here, but despite Spanish being my first language I never knew that "Centro" means "Downtown" until I moved to Dallas.

Guess that makes sense when you grow up in a city (San Juan, Puerto Rico) without a typical downtown core.

Solid point!

[CTroyMathis]

BTW, Troy, You for some reason have got a submarine sense of humor but I depth charged it eventually.

Hey let's bury Central Expressway and cap it with that college. That would fit the name perfectly.

কেন্দ্ৰীয় এক্সপ্ৰেছৱে

Assamese looks cooler than Spanish, I have to say, but uh let's not change the highway signs just yet

Haha, why not! It's taken a very long time to keep the submariner mentality in check at work. It often goes misunderstood.

[cowboyeagle05]

Well, I would say while the renders could be newer, the project is probably dead again. Architects only seem to add renders to their site when a project is completed as an example of success or if not moving past the design stage. The developer usually wants to keep the design/renders in their back pocket during the stage where they are trying to get it developed and are doing PR puff pieces with Steve Brown or in the Dallas Business Journal. It's usually only after the project is being built or gone that the architect gets to squeeze some portfolio juice out of the lemon. If this project was still in play, we would have seen a puff piece by now.

[BigD5349]

Billingsley has proven to just be a hit and run developer. She placed an ugly giant cinder block building to bookend Flora, cutting off the old Moorland Y building from the rest of the district. Can we knock it down and start over?

[Kelley USA]

Saw an article yesterday where Billingsley was saying developers need to be build new office space DT in order to keep and attract companies... And I thought, hey, you're a developer with available land DT. So, was curious if her Two Arts Plaza was still being kicked around & dusted off, and sure enough, this looks like an updated project. I've never seen these renderings before. Obviously it's just a concept as I don't think she'd build this spec.

https://www.twoartsplaza.com/

[mhainli]

In that link, the bird’s eye view of the development shows the old renderings, where the TwoArts building had the safe, boring design. I guess Billingsley missed updating that view. I like the newer stair stepped building design a lot more, but is it even realistic for our local risk-averse developers? We can only wish…

[Matt777]

I really, really, really like the rendering of that building. Hoping they're able to get it going.

[R1070]

That would look great right there along the freeway and it seems like a nice size for that side of downtown and close walking distance to State-Thomas. I could see something actually happening here. I think Three Arts should go a different direction with residential and hotel space.

[Tnexster]

Curious about the residential looking tower behind.

[CTroyMathis]

Apparently, 2.5 or 3 - it does seem that it is supposed to be residential (or mostly) looking at the online materials. But, we're also talking about eleventy years from now. Oh, squirrel. . .