Chase Tower's plaza is the next to go... being transformed into a driveway and reworked plaza with the goal of better connections to the Arts District. The transformation of Ross Avenue continues.
Now Landau plans to rework the plaza and entry to make Chase Tower more appealing to visitors, he said.
"We are going to make the plaza in front an extension of the Arts District," he said. "Right now, it's not very appealing for arrivals. The building has so much to offer by repositioning the plaza and creating an art component.
A more open plaza area, landscaping, walkways and a motor drop off at the base of the building are part of the plans for the Ross Avenue side of the tower.
"Because of the way that plaza is now landscaped, it blocks visual and real access to the front of the building," Landau said. "Our approach is to open it up.
"It's going to be a pretty dramatic change," he said. "We are going to strip clean the entire plaza and start from scratch."
Landau said the fitness center that's now located in the retail rotunda in front of the tower on Ross will be enlarged and relocated to the lower level.
The monumental rotunda space will then be repurposed.
"We plan to bring in a top tier restaurant to the rotunda which it was initially designed for," Landau said. "It's a prime location and absolutely beautiful space."
Here are some images from that article. It appears they are leveling the tiered green amphitheater (currently underutilized) so the pedestrian plaza can be transformed into a parking/drive area. Angled walkways replace the curving postmodern garden beds and walls are removed.
Interesting historical reference:
"The 56,000 Square Ft. Plaza was the largest open urban space in downtown Dallas. Trammell Crow Company was committed to creating a unique place for people to congregate and celebrate the Arts."
I think motor courts and drop offs are a necessary evil in today's transportation. With ride sharing and autonomy on the way, they're actually more necessary than parking garages.
That said, this is one big honking drive-way. Way overkill. I'm glad they're cleaning up the entrance as the current setup is too fortress like, but they really should have done better. Something like what Belo is doing seems like a more appropriate use of space.
They could have easily had a curb cut to support drop offs, but they took a different route. Bummer.
"He doesn't know how to use the three seashells..."
I said this in SSP as well.... They need to fix the lighting at the top of the building back to the bright lighting. It just looks so dark the way it is now.
The one big positive here is the rotunda restaurant. It made no sense as a fitness center. I don't mind removing the amphitheater. Unless the Chase tower management aggressively programmed it which they haven't in decades. Its design was a relic of good intentions. I do wish they incorporated more retail which I know is a difficult proposition without a parking lot. Most casual eateries, for example, wouldn't be interested unless their hours are office worker-centered only. The restaurant will obviously be a high-end signature valet based concept. Dallas doesn't have enough of those. Sadly the rest of the grounds will be mostly underutilized still. Giant sculpture in a wasteland of useless greenspace is not already unheard of in Dallas office tower landscaping, let alone in the Arts District. Mind you this is an improvement that a future reinterpretation could take even further.
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell”
I'm happy with the rotunda restaurant. People on the other side of Ross in the evening is a plus for this area. This will be a good - albeit small- improvement to the connection to the new TC Building on Ross.
I'd definitely like if the building went back to the previous lighting. Also, one of these days, the property owners might figure out its not a terrible idea to get rid of the rotunda and utilize its footprint and some of the plaza for at least a mid-rise residential tower. (Same for 2100 McKinney, get rid of the long empty ex-Sambuca building and do some sort of residential building there to include the parking lot.)
ArtVandelay wrote:Stevie B is reporting Deloitte is moving out in 2025 and relocating to 23Springs in Uptown. That's a huge loss for Downtown/Arts District.
Put a fork in DTD. Once the big law firms start bailing, even the Arts District will be dead.
Not if they continue converting these towers to apartments and hopefully condos as well. That will help to bring in more options for shopping, dining, etc. Then dtd will be more alive than ever.
Hopefully these legacy downtown towers will continue to become mixed use. That's the best scenario.
Downtown isn't going to compete with Uptown if they don't start putting out some new modern office space.
Funny thing is, Texas Commerce Tower has the right shape to easily be at least partially res. 45' from core to windows isn't too bad. I think currently it sits at around 240KSFish empty. Which, isn't absolute shite relatively - I guess it could already be worse right now. Unique opportunities up top around the sky window for some cool residential and/or hotel opportunities as well.
Uptown has deleted most of its original street grid while downtown still has one. That's a long-term DTD advantage when the Uptown towers of 2010 all become obsolete in their turn and the neighborhood is too boring and stringy to try to convert to a real neighborhood after the fact.
CTroyMathis wrote:Funny thing is, Texas Commerce Tower has the right shape to easily be at least partially res. 45' from core to windows isn't too bad. I think currently it sits at around 240KSFish empty. Which, isn't absolute shite relatively - I guess it could already be worse right now. Unique opportunities up top around the sky window for some cool residential and/or hotel opportunities as well.
Not to mention the park (Sky Lobby) up there. That'd be a cool amenity!
I am fine with these buildings converting to apartments we need more 24 - 7 people to go to restaurants and stores downtown. Easy walk into downtown or to KWP from here also near the streetcar.
how inventive is that?
