What Does Fort Worth Sound Like?
by Steve-O
What does Fort Worth sound like? When is a parking garage a work of art?
No, I am not pretending to be a Zen master today, but these two questions are actually related and have to do with the building above. That’s the new downtown parking project called Parking in Color, and it will provide parking for the Fort Worth Convention Center and will be located between the Convention Center and the new Omni Hotel. The project is commissioned by Fort Worth Public Art, a City of Fort Worth program administered by the Arts Council of Fort Worth and Tarrant County.
I know that parking garages don’t exactly get most people too excited, but the city hopes this building will do more than hold 8,000 cars.
There will be space for ground-floor retail and dining. So if you are walking by on a some evening, it might not occur to you that this is a parking garage. You might think it is a great place to drop in and grab a cup of coffee or a drink. This might even be New Urbanist enough for my main man Kevin Buchanan.
But the city hopes it will also be a work of art. Architect and sound artist Christopher Janney (warning: loud music) designed the building to draw on Fort Worth’s rich Art Deco heritage – including the old 1938 City Hall Building – but with a bit of a postmodern twist. Each corner will be covered in a different in a different color of transparent glass that will also contain LED lighting elements.
But Janney is also designing a “sound environment” that will be uniquely Fort Worth and even change with seasons and events.
And that’s where you come in. What does Fort Worth sound like? If you can fill out this survey, you can help Janney and the Fort Worth Public Art Office answer that question. The questions you will be asked are:
1. Is there a particular sound that make you think of Fort Worth?
2. What specific animal sounds do you feel are particular to Fort Worth?
3. What specific insect sounds or other natural sounds do you feel are particular to Fort Worth?
4. What music do feel is particular to Fort Worth?
5. Is there any voice or radio or television personality (living or dead) that reminds you of Fort Worth?
I encourage you to fill out this survey and post your answers in the comments section of this blog. Here are my answers to the survey questions:
15 Comments, Comments or Pings
SteveB
I immediately thought Harold Taft as well…
Mar 27th, 2008
SteveB
Here’s what I went with:
FW Sounds: Trains, Stock Show, Burgers Lake, Waitresses at Angelo’s hollering “two large make ‘em light” over the din of a packed dining room.
Animals: Cattle, Grackles (unfortunately), Mockingbirds
Natural Sounds: Thunderstorms, Cicadas
Music: Blues, Old-time Country
TV Personality: Harold Taft
Mar 27th, 2008
dustin
i have to agree with the thunderstorms and cicadas. about this time of year, when i start to hear the cicadas, i am immediately transported back to my childhood at grandmothers house in white lake hills.
Music: bob wills of course. i can just imagine AHHHHHH HHAAAAA in that falsetto echoing through the parking garage.
Mar 27th, 2008
texfana
1. airplanes (I live near Carswell!), children playing
2. horses clip-clopping down Main during the stock show parade
3. ?
4. western swing
5. bill mack, barry corbin, chuck norris
Mar 27th, 2008
Jonathan
For personality it has to be Glenn Mitchell.
Mar 27th, 2008
Walton
Why exactly are we over-thinking a parking garage? I can appreciate the desire to do more than just a standard garage but parking garages are pretty standard for a reason. People spend very little time in them. People park, then they leave. I have closets in my home. I use them everyday but I don’t waste any money decorating them.
Mar 27th, 2008
Kevin
It’s important to do as much as we can to not make parking garages too typical. Your average garage creates a dead spot in the street. Garages like this add to the streetscape more than they hurt it.
It’s all about crafting a proper urban environment. If you have to have a garage face the street, you absolutely must make it as disguised and lively as possible. A parking garage should not be just for the people who park in it - that sort of thinking gave us all the horrible concrete monstrosities that were built for our big office towers.
I hope every garage that gets built from here on out is as innovative and interesting as this one. We can’t afford to smother our streetscape with typical dead garages anymore.
Mar 27th, 2008
Steve-O
Walton:
I think you ask a great question and I think the closet analogy is a good one. The closets in my house are pretty plain — a wood bar and that’s it. Some people spend a ton of money on their closets with high-end gee-gaws. Who’s right on that one? It just comes down to what you want and what you want to pay for. I’m happy with my plain ol’ closet, but the whiz-bang is still pretty cool.
I understand where you are coming from on this. Why shouldn’t a parking garage be just a parking garage? But I think this garage’s location and the city’s plan to pull development more toward Lancaster make this idea appropriate. I agree with Kevin — we can’t afford to smother our streetscape with typical dead garages anymore. And if you can get some meaningful retail in on the ground floor — regardless of how you feel about the “art” aspect — I think that is a good idea. But I also think the art is kinda cool — so that’s a bonus.
Mar 27th, 2008
Walton
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for avoiding dead spots on the streets. No one said you couldn’t make it pleasing to look at either. I think the ground level retail is great but what is the art for? The “sound environment”? Isn’t that wasted on a garage? People don’t spend time in parking garages. People park, then they leave. Nobody ever says “You have to experience this parking garage!” How about putting the art, the soundscapes in a place they will be appreciated?
Mar 27th, 2008
Kevin
The art and soundscapes will be for the benefit of the outside. That’s the whole point. They’ll be experienced by anybody walking past.
Mar 28th, 2008
Steve-O
Walton, this is my bad. Some info I had that I left might help. The art element actually has a functional purpose, too. The different colors of each corner are designed to help provide some orientation for people in an otherwise disorienting space — a concrete room. Ditto with the sound environments. Ideally these will help people find their way to the elevators. This may not change your mind, but it is information that I should have included in the original post. Mea culpa.
Mar 28th, 2008
AndyN
In that first rendering , the garage looks like a big old cabinet radio.
Mar 28th, 2008
Connie
I immediately thought about Harold Taft. The next thought was Hal Jay on WBAP.
Mar 28th, 2008
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