The Fort Worth Business Press is reporting that Grace, the new restaurant under construction in the ground floor of Carter + Burgess Plaza on Main downtown, will feature chef Blaine Staniford as its executive chef.

In addition to appearances on Good Morning America and The Rachael Ray Show, Staniford is perhaps best known as the head chef at Fuse, a Tex-Asian fusion restaurant in Dallas. Grace, which is being developed by former Del Frisco’s manager Adam Jones, will serve modern American food.

Grace’s design is by local architectural/design company Firm 817, run by Joe and Tracy Self, hosts of Design Talk Radio on TCU Radio.

The building that’s pure perfection.

What is now the downtown FedEx Kinko’s was at one point Hogan Office Supplies, run by Ben Hogan’s brother. When Kinko’s moved in, they never bothered to remove this awning, and a sign on the rear of the building.

Carter + Burgess Plaza rises over the Embassy Suites downtown.

Bike parked at Cabo Grande in downtown.

Valet’s got a wandering eye, methinks.

So, by now you may have heard that a group of 50 Fort Worthians, including Mayor MC Moncrizzle and the Official Streetcar Study Group (I’d pay up to and including a dollar to see a band with that name), took a trip to (Unnamed City To The East) yesterday to take a look at Mockingbird Station, the first TOD (Transit-Oriented Development) ever built in Big (UCTTE), to get some inspiration for Fort Worth’s planned streetcar circulator system. Of course, Mockingbird Station is built on a DART light rail line, which is not really similar to our proposed streetcar circulator, but their heart’s in the right place. The study group plans to take a trip to visit Portland next and have a look at their streetcar system, which is directly what ours would be based on.

I have to say, it warms the cockles of this New Urbanist’s heart when I hear that the Mayor dropped some fresh beats that he’d never attempted before. I never thought I’d hear him say this sentence:

[Read more]

For those of you who don’t read both West & Clear and my other little baby, Fort Worthology, here’s a summary of what you missed whilst cruelly stomping on my heart with your steel-toed Ignore Boots. C’mon, baby - Fort Worthology loves you like a kitten, too.

• A link to an old ’70s plan to extend the Leonard’s/Tandy Center subway
• A note that the Museum Place development marches onwards with the closing and imminent demolition of J & J’s Hideaway
• A post about Agricultural Urbanism - techniques for integrating food-growing into a dense, walkable environment
• A video from the CNU showing how walkable neighborhoods help reduce energy use and pollution
• Another one of my laments (collect the whole set) about the closed and decaying Heritage Park downtown
• Some updated site plans for the West 7th development
• A note about the Downtown Design Review Board’s half-approval of new lighting for the Texas & Pacific train station/lofts
• A request for information on vacant lots for sale in Fairmount

As reported onFort Worthology, the large metal poles which once held a billboard at the Cultural District intersection of 7th, Camp Bowie, University, and Bailey but which were stripped clean and bent over by the 2000 tornado are at last being reinstalled in front of the new Museum Place Post Office. Reader Jeff W. sent me this shot of the reinstallation underway now.

The poles will form the centerpiece of a new public plaza in front of the Post Office. The front wall of the building itself (seen in the photo covered in white Tyvek wrap) will be covered by ceramic tiles with a large mural of a thunderstorm crossing the prairie, along with the words “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” The Post Office and the plaza are both still under construction as part of the big Museum Place development.

Personally, I’m very happy to see the distinctive poles reinstalled as a piece of public art. They are an incredible reminder of the power of nature (don’t forget, they were bent simply by the force of wind) and an eye-catching landmark for the rapidly redeveloping Cultural District. It’s great to see a bit of the area’s history brought back as a centerpiece of a development that points towards its future.

So sayeth the North Central Texas Council Of Governments (NCTCOG):

After years of rapid home-building north of Loop 820, Fort Worth’s population has reached 702,850, according to estimates released Thursday by the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

What I find interesting is this tidbit:

It’s a milestone — the city has more than 700,000 residents for the first time — but it’s tempered by indications that some people are shifting away from buying new homes in outlying neighborhoods and toward apartment rentals in Dallas.

Fort Worth added 16,000 residents — 3,850 fewer than Dallas, which has more apartments available and a more mature urban transit core.

I’ve been expecting news to eventually surface that the big urban living boom in Dallas would be a boost to their growth like this. While we’ve been doing some tremendous infill development in urban Fort Worth, I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more to come as demand for central city living draws more interest to new residents. And I have a feeling the emphasis on condos over rental apartments that has been big here for a while will shift back towards rental for this very reason. The several hundred new apartments being built on 7th Street now (yes, the vast majority of units on 7th under construction are not pricey condos but actually rental apartments) along with the several hundred about to get underway at Trinity Bluff will likely set the tone for the near future. Already, there are plans for big urban apartment infill projects being talked about in the Near Southside.

The other issue mentioned is transit. We’ve got more on the way, and more planned - in today’s world, I’m betting they’ll become big draws if we can get them built as we wish.