DALLAS: Walkability? There's an App for That
Dallas is seeing a rebirth of its '50s pedestrian lifestyle; among its efforts is non-profit Urban Armadillos' free Pegasus Urban Trails app, which promotes walking downtown and site-seeing, from where Robocop was filmed to the giant eyeball at the Joule. Snapped: Downtown Dallas Inc CEO John Crawford, City Councilman Adam Medrano, Urban Armadillos co-founder Skyler Baty, Preservation Dallas prez David Preziosi, and Urban Armadillos co-founder Mike Wyatt at the launch party.
A half-dozen downtown towers that have traded hands this year are being opened up to the street for ground-level retail, John says. The latest: the 1.4M SF Thanksgiving Tower, which is having the ground floor blown out to accomplish this. Also in the interior demolition phase is the vacant 600k SF, 20-story old Statler Hilton hotel and the adjacent 131k SF public library, which are being prepped for a mixed-use hotel with residential units, parking, and retail. (To save time, may we suggest a used bookstore.) 1600 Pacific is being reconstructed into 186 apartments, 171-room Hilton Garden Inn, additional parking, and ground-floor retail. The construction fence is up on 1401 Elm, the former First National Bank Building, and One Main Place will be redeveloped.
