New skyscraper ideas for Fort Worth...

[JJG]

I'm an architect major and a Fort Worth native. I love buildings and I love my city.... and HATE the skyline.

I'm just throwing out ideas for new skyscrapers for the city.

Feel free to hate them, but just know that these are just sketch models.

[JJG]

XTO HQ.......

This is my model of the former planned 50 story XTO Tower that was going to replace the Landmark Tower.

Now before you start pointing out the flaws in this building remember, this is just a SKETCH model. this isn't up to scale and this isn't exactly what I want it to look like, but it is the main idea.



Here's the building...



... looking up at it from street level...



East to west elevation



North to South elevation



And here's a height comparison of the XTO with the curent tallest building in Fort Worth.




And here's my inspiration for this tower, the Bank of America Center in Houston

[KevinFromTexas]

Overall, I like it, but I think the spires are a little overdone. I like the color and facade and setback design.

[JJG]

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

Overall, I like it, but I think the spires are a little overdone. I like the color and facade and setback design.

Thanx.
Downtown Fort Worth is known for it's older architecture, and I wanted to reflect that by making it in an art deco style.

The facade is supposed to be pink granite. And the silver part is metal.

[Atomic Glee]

Might I suggest that it is too monolithic at ground level? I wanna see retail on there and a human-scaled facade on the lower levels.

/urbanist-rant

[Texas Tuff]

I like it, I think it would be a nice addition to the Fort Worth skyline! I do, however agree with Kevin above, you might take the spires down a little in height, that would make it look better IMO.

[JJG]

The size of the building is a lilttle to big to fit in that block, as you can clearly see. It's not to scale, so that's why it looks more like something you'd see in Houston... I'll fix that eventually when I get the chance, but right now I'm just working on sketches.


And trust me, half the buildings I'm gonna make will have retail and human scale development (some will be mixed use even).
Especially with this building's placement, being about 2 blocks away from The Tower and 3 away from the core of Sundance Square, so it should have something to attract more than just businessmen.

I'll work on the replacements of the AT&T Building and curent City Hall, next.

[JJG]

New Buliding:

PANTHER TOWER
971 ft.
56 stories



lookin up from ground level


Example of ground level retail



elevation


Comparison to the current tallest building....


View from the south end of the Convention Center....


The buiding it would replace....


And finally the inspiration



First off, this didn't come out exactly as I wanted. The idea is there but this isn't quite what I had in mind (when I was workin on this thing, i just kept going and didn't stop).

Second, this building is suposd to be a replacement of the butt-ugly AT&T Building. It may never happen. But if so, I'm throwin this on the table.....
And of course, the inspiration for this is the Empire State Building. Since it would be right next to our Flatiron Building, I thought it would just fit... to add some sort of New York Flavor to it. And it has space for retail on its four corners.

[Texas Tuff]

I like it!

[KevinFromTexas]

I like the idea of the spires, though, but they're too large for the building. Maybe make them a little smaller. One of my favorite buildings around resembles this one somewhat. Indianapolis' Chase Bank Tower which is 700 feet tall to the roof with 48 floors, but has twin spires that take the height to 811 feet. That building is really nice looking because of it's proportions.

http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=...napolis-in-usa

[Atomic Glee]

One thing to think about - the best buildings in Downtown Fort Worth are, by and large, not the ones that take up an entire city block. They're the ones that take up a quarter or a half of a block. Downtown Fort Worth has very small blocks - they are well-suited to shorter, less imposing buildings.

[JJG]

Originally Posted by Atomic Glee

One thing to think about - the best buildings in Downtown Fort Worth are, by and large, not the ones that take up an entire city block. They're the ones that take up a quarter or a half of a block. Downtown Fort Worth has very small blocks - they are well-suited to shorter, less imposing buildings.

Well some of the buildings I'm making are in bigger squares (like the City Hall block or the AT&T building).
As of right now, I'm just working on the taller buildings and will work on that former 60 floor, Block TU building.... at least that's what I think it was called. I can't remember.

And the crown of the new AT&T building is still a work in progress....

[KevinFromTexas]

Interesting concept with the crown.

[travelinmiles]

It would be interesting to see these how these building impacts on the skyline. Rendering maybe?

[JJG]

Originally Posted by travelinmiles

It would be interesting to see these how these building impacts on the skyline. Rendering maybe?

I could try..... but it might take a while.

[JJG]

New Building

Fmr. Block TU Tower
991 ft.
60 Stories



I used the original idea of the 60 floor, 900 footer that was suposed to be built in that parking lot bound by 7th, 8th, Calhoun and Jones streets. Only I redesigned it.
From this:


to this:



No I know it looks HUGE, but I did my mesurements on Google Earth and I'm 95% sure this is the right size. And I wanted the residential part to be closer to the ground than the Office part of the tower.

Here's the Garage. It has ground level retail and features two GIANT billboards on both sides and 4 LED screens (as homage to the old Tandy Towers) to display messages. It's white on the retail sides and has grey tile, with the billboards and screens on the garage entrance sides.


Here's the top of the building, which I call, the "shades".


Looking up from the street:


Elevation


Comparison to the current tallest:



...... and while we're at it, let's look at the other tallest in Texas.....

Houston:


Dallas:


San Antonio:


Austin:


and finally, El Paso:



Now, I'm a big skyscraper lover.... but even I have to admit, this may be a little too big for Fort Worth.

Well, for now, anyway.....


BTW, the next building I do will also be modern. Sorry for those who hate that.

[Urbannizer]

Pretty Nice! I like it, although the parking is quite large, maybe some underground parking can reaplce some of those levels.

Can't wait for the next building!

[JJG]

Originally Posted by ()_T

Pretty Nice! I like it, although the parking is quite large, maybe some underground parking can reaplce some of those levels.

Can't wait for the next building!

Thanks. The Megarage was actually bigger than this, at first. Still, I wanted it to be around this tall, since that was the original plan.

[JJG]

New Building:

American Airlines Building
417 ft.
32 stories



Ground level



The Restaurants/shops and Balcony.

Since this building will be in Sundance Square, I think it wouldn't be right if this wasn't mixed use.

The Star Pattern on the back


Looking up from ground level


Elevations:

North

South


Comparison to curent tallest

I gotta say, this building turned out smaller than I first thought... but then again, when you look at the location, I think it's good at this size.


This building would be in Sundance Square (the parking lot right infront of The Tower between Throckmorton/Houston and right on W 4th). I wanted this to have an airplane them, but at the same time, make it look like an older style building, since it's in Sundance. The bronze star designs on the back were put there to represnt Texas and the metal accents represent the planes. I think subconsciously, I was thinking about 60's style buildings while making this. The garage part of this building is plain, which would open up development for smaller, more human-scaled projects.

[Tex1899]

Your first couple look to be more appropriate for Chicago, New York, or Shanghai.

Make sure your designs have the right proportions. Look at the building that just went up at Gessner and I-10 here in Houston...that crown ought to be on something that's close to 1000' tall. Look at Frost Bank in Austin...that building looks like it was meant to be 750' tall and about 25 stories were knocked out...it looks squatty.

Ft. Worth, in my opinion, is a little different than most cities in that building tall isn't necessarily the objective, but rather instead the objective is building to compliment the existing structures. Someone about 10 years ago (or less) built a new building that was maybe 10 stories tall. If you walk through dowtown FW you might not know it's 10 years old.

I guess what I'm getting at is buildings in downtown Ft. Worth don't make statements; they compliment. Buildings in downtown Houston (or Dallas, to a lesser extent) are built in part to make statements.

Keep up the good work! I would encourage you to have a second portfolio (the first being projects from design studios) of sketches you've made, proposals, etc. If you haven't already, join AIA, ULI, and make as many contacts as possible, regardless of where the architect, developer, etc. lives/works.