Downtown Fort Worth

Bass Performance Hall

Fort Worth Water Gardens

Downtown Fort Worth is the central business district of Fort Worth, Texas, United States.

• Sundance Square - Fort Worth's downtown has Sundance Square is an 8 block entertainment district for the city. The Square has brick-pavers, sidewalk cafes, and landscaping which set it apart. Restaurants, nightclubs, boutiques, museums, live theaters, cineplex movie theaters, and art galleries are along the Square.
• Fort Worth Water Gardens - A 4.3-acre (17,000 m²) contemporary park, designed by architect Philip Johnson, that features three unique pools of water offering a calming and cooling oasis for downtown patrons. The gardens were used in the finale of the 1976 sci-fi film Logan's Run. (In mid-2004 the Water Gardens had to be closed due to several drownings. It has reopened after preventive measures have been installed.)
• Fort Worth Convention Center - Includes an 11,200 seat multi-purpose arena.
• Bass Performance Hall - Bass Hall is the permanent home to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Texas Ballet Theater, Fort Worth Opera, and the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition and Cliburn Concerts.
• Tarrant County Courthouse stands at the north end of Main Street. It has been remodeled over the years and the exterior was used frequently in Walker, Texas Ranger.
• The Omni Fort Worth Hotel is the first new downtown hotel construction in over 20 years. Its former estimated height was around 547 ft (167 m), but it has been down-sized by 100 feet (30 m). It opened January 12, 2009 and it will host the AFC Champions in 2011 for Super Bowl XLV.
• The Tower, formerly the Bank One Tower, was severely damaged in the March 28, 2000 tornado. It was converted into a residential tower in 2004. Before the redevelopment, The Tower was covered in plywood and metal panels, and considered to be demolished. The Tower now has a new facade and a new top feature that makes it the fourth tallest building in the city.
• City Center Development features two twin towers. One is the 38 story D.R. Horton Tower (1984), and the other is the 33 story Wells Fargo Tower (1982). From the top, they are shaped like pinwheels.

The United States Postal Service operates the Downtown Fort Worth Post Office at 251 West Lancaster Avenue.^[1]

Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District

The Livestock Exchange Building (constructed 1903) in Fort Worth

Longhorn cattle are driven for exhibition purposes through the Fort Worth Stockyards at 11:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily.

A glimpse of the Stockyards Museum

The stockyards offer a taste of the old west and the Chisholm Trail at the site of the historic cattle drives and rail access. The Old West comes alive again each year during the Fort Worth Stock Show. The District is filled with restaurants, clubs, gift shops, and attractions such as the twice daily longhorn cattle drives through the streets, historic reenactments, the Stockyards Museum, the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, and Billy Bob's, the world's largest country and western music venue.

Cultural district

• The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, founded in 1892, is the oldest art museum in Texas. Its permanent collection consists of some 2,600 works of post-war art. In 2002, the museum moved into a new home designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
• The Kimbell Art Museum houses works from antiquity to the 20th century. Artists represented in its holdings include Caravaggio, Fra Angelico, Picasso, Vigée-Lebrun, Matisse, Cézanne, El Greco, and Rembrandt. The museum's home was designed by American architect Louis Kahn.
• The Amon Carter Museum of American Art focuses on 19th and 20th century American artists. It houses an extensive collection of works by Western artists Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, as well as an impressive collection of 30,000 exhibition-quality photographs. It also includes works by Alexander Calder, Thomas Cole, Stuart Davis, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, Georgia O'Keeffe, John Singer Sargent, and Alfred Stieglitz. American architect Philip Johnson designed the museum's home, including its expansion.
• The National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame is the only museum in the world that is solely dedicated to honoring women of the American West who have demonstrated extraordinary courage and pioneer spirit in their trail blazing efforts.
• The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History - One of the largest Science and History Museums in the Southwest. It includes the Noble Planetarium and the Omni Theater.
• Will Rogers Memorial Center - a multi-purpose entertainment complex and world-class equestrian center housed under 45 acres (180,000 m²) of roof spread over 85 acres (340,000 m²) in the heart of the Fort Worth Cultural District. Each year approximately 800,000 people attend the three week event known as the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show, formerly called the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo.
• Casa Mañana - The nation's first theater designed for musicals "in the round". A controversial renovation completed in 2003 turned the once unique "House of Tomorrow" into a traditional theater and abandoned the round design. The building's unique silver dome remains.
• Museum Place is an 11-acre (45,000 m²), mixed-use development in construction that includes ground level retail, office space, and residential space. The main buildings in this development will be an eight-story brick and glass low rise, a modernized flatiron style building and a new post office that will feature damaged metal from the 2000 tornado as an art display.
• 7th Street is the main street for the cultural district, since it will feature the Museum Place development, the existing residential So7 and Montgomery Plaza, West 7th (another mixed-use development which will feature office, residential, retail, hotel, and a movie theater), and there are even talks of a streetcar route in the near future.

Parks district

• Fort Worth Zoo - Ranked one of the top 10 best zoos in the United States by Family Fun magazine
• Fort Worth Botanic Garden - The oldest botanic garden in Texas, with 21 specialty gardens and over 2,500 species of plants.
• Fort Worth Japanese Garden
• Log Cabin Village - A collection of authentic Texas log cabins dating from the 1850s.
• Trinity Park - A large park along the Trinity River that includes part of the Trinity Trails system.

Texas Christian University

Main article: Texas Christian University

• Texas Christian University - Fort Worth's most prominent university, founded in 1873 by Addison & Randolph Clark as "AddRan Male & Female College". It is the largest university affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), though the denomination does not own or operate the school, rather, the school-church partnership is based on a common heritage and shared values. The university became known as "Texas Christian University" in 1902 and was the first co-educational institution in the US's southwest region. The school now occupies approximately 325 acres (1.32 km²) right in the heart of Fort Worth. Originally, only 50 acres (200,000 m²) of land were ceded to the Clark brothers; at the time, the land was dubbed "Hell's Half Acre" due to the red-light businesses that were predominant in the area.^[2] In 1895 the plot of land was given free of charge, along with $200,000, to entice the brothers to permanently settle their educational institution in Fort Worth. Over $1.5 million dollars are exclusively endowed each year to ensure the upkeep of the university, which sits as a pristine green/flowered landscape in the middle of the urban surroundings of Fort Worth.

Uptown / Trinity

The Tarrant Regional Water District, City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Streams & Valleys Inc, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are cooperating in an effort to develop an area north of "downtown" as "uptown" along the Trinity River. This plan promotes a large mixed use development adjacent to the central city area of Fort Worth, with a goal to prevent urban sprawl by promoting the growth of a healthy, vibrant urban core. The Trinity River Vision lays the groundwork to enable Fort Worth's central business district to double in size over the next 40 years. ^[3]

Government and infrastructure

The Texas Second Court of Appeals is located in the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center in Downtown Fort Worth.^[4]

Economy

AMC Theatre in Downtown Fort Worth

Radio Shack has its headquarters in Downtown Fort Worth.^[5] In 2001 Radio Shack bought the former Ripley Arnold public housing complex in Downtown Fort Worth for $20 million. The company razed the complex and had a 900,000 square feet (84,000 m²) corporate headquarters campus built after the City of Fort Worth approved a 30-year economic agreement to ensure that the company stayed in Fort Worth. The company sold the building and, as of 2009, had two years left of a rent-free lease in the building. The company intended to make $66.8 million in the deal with the city. By 2009 it made $4 million; by 2009 the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that the company was considering a new site for its headquarters.^[6] D.R. Horton has its headquarters in the D.R. Horton Tower in Downtown.^[7] TPG Capital has its headquarters in Downtown Fort Worth.^[8][9] XTO Energy has its headquarters in Downtown Fort Worth.^[10]

KPMG has its Fort Worth offices in the D.R. Horton Tower.^[11]

Transportation

Tandy Center view from Belknap

• The Tandy Center Subway, based in the Tandy Center (now known as City Place), operated in Fort Worth from 1963 to 2002. The 0.7 mile (1 km) long subway was the only privately operated subway in the United States.
• Trinity Trails - A network of over 35 miles (56 km) of pedestrian trails along the Trinity River.

Federal facilities

• United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) - Federal Reserve notes (United States paper currency) are printed at the bureau's facilities in north Fort Worth.
• United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) - Home to the US Army Engineer Fort Worth District District Office.
• Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, formerly known as Carswell Air Force Base, is a major military installation in west Fort Worth and a major contributor to the local economy. It is also the first Joint Service Reserve Base in the United States.

In popular culture

• Logan's Run, a 1976 science fiction film directed by Michael Anderson and starring Michael York was shot largely in Fort Worth, including locations such as the Fort Worth Water Gardens. The Water Gardens also appear in another science-fiction film of the period, The Lathe of Heaven (1980).

Education

Downtown is served by the Fort Worth Independent School District.

Fort Worth Library operates the Central Library at 500 West Third Street at Taylor Street. The library opened in 1978, and an expansion was completed in 2000.^[12]

References

Dallas-Fort Worth portal

1. ^ "Post Office Location - DOWNTOWN FORT WORTH." United States Postal Service. Retrieved on April 17, 2009.
2. ^ Richard F. Selcer (April 1991). Hell's Half Acre: The Life and Legend of a Red-Light District. TCU Press. ISBN 978-0-87565-088-3. 
3. ^ Uptown - Trinity River - Fort Worth, Texas
4. ^ "Contact Information." Texas Second Court of Appeals. Retrieved on March 9, 2010.
5. ^ "Corporate Information Contacts." Radio Shack. Retrieved on October 20, 2009.
6. ^ "Fort Worth-based RadioShack may move headquarters out of town." Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Wednesday November 11, 2009. Retrieved on November 13, 2009.
7. ^ "WEBSITE LAYOUT REGARDING CORPORATE GOVERNANCE." D. R. Horton. Retrieved on December 8, 2009.^{[dead link]}
8. ^ Chassany, Anne-Sylvanie. "PAI’s ‘Coup d’Etat’ Shows LBO Firms’ Feuds Over Power, Strategy ." Bloomberg. September 29, 2009. Retrieved on October 20, 2009.
9. ^ "Contact TPG." TPG Capital. Retrieved on October 20, 2009.
10. ^ "Contact Us." XTO Energy. Retrieved on December 8, 2009.
11. ^ "Offices." KPMG. Retrieved on December 17, 2009.
12. ^ "Central Library." Fort Worth Library. Retrieved on April 19, 2009.

External links

• Downtown Fort Worth news and information