How Dallas can keep City Hall and the Mavericks
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Students and professors at UT Arlington say their master plan will help build a "future-proof" downtown Dallas. Rendering: Courtesy of the UT Arlington College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs
Downtown Dallas can keep its current City Hall and fit a new development for the Dallas Mavericks without having to choose one over the other, a group of UT Arlington architecture students say.
Why it matters: Dallas has the potential to be as walkable as Paris and Barcelona.
- The students, led by professors who work in the architecture industry, envision three integrated downtown districts: entertainment, civic and cultural, and residential and educational.
Driving the news: The group started imagining downtown's future at the beginning of the spring semester, before disagreements about City Hall reached a pinnacle.
- They've spent the last few weeks presenting their ideas publicly and talking to City Council members.
Catch up quick: Dallas leaders haven't reached consensus on whether to update the 48-year-old City Hall or move to another building downtown. Residents are also divided.
- Meanwhile, the Mavericks are looking for a Dallas site for a new arena, hoping to build an entertainment district around it.
State of play: Dallas' new convention center will serve as a center of gravity for downtown, adjunct assistant professor Carlos Alba tells Axios.
- The site of the older convention center will free up land that can be used for the proposed districts, says Alba, a senior designer at Perkins&Will who was on the convention center's design team.
What they're saying: "Once we started looking around the area, we realized there are tons of empty lots and urban gaps, as we call them, around City Hall," Alba says.
Reality check: The Mavericks have said they want a 50-acre site for their training facility, arena and entertainment district. Alba says it may be possible to get the team everything it needs with less land.
- The city would also have to commit to funding the districts. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson's office didn't reply to Axios' request for comment about the UTA students' proposal.
The bottom line: Alba says the city needs to rally around a clear vision for downtown for the area to meet its potential.
- "We're asking a bigger question … how we create a better city for us to live in," he says.