Recently we were discussing whether the Old Dallas Federal Reserve should be a datacenter like it is today or converted to some other use. But after a recent visit, I realized that the site facing the building, a parking lot and the vacant Thomas Building, have much more potential for redevelopment. The gist of my post is that I would love to see the Thomas Building converted to residential, add glass and balconies to the side facing the Fed Reserve Building and turn the parking lot into an underground garage topped by a plaza anchored by some sort of fountain. Here is a visual reference I put together with my awesome Photoshop skills:
While I'm not a huge fan of Iron Cactus and Pegasus Plaza, they are a good example of an older building reoriented to face an empty space. I don't know what used to be in the spot where Pegasus Plaza is now, but I'm sure it wasn't greenspace.
Again, using my superb Photoshop skills I took an image of the Thomas building and used it to visualize how the building addition would look like facing the plaza:
And of course, no rendering is complete without people walking around:
Obviously, the Iron Cactus layer is just for reference and I would prefer to see about a 10-20 foot wide addition that includes balcony space on all 8 floors so that residents can look at the plaza, fountain and Fed Reserve. The fountain doesn't need to look European at all, but it would be cool if it borrowed design cues from the Fed Reserve. The lighting on the plaza could be replicas of the lamp posts at the Fed, for example, while lighting on the fountain could be LED so it changes colors. The ground floor of the building facing the plaza could be a large community space or it could be retail for a coffee shop or wine bar.
Any thoughts?
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