We’ve wondered before in this space about what we need downtown, and my old online haunt once ran a piece with a similar mental exercise. It always struck me that many of the small ideas – bookshops, cafes, grocery stores, laundry – would follow if one big idea was brought into the downtown mix: a university. That’s why when the rumblings began last week that momentum may be building behind the Statler Hilton redo (emphasis on the maybe, via Wilonsky), the first idea that popped into my head was student housing. Here’s why: as I wrote in this D CEO piece some time back, one of the big obstacles facing a Statler redo is its inflexible floor plates and cramped room designs. Without massive interior demolition (which never makes it easier to pencil out a project – c.f. Lake Cliff Towers), you can’t easily pull off a condo / apartment / hotel project that fits today’s tastes – tall ceilings, large open living spaces. But with a UNT law school potentially opening cattycorner to the former hotel and UNT’s main offices moving into the building on the opposite side the park, perhaps the city should focus part of its efforts on encouraging one more university program downtown (an architecture school, anyone?) to help build a critical mass of students that could support the Statler – and the bookstore, laundry, and beer garden.
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What do you mean the law school “potentially” opening? I thought this was a done deal.
Student housing is a great idea, but there’s no way you can expect to fill all 700 rooms in the Statler with students. Maybe one of the three wings can be devoted to the school. Another wing can be hotel, and another can be apartments. SURELY there has been a similar conversion done before in another city. Dallas is a wonderful city, but it’s certainly not ahead of its time when it comes to urban renewal.
No parking though. Someone would need to build a parking garage for residents. Total deal breaker. Same advocates for the rehab of this building are the same folks wanting Dallas to be more like Copenhagen or Portland. Probably want the potential residents of this property to walk or ride a bike everywhere.
That is a good point. The Universities Center at Dallas is across the Street, and the new law school will be at the corner of the end of the street. Students would help bring some life to downtown that the stuffy corporate types can’t offer. Plus, they help sustain some of the lower cost restaurants, such as cafes and sandwich shops.
When is someone going to address the parking at this structure. Nothing happens until then. While the Statler is great, it’s not the key to downtown. It’s important, but to me it’s not next in line. It’s an expensive redo that doesn’t seem very profitable to be deemed ‘next out of the development chute.’
If we continue to bring back the other buildings like the Continental, the ones on Pacific and others, then maybe someone will see the value in redoing that Statler and invest at a premium in the property.
They need to raze the entire SW corner of this building if they want to build a parking garage and pool. If not, they’ll have to work some deal with the Hamiltons, who are going to build a parking garage for the Atmos Complex directly behind the Statler.
@JE – catching up here. I didn’t think the leg. approved the thing, but that’s what it says here – so thanks for the update: http://untsystem.unt.edu/lawschool-2/index.html.
As for 700 rooms – couldn’t fill it with just a law school. That’s why we need more schools/programs in the area, me thinks, and with all of our Pritzker-alum-buildings, Dallas should have a first-rate architecture school. And there have been similar conversions, even in Dallas (like Lake Cliff Tower). The problem is making the math work. Not having to do a full interior conversion would save a ton of dough. Just as adding parking (which, yes, has to be done) makes making the project make financial sense difficult.
Just raze it already, Jeez!
Architecture would be fantastic – but a complete art & design program (fine arts, commercial arts, architecture, fashion, interiors, etc) would be even better – it’d be the ONLY one in the area – since SCAD’s plans changed when the economy tanked, and don’t seem to have re-emerged with a new plan (unless I missed it). For the strength UNT has in the arts in Denton, apparently the new Dallas campus won’t have any design/arts programs…
I like the education ideas. And let’s make the George Dahl-designed library next to the Statler the campus bookstore!
Architecture would be a hard one to land, because of duplication issues in our region. UT Arlington already has an noted School of Architecture.