Saturday Morning Walk Around Downtown Fort Worth With Sundance Square Plaza Video

Sundance Selfie

This first Saturday of October I walked around what many, well some, bizarrely believe to be the Best Downtown in America.

Fort Worth, Texas.

I think I have mentioned before that a time or two or maybe more others have opined that I have too much fun making fun of Fort Worth.

To which I say I do not make fun of Fort Worth. I make fun of goofy stuff in Fort Worth or goofy stuff some say about Fort Worth.

Such as claiming that Fort Worth's downtown is the best in America. That is just a super silly claim to make.

Now, let me be real clear, if I have not been previously. Fort Worth's downtown is one of the nicest downtowns I have ever walked around in. It's good-looking, nicely landscaped, easy to walk around in and is just overall an attractive downtown.

However, downtown Fort Worth is a bit unlively at times. Like this morning. Or on the busiest shopping day of the year.

Now, in most downtowns in America one would not consider it to be a good jogging location. But as you see above, in downtown Fort Worth you can safely jog on the mostly car-free streets. I saw multiple joggers jogging the downtown Fort Worth streets this morning.

Make note of the wide sidewalk above, and below.

If I remember right I have complained a time or two about Fort Worth's lacking in the sidewalk department. That is true in the Fort Worth hinterlands, but not true in downtown Fort Worth where one finds wide, landscaped sidewalks, many paved with bricks.

Downtown Fort Worth has an interesting mix of old and new buildings. Many from the Art Deco era.

In this photo you are standing in Sundance Square Plaza, looking slightly northeast. You see those three buildings? In the back is a modern short skyscraper. In front of the modern short skyscraper is a brick four story building that looks like it could date back to the 1890s. In front of the brick four story building is a building that looks like, I don't know, the Parthenon in Athens?

See what I mean about the eclectic mix of architecture in downtown Fort Worth?

Today I walked by Fort Worth Firehouse #1, a small, short brick building surrounded by big new buildings, with Firehouse #1 being some sort of museum or historical relic.

Walking around downtown Fort Worth one walks by a lot of history in the form of old buildings. These are scattered all over the downtown. A newer town's downtown, like Seattle for instance, does not have this type blend of old and new. Seattle does have the Pioneer Square part of downtown, but it is just not the same type thing as one sees walking around downtown Fort Worth.

Downtown Fort Worth looks so much better than when I first laid my eyes on the town, late in the last century. I remember being perplexed by many things back then. Like where is this Sundance Square all these signs are pointing to? And what's up with that ugly fake facade Courthouse Annex stuck to the cool looking Tarrant County Courthouse?

Well, both those problems have been solved. Well, the ugly Courthouse Annex has been solved. Fort Worth is still calling its downtown Sundance Square. But the town is confusing fewer of its few tourists because there actually now is a square in Sundance Square, goofily called Sundance Square Plaza.

The ugly Courthouse Annex has been removed, restoring Tarrant County Courthouse to its former glory, complete with new landscaping.

That cannon you see above is stationed on the east side of the aforementioned Tarrant County Courthouse. The cannon is pointing to the south side of the new Tarrant County Courthouse Annex. I rather like the design of this new building.

In the video below I am walking around Sundance Square Plaza. Soon after leaving Sundance Square Plaza I walked around the Tarrant County Courthouse, to its north side, to check out the current state of Fort Worth's Heritage Park. I took video of what I found. But, that will have to wait for a new blogging, likely tomorrow morning.....

On The Dried Out Tandy Hills Looking At The Upgraded Tarrant County Courthouse & Bass Family Damage To Downtown Fort Worth

Close Up Look At Beautiful Downtown Fort Worth

I decided to go with my sunny optimistic nature and go to the Tandy Hills today assuming that sufficient time had passed since Sunday's deluge to dry the trails sufficiently to allow mud-free hiking.

My sunny optimistic nature was not disappointed.

But, I would have been happy to have Mother Nature dial back on the humidity a bit.

In the picture I zoomed in, as best I could, on the Tarrant County Courthouse. That is the pointy structure to the right of that short skyscraper that looks like it is not completed yet.

Downtown Fort Worth does not have any, for want of a better way to say it, interestingly designed skyscrapers. I assume there has never been enough money in the downtown Fort Worth skyscraper budget to build a memorable one.

The twin towers to the south of the courthouse, the eastern one of which you see in the picture, are particularly odd. It's like some C-Student architect thought it clever to have cut-outs and indents that give the appearance that the building gave up being completed. And no one thought to tell the C-Student architect that that particular design looks tacky. And so it was built.

I am not sure, but I think these particular twin skyscrapers are buildings that the Bass Family helped bring about. The Bass Family really is responsible for a lot of what ain't right about downtown Fort Worth.

Or so it seems to me.

I know there are those in Fort Worth who are beholden to the wonders that the Bass Family allegedly has brought downtown Fort Worth, but methinks Fort Worth would be a lot better off if the town put on its big boy pants and did not rely on one family's demonstrably bad taste to dictate how the town looks.

Anyway, after a multi-million dollar remodel the Tarrant County Courthouse's clock tower lost the scaffolding that has covered it for a long time. I believe there is still work to be done.

How is the plan to take down the Tarrant County Courthouse Annex coming, you know, that building with the fake covering that looks like yet one more bad downtown Fort Worth building designed by a C-Student architect?

At least that particular eyesore is not called the Bass Tarrant County Courthouse Annex, unlike way too many other eyesores in the downtown Fort Worth zone, that have the Bass name, in various iterations, attached to them.

A Hazy, Smoggy Fort Worth Tuesday With $5 Million Bell Tower Makeovers

As you can see, it is a very hazy Tuesday in my zone of Texas. Last night tornadoes touched down north of my location, mostly in Oklahoma and Kansas.

But, last night I did see the local ABC station's super annoying Pete Delkus go on and on and on and on about a supposed tornado on the ground up by Lake Texoma, near Dennison, in Texas, mentioning it every time regular programming went to commercial.

This morning I came across no mention of a Lake Texoma Tornado. Pete Delkus is so excitable. How are those who purchase commercial time compensated when Pete Delkus takes over the air waves with his Weather Drama Queening? Seems as if it must cost the local station a bit of money.

That is a smoggy, hazy picture I took from the top of Mount Tandy today, zoomed in on part of the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth. Notice the pointy spire on the right? And the skyscraper towering over it on the left?

That pointy spire on the right is the Tarrant County Courthouse Clock Tower. The style of architecture of the Clock Tower and Courthouse is Renaissance Revival. The copper dome of the Bell Tower was never waterproofed when it was built 115 years ago, in 1895.

Years of enduring heavy rains, hard hail hits, strong winds and lightning strikes, have left the 110 foot tall tower in bad shape.

So, $5 million is going to be spent fixing the tower, which some claim is a focal point for downtown Fort Worth. I've never really noticed it. And how much of a focal point can this tower be with that skyscraper tower hovering over it?

Maybe the old Bell Tower should just be taken down and the $5 million spent to restore something that seems a bit more important, that being Heritage Park and the sad state of eyesoredness that it has been allowed to fall into.

But, what do I know? My priorities are always a bit skewed...