DOWNTOWN PLAN.. FORT WORTH

<table>
   <tr>
    <td>
     Developer
    </td>
    <td>
     Plan sponsored by Fort Worth Electric Company
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
     Designer
    </td>
    <td>
     Victor Gruen Associates
    </td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
    <td>
     Date
    </td>
    <td>
     Plan published 1956
    </td>
   </tr>
  </table>

The proposals for revitalizing the Fort Worth central business district were probably the best publicized urban-design suggestions of the 1950's. Although they have not been implemented locally, they stimulated similar proposals throughout the nation. One observer has claimed that the Fort Worth plan is the only unborn baby who had hundreds of grandchildren.

Fort Worth, a city of 400,000, competes with nearby Dallas. The success of one is apt to be at the expense of the other. The local electric company sponsored the Fort Worth plan when it appeared that Dallas was gaining in the competition. Business losses were damaging downtown Fort Worth. To create a flourishing central business district, Gruen Associates based its plan on the pedestrian. Cars were to be excluded from the downtown area.

The plan proposed that downtown be surrounded by an automobile approach, a limited-access route leading directly to one of six four-story garages, each with 10,000-car capacity. From the garages, which were located on the periphery of the central area, everyone would walk to the business district or use slow-moving electric vehicles. The farthest distance between a car park and a building was to be 600 feet. (A minute's walk carries a person 250 to 300 feet.)

The designers calculated that the city would have to accommodate at least 152,000 cars a day, 30,000 of them (20 per cent) at rush hours. They foresaw no difficulty with the exodus of rush-hour traffic from the parking garages, which they likened to the exits from shopping centers in the suburbs. However, to evacuate 5,000 cars in an hour (assuming an equal distribution among the six garages) calls for more efficient garages than now exist.

Goods and services, including taxis and buses, were to circulate at basement level through tunnels. Each building would have required loading facilities at the basement level. The costs of these service tunnels were to be offset by sale to developers of land formerly used as roads.

The plan did not remove any of the major buildings in the downtown area, but used them as a framework upon which to add new commercial space and cultural and civic buildings. Commercial floor space downtown was to be increased from 3.8 to 9.6 million square feet, which was possible physically but perhaps not justified economically.

With vehicle traffic eliminated from the downtown surface, buildings could be laid out freely in a manner attractive to the pedestrian. A basic assumption of the plan was that a pedestrian precinct would have commercial value.

The Fort Worth plan was not merely an architect's dream. It was conceived in answer to the wish of J. B. Thomas of the Electric Company, and a committee of twenty prominent citizens undertook to execute the plan. This effort is completely local, for Texas does not participate in the Federal urban renewal program.

was encountered major opposition, however. Operators of existing park-

Existing conditions in Fort Worth showing present pattern of streets and parking.

Above: The same area after removal of vehicular traffic showing proposed buildings.

Upper right: Watercourses and rallyards had already begun to define the center city; the plan emphasizes these boundaries.

Lower right: The center of Fort Worth was planned to become an oasis for those on foot, with car access only on the periphery.