Lack of new skyscrapers downtown? (Houston, Dallas: hotels, houses, neighborhood)

[LordGrantham]

Hi. I am planning a visit and possible move to DFW. It looks beautiful.

I am curious, however, why Dallas' downtown boomed in the 1980s and then, for the most part, construction of downtown skyscrapers ceased. Cities like NY and Chicago have added many new towers since the 80s, and so has Houston. Given Dallas' great prosperity, why has its skyline remained frozen.

[Aceraceae]

Originally Posted by LordGrantham

Hi. I am planning a visit and possible move to DFW. It looks beautiful.

I am curious, however, why Dallas' downtown boomed in the 1980s and then, for the most part, construction of downtown skyscrapers ceased. Cities like NY and Chicago have added many new towers since the 80s, and so has Houston. Given Dallas' great prosperity, why has its skyline remained frozen.

It hasn't. Cranes everywhere right now.

[Rakin]

Buildings moved out to the suburbs and are more like campus's.

They had the room to go out, not up. I would assume going up is more expensive. Much more room to build than say NYC, Chicago or San Fran.

[SVTRay]

Originally Posted by LordGrantham

Hi. I am planning a visit and possible move to DFW. It looks beautiful.

I am curious, however, why Dallas' downtown boomed in the 1980s and then, for the most part, construction of downtown skyscrapers ceased. Cities like NY and Chicago have added many new towers since the 80s, and so has Houston. Given Dallas' great prosperity, why has its skyline remained frozen.

DFW Airport is larger than Manhattan and you can fit both Illinois and New York State inside of Texas.

Manhattan is land locked, so they can only build up and Chicago isn't much different. Texas is vast and tends to build outwards instead of up. Houston is some what boxed in by the Gulf and tends to build up while Dallas usually swallows up a near by town.

[rantanamo]

Have some here never been to uptown? Its literally one block from downtown and has been booming for the last 15 years.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by rantanamo

Have some here never been to uptown? Its literally one block from downtown and has been booming for the last 15 years.

Yes, this! ^^^^^

The northernmost part of downtown (Arts District) and the neighborhood just north of downtown (Uptown & Victory Park) is where all of the development has been over the last 20 years. This is the home of Dallas' finance/ hedge fund/ private equity industry, as well as most of Dallas' cultural attractions, pro sports teams, and home to thousands of affluent professionals.

OP, Find a 1980's-era ariel photo of downtown Dallas and locate the newly built Crescent Court complex on Pearl and Cedar Springs; a few blocks north of Woodall Rogers Freeway (northern boundary of downtown). It's a French style high-rise with a mansard roof. Now, do some google aerial views and street views and see how drastically different that area (going north to around Lemmon Ave) looks now vs 25 years ago, while downtown's skyline does look virtually the same. It's amazing. High rise buildings including the Ritz-Carlton and W hotels, numerous residential buildings like Philip Starck's The House, the recently built Museum Tower, multiple office buildings, and hundreds of mid-rise mixed-use buildings. American Airlines Center was built in Uptown's Victory Park neighborhood, which moved the Dallas Stars and Dallas Mavericks from downtown's stodgy Reunion Arena in 1999. At any given time, it seems the "crane count" in Uptown is above 10.

[TurtleCreek80]

Here is an interesting article about Uptown's Crescent Court which was built in 1986. Towards the bottom is an ariel photos of uptown looking south to downtown so you can see how barren the uptown area was in 1986. Does a nice job of telling how the Crescent moved the center of power in Dallas from downtown to uptown:


In the early 1980s, a mishmash of frame houses, car lots and Mexican restaurants was the central business district’s welcome mat on the north side.

“Back then, it was not a prime building site, and Caroline Hunt was conscious that it had to be a quality better than most buildings in the downtown area so businesses would come out that far,” said John Burgee, who designed the Crescent with the late architect Philip Johnson. “It had to be super quality to be successful at that place and time.”
Mod cut: copyrighted material
At 25, Crescent still anchors Uptown neighborhood | Dallas OED

This article is from 2011 and shows uptown looking south to Dowtown (same view as in first article). Note the Crescent complex is on the left side of the shot.

After a breather, Dallas

[JJG]

As a Fort Worth resident, I don't wanna hear anyone talk about a "lack of new skyscrapers". ESPECIALLY in Dallas, Houston, or Austin, where it seems like there's a new tower going up at the snap of a finger.

[RonnieinDallas]

Originally Posted by LordGrantham

Hi. I am planning a visit and possible move to DFW. It looks beautiful.

I am curious, however, why Dallas' downtown boomed in the 1980s and then, for the most part, construction of downtown skyscrapers ceased. Cities like NY and Chicago have added many new towers since the 80s, and so has Houston. Given Dallas' great prosperity, why has its skyline remained frozen.

There's lots of reasons: high rent, flight out to the suburbs, negative perceptions, parking concerns

Downtown has improved a lot over the last few years, despite not having much new construction. There are a lot of redevelopment Projects going on in old buildings. Many of the old buildings are being converted into mixed-use residential buildings.

Dallas Morning News "developing downtown" archive: Developing Downtown | Dallas Morning News

Google Map showing major new developments:
https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid...fa64c3b088f053

[Adamson865]

Originally Posted by Rakin

Buildings moved out to the suburbs and are more like campus's.

They had the room to go out, not up. I would assume going up is more expensive. Much more room to build than say NYC, Chicago or San Fran.

^ This. ^ There are tall buildings all over the place, not just downtown.