Hall of State (Dallas, Fort Worth, Sanger: houses, neighborhood, theater)

[theurbanfiles]

https://www.dallasnews.com/arts/arch..._source=pushly

Interesting article on your Hall of State.

[theurbanfiles]

What regular function do you think it could have with time (maybe the Hall of State, maybe the park in general) that could perhaps allow it to get the consistent funds it needs to be in better shape? I was fortunate enough (I imagine the front doors are usually closed), but they were open due to a public function, that interior especially is an absolute stunner.. like on a world scale. Would it be possible to move some of the smaller rides and stuff surrounding the Cotton Bowl from the fair and make the area more into a park available for use during times the fair isn't in session?

[Dallaz]

Originally Posted by cavsfan137

What regular function do you think it could have with time (maybe the Hall of State, maybe the park in general) that could perhaps allow it to get the consistent funds it needs to be in better shape? I was fortunate enough (I imagine the front doors are usually closed), but they were open due to a public function, that interior especially is an absolute stunner.. like on a world scale. Would it be possible to move some of the smaller rides and stuff surrounding the Cotton Bowl from the fair and make the area more into a park available for use during times the fair isn't in session?

The City of Dallas just handed over management of Fair Park to a nonprofit. They have a plan to increase revenue by attracting more events thought the year. These’s also a plan to renovates the park as well.

[tcualum]

I hope the nonprofit is successful. Fair Park is a wonderful jewel in need of a year-round purpose. It's not sustainable just as a place for the State Fair. Fort Worth has figured it out but they have to fill a much smaller area which makes it easier.

[Dallaz]

Originally Posted by tcualum

I hope the nonprofit is successful. Fair Park is a wonderful jewel in need of a year-round purpose. It's not sustainable just as a place for the State Fair. Fort Worth has figured it out but they have to fill a much smaller area which makes it easier.

Honestly, I feel like Fair Park is the crown jewel of North Texas. Some may not see it, but Fair Park has VERY high potential. No park in North Texas has the historical, architectural, and cultural importance like Fair Park.

I’m glad that Dallas has given management over to a nonprofit. It shouldn’t be solely the City’s job to take care of something of that magnitude. All the major great parks in America are managed by a nonprofit (Balboa Park, Central Park, Golden Gate Park, etc). The Dallas Arboretum and the Dallas Zoo is also ran by a nonprofit. They both have benefited greatly because of it.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by Dallaz

Honestly, I feel like Fair Park is the crown jewel of North Texas. Some may not see it, but Fair Park has VERY high potential. No park in North Texas has the historical, architectural, and cultural importance like Fair Park.

I’m glad that Dallas has given management over to a nonprofit. It shouldn’t be solely the City’s job to take care of something of that magnitude. All the major great parks in America are managed by a nonprofit (Balboa Park, Central Park, Golden Gate Park, etc). The Dallas Arboretum and the Dallas Zoo is also ran by a nonprofit. They both have benefited greatly because of it.

Fair Park itself is magnificent. The area surrounding it has been terrible for decades. It's really shameful. The interchange between 30 and whatever 75 turns into just east of downtown Dallas is awful (strike one), aggressive panhandlers approach your car at several exits (strike two), and you have to drive past a large homeless encampment to approach Fair Park from at least two different directions (strike three).


Yeah...let's all go down there!


It's an especially hard sell to get people to battle traffic from the northern suburbs just to get to Fair Park (which is on the wrong side of downtown from just about everything) simply to be met with inner-city problems as soon as they exit the highway.


Dallas needs to clean up that entire area if they want a lot more people to show up there for anything besides the State Fair.

[Cd225]

The Interstate highways have been brutal for South Dallas. It seems like in hindsight I-30 is in a really ill-advised place.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by Cd225

The Interstate highways have been brutal for South Dallas. It seems like in hindsight I-30 is in a really ill-advised place.

Yeah and to add insult to injury, 45 bisects what otherwise would be one of the best urban neighbourhoods in the city. Take a drive down Park Row if you want to feel depressed. Forest Theater as it sits right between 45 and 175 is really sad.

[Dallaz]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Fair Park itself is magnificent. The area surrounding it has been terrible for decades. It's really shameful. The interchange between 30 and whatever 75 turns into just east of downtown Dallas is awful (strike one), aggressive panhandlers approach your car at several exits (strike two), and you have to drive past a large homeless encampment to approach Fair Park from at least two different directions (strike three).


Yeah...let's all go down there!


It's an especially hard sell to get people to battle traffic from the northern suburbs just to get to Fair Park (which is on the wrong side of downtown from just about everything) simply to be met with inner-city problems as soon as they exit the highway.


Dallas needs to clean up that entire area if they want a lot more people to show up there for anything besides the State Fair.

I couldn’t agree more. I believe a revitalized Fair Park can be a catalyst for growth in South Dallas.

I feel like much of Dallas use an “out of sight, out of mind” approach when it comes to South Dallas. At one point, South Dallas was very prosperous. It was home to Dallas’ upper class Jewish population. There are remnants of the Jewish neighborhood in the Park Row/South Blvd historic district in South Dallas (literally down the street from Fair Park). Many of Dallas’ jewish merchants (which founded) Neiman-Marcus, Titche-Goettinger, Sanger-Harris, etc. lived in the mansions in the Park Row area. Stanley Marcus was from South Dallas and graduated from Forest Ave High School (Now James Madison High School). There’s no way that Fair Park would have been built, if the area was blighted like it is today. White flight in the 1950s, decades of no investment, and racism is what lead to the demise of South Dallas. What we see now is the result.

[TheOverdog]

Eh. Fair Park's layout is terrible, the lousy stadium is in the way, most of the buildings have fine facades, but in serious need of maintenance, and have terrible interiors. I'm not sure what anyone could do to make the place profitable with that many of what are essentially warehouses.



There is way too much parking, roads, and concrete and pedestrian pathways are terrible, and if there is place some kids could kick a soccer ball, I've never seen it. It honestly reminds me of walking around in 1970s suburbia everything is so far apart. Yeah, south Dallas has been neglected, but Fair Park itself has tons of problems too.


That's honestly what makes it a good location for the state fair -big open buildings and long pathways designed to disperse huge crowds, it's not at all intimate or parklike.