Massive KBH Convention Center may soon be under the demolition ball.

 Well, I've seen a lot of convention centers in my time. Dallas has always had one leg up on most other cities. Now, the Hotel Associations thinks they are loosing business. The center has had to cancel bookings because of COVID, (let's not forget that the 23 story, 1001 room convention hotel built in 2009-2011 has a connecting enclosed walkway from the hotel, which is now a landmark).  With its full range light show message board on the West Side, Reunion Tower and the city owned Hotel (managed by Omni Hotels) the multi pads roof top Heliport at the Convention Center also has a car access from street level to the top, makes it easy for celebs and the like to fly in from Love or DFW International. 

BNSF(Burlington Northern Santa Fe)  has rail lines that go under,through and behind the center. Union Pacific also has tracks on the West side,

as well as DART's light rail stop near where Lamar runs through the center. So there seems to be more to the Paul Harvey, "Other Side of the Story" they don't want to tell us. Like, maybe they want to scrap the center so the future Dallas station of the Bullet Train from Houston to Dallas, ( in 1and a half  hours instead of the 5 hours by car) or the Hassle of the airports with today's  security lines, might be more of that hidden agenda than we are being told. After all, the new plans suggested to City Council would put the new Convention Center, right smack dab in the same area where the bullet train stop would be most-likely. 

The big word mentioned  several times at Council today was it will not cost the taxpayers one cent. The money will come from a new Hotel Tax. I had to laugh.  After all, it was the hotels crying  they don't have any revenue from the convention center with it closed because of COVID.  It is laughable that even in business, it seems that history is certain to keep repeating  itself  time and time again. Personal agendas with a vote seems to be like Hollywood has been running crime drams for years. I think they call those votes ratings for money sources.

The cost is estimated at $4Billion. Somewhere, it ain't all coming from the hotel tax. You can believe that. Never  mind Pioneer Cemetery ( a beautiful cemetery sits in front of KBH and the bronze  cattle  statues coming down the hill with cowboys riding watch on the  drive is right there as well. No wonder Europe has such treasures landmarks. They don't tear them down.

Oh well, let's not discuss right now, for the convention centers sake, why the Dallas Stars Hockey Team and the Dallas Mavericks are the only 2 of the 5 pro sports teams in the area. The Cowboys left Dallas for Irving, then to Arlington. The FC Dallas Soccer Team is in Frisco and the Rangers Baseball team is also in Arlington. Irving has a new convention center. Garland has one, and Richardson has one, too. I guess those conventions didn't know that Dallas has one of the best.facilities around. I guess Council had not noticed it begins next door to City Hall and stretches to the I30-I35E horse shoe interchange. That's where the two Maggie bridges, Maggie 1 and Maggie 2, cross the Trinity River. Another possibility is that they want the new DART subway to replace the Dart light light rail station now in the drive through area of Lamar Avenue passes through the center. The point is....there is a lot we are not being told about this project or who wants the maybe vacated land should Council pass the plan's go ahead. 

 

On The Way To The Doctor Today.....

I missed my turn. The vacant lot where I usually turn wasn't there any longer. In addition, the three golf courses that I pass going to my doctor's appointment are all undergoing large to massive additions to the club house area and two were getting completely new guard post quarters with some very heavy ornamental iron gates. And, if that wasn't enough, three hospitals are adding multi-floors to their present facilities. One of those is the Heart Place where Singer Randy Travis was following his stroke a couple of years back. Thank goodness he is doing much better now.  It seems, that Dallas is busting out at the seams. Yesterday, I was downtown and I counted another 3 tower cranes that are up and working since a week ago. Two of those are in the heart of the central business district.

Coming back down St. Paul's by Klyde Warren Park into Uptown, the construction in the Arts District has filled in all the open spaces looking west from the triangle streets into the standard grid streets. The construction in that part of downtown by orders of the FAA, limit the height of buildings because on north wind days, the approach to the two runways at Love Field come in over that part of downtown and Deep Ellum. The west gateway aka the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is where Woodall Rodgers ends and Singleton Blvd. begins. It is also where any tall growth will follow.

Uptown  is filling in their mid range buildings in both residential and commercial office space as fast as concrete can pour. At last word, the Dallas area can still use 20,000 construction workers and 12,000 new residents per month are not slowing, if any. Toyota's new  Headquarters Campus in Plano started its first workers this past week and the remaining 30,000 are coming as fast as they can find houses and apartments. There are a lot more white Toyota's with California plates...I know that much.

I just saw the first new construction of apartments up to six floors. It had been limited at 5. Before that at 4 and at 3 stories.The funny thing about Texas is that when they are ready to build something, if something is in the way, they just build over it. Yes, there are examples of that madness in Lewisville on the upgrade to I-35E north and the new Horseshoe Project upgraded; added new roadways to the old Mix-master at I-35E south and I-30. At Fuel City, you can now wave to cars as they fly over you while filling up your car or getting a car wash, or just eating a  taco while you go out and look at the heard of Texas Longhorns and a donkey or two.

While making the rounds to see if anything interesting was going on at the South Side Studios where 20th Century Fox house all their big rigs and flatbed stake trucks that they use to film episodes of what ever they are shooting currently. All the rigs were lined up like birds on a wire. When I came back up Lamar toward the convention center, I ducked down the ramp into the Cadiz Via Duct to Hotel Street where I can check on the latest and final phase of the Horseshoe from the back side of the convention center. Got some nice shots of the DG&O short line bringing cars from around the cities industrial sites to the transfer yard over on 175 and Railroad where the remotes move train cars around like toys on a big track board.

When I started to get back in the car, I noticed something that I had never noticed before-- ramps winding upward in one section of the Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Then it hit me. That's the ramp up to the airport and the heliport. That's right. I did  say air-port. The top of one section of the 2 million square foot Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center own,operates and safely guards the most accessible and largest Vertiport and Heliport in the world. Not being as well versed in the details of that thing as I should be for an aviation geek like I am, when I got home I did a little research and dang, that thing is something else. In fact, I even found an article where a guy who happening to be a little under the weather from the spirits, crashed the security gate and drove his car off the top of the heliport. There were pictures of that as well as a video of time-lapse when the helicopter show was at the convention center. The reason they landed on the ground rather than the heliport or vertiport is because they had to use tow motors to move the copters in side using the standard loading dock ramps. As far as I know, there isn't some magic elevator that opens up and drops those things onto the convention floor,but you have to remember that freight trains pass right through the street level from one side to the other and Dart's light rail station is inside that same area.I think it goes without saying that some pretty strange things take place in that monster of conventions. Oh! yeap, tour busses are consumed as they drive into the opening below Pioneer Park and Cemetery. Places like that have always intrigued me even since I was about 16 when my uncle, in Detroit, took dad and I on a private tour of the underbelly and workings of  Detroit's Cobo Hall. This place reminds me of that in the best way!

The DG&O pulling cars to the make up yards

See the steps? Know look tothe left and see the various levels of concrete spirling upwards.

This thing is equipped to land a Harrier vertically and still have room for helicopters. If you go to Wikipedia, you can see a very good scope of the entire rooftop and how this massive center is configured. Got to also remember that the arean is still a 9612 seat auditorium where The Beatles and Michael Jackson have entertained crowns. 105 meeting rooms if you need one or two.