Fencing off the site during the construction phase, "The Biggest Comic Strip in Texas" starred the Sundance Kid on 36 panels.
A diverse slate of entertainers will be getting in on the act during the three-day kickoff celebration, Nov. 1-3.
The comics are finally coming down. Sundance Square Plaza, the long-awaited city centerpiece that's been encircled by "The Biggest Comic Strip in Texas" since construction started cranking last year, debuts Friday, Nov. 1, with a weekend-long celebration chockfull of music and merriment for the entire tribe. Ringed by two renovated buildings and three freshly built ones, the 55,000-square-foot space will feature a permanent stage, pavilion, four new eateries with indoor-outdoor seating, a clock tower and water features slotted in at various intervals around the entire array. Oh, and this: a quartet of 32-foot-high "magic umbrellas" spanning more than 6,400 square feet that will grant shade when the sun's up and a color-changing LED lightshow after it sets. (By the way, it's the only setup of its kind in the country. But more on that later.)
"All through Europe throughout history, cities have had a central gathering place," said Sundance Square CEO Johnny Campbell. "Sundance Plaza provides that place where you can say, "X marks the spot; here I am, in the center of Sundance Square, in the center of downtown Fort Worth." … Folks can gather, interact and have a social scene without necessarily being in a restaurant or a shop."
Of course, if hunger strikes or the retail bug bites, Plaza patrons will certainly have a wealth of options at their disposal. Taco Diner will open a 3,000-square-foot restaurant in the new Westbrook building, with patio seating spilling onto the Plaza. Starbucks Coffee Company will relocate from its current Houston Street digs to the northeast corner of The Westbrook and will have an open-air seating area as well. And for those who want a bit more jolt than their Trenta-size joe might offer, this particular Starbucks will be capable of selling alcohol. It will also feature the Clover Brewing System, which preps made-to-order coffee in one-cup batches in select "Bucks stores. Finally,in the nearby Commerce Building, Del Frisco's Grille will have a 9,000-square-foot, two-story site with alfresco seats on the Plaza. And longtime Fort Worth restaurateur Shannon Wynne hops aboard the foodie fray with Bird Café, which encompasses 8,700 square feet of indoor and outdoor dining space.
Although it's just now joining the Main Street area mix in a bricks-and-mortar manner, the Plaza has been penciled into the Sundance master plan for three decades.
"The idea has always been that there would be a gathering place - sort of a front room, if you will - for the city," Campbell said. "The interesting thing is that Sundance built up … around the place the Plaza would [eventually] be. I think that's an interesting irony - that perhaps the most recognizable piece of the plan is the piece that's coming in 30 years after the beginning of Sundance. It's also a testament to the strength of the city. Sundance has been very successful, and we are about to add the lynchpin that's going to help it really take off."
Part and parcel to that pin is the lineup of annual events, like the Main Street Arts Festival and the annual Christmas tree lighting (slated this year for Nov. 23), that for years has been luring locals and guests to the Sundance area en masse. Interestingly, it's those very events, Campbell says, that inspired and influenced the Plaza's blueprints.
"Instead of designing a great piece of landscape architecture and then trying to figure out how to program it, we started with a five-page list of the events we've already been doing in [that area]. And we said, "Let's design a plaza that will accommodate those things," which is almost the reverse of the typical approach," Campbell said. "Now there's going to be a great venue to house all of those things that we've been doing."
History aside, though, the space also was engineered to attract and accommodate a new lineup of downtown-based events. But no matter what activity draws them downtown - whether it's a longstanding calendar item, a first-time affair or just an impromptu desire to park their iProduct on an outdoor table and people-watch - Plaza visitors can rest assured they'll find plenty of diversion in this nascent destination.
"We wanted it to be feature rich, even when we're not putting on an event, so that the Plaza is a great urban space in its own right," Campbell explained, noting the water features, flora-infused walkways and, of course, those magical parasols. "The umbrellas don't exist anywhere else in the U.S. today," he said. "They open and close automatically and are outfitted with color-changing LED lights that will change the colors of the umbrellas for different events and times of day." The Plaza also has a visually pleasing classical paving design. The absence of curbs grants walkability and flow; a copse of trees lends a park-like air. "And the Plaza itself is outfitted with lights and sound, making it a very programmable and flexible space," Campbell noted.
It is also, Campbell says, a natural extension of the area's decades-long success - a success fueled by the people, for the people.
"The growth of Sundance has been strictly an organic growth driven by the needs of the city as they come," he said. "Fort Worth has been really good at not overbuilding, but developing organically according to the city's needs."
So now that it has its centerpiece, what else does Fort Worth need to feed its downtown desires?
"I think there are two obvious things the city needs and is asking for: more residential space and more hotel space," Campbell said, both of which get scooped up fast around these parts.
Could that be a hint at things to come? Be sure to stay plugged into these pages for all the latest and greatest Sundance-and downtown-developments. In the meantime, we'll be doing our fair share of partying (and people-watching!) on the Plaza.
