The Deep Ellum Foundation Meeting on Sept 12 hosted some people from NCTCOG (North Central Texas Council of Governments). I did not attend, but received a random email with a bunch of banter back and forth as a result of the meeting. Some of it was a bit inflamatory, some very astute, but the is was the most interesting portion I came across and thought it was worth sharing with the class.

Herb Goodman a developer wrote this:

I WOULD ALSO LIKE TO DIRECT THIS ENTIRE GROUP TO THE LINK BELOW. CONTAINED AT THIS LINK. WHAT YOU WILL FIND IS SOME VERY THOROUGH THOUGHT FROM TWO TEAMS OF GRADUATE ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS AT TEXAS TECH WHO WORKED ON THE DEEP ELLUM AREA AS A CLASS PROJECT IN THE SPRING OF 2006. YOU SHOULD TAKE SOME TIME TO READ THROUGH ALL OF THE WORK. THEY DID THIS WHILE INTERNING AT LOCAL ARCHITECTURE OFFICES. THEY TOOK A VERY FRESH (SOME MIGHT SAY INNOCENT) LOOK AT THE AREA, FROM A SORT OF NO HOLDS BARRED APPROACH. SOME OF YOU WHO HAVE WORKED ON THE DEEP ELLUM “PROJECT” OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS MAY BE AWARE OF THEIR EFFORTS. FIRST THEY TOOK AN OVERALL LOOK AT THE AREA, THEN AS THE SEMESTER WORE ON, THEY DRILLED DOWN TO ONE BUILDING(S) IN PARTICULAR… OUR DR. PEPPER COMPLEX. A LOT OF THEIR WORK PRODUCT IS PROBABLY PRETTY INTUITIVE TO THOSE OF US ALREADY IMMERSED (AND INVESTED) IN DEEP ELLUM…. BUT KUDOS TO THEM FOR COALESCING SOME GREAT THOUGHT AND WORK PRODUCT.

http://www.arch.ttu.edu/courses/2006/spring/5604/reviewers/

There are some ginormous pdfs on the page, but it’s worth taking a peruse if you care.

Some of the ideas are very invasive (and impractical) but there is some good thought done by young people who are training to be the future of architecture and urban planning.