As Traditional Downtowns Fade Away, New Population Centers Look To Foster Connection

As multibillion-dollar mixed-use projects throughout Dallas-Fort Worth threaten to upend the region’s character and its population grows northward at explosive rates, architects and developers are using design to maintain a connection to the Metroplex’s history. 

DFW's population has been moving away from traditional urban cores, thanks to $1B-plus projects like The Mix in Frisco and University Hills in Southern Dallas. And as existing downtowns lose relevance, newer population centers are striving to create a city-center atmosphere for residents.

That can be easier said than done. The growth of Frisco, Plano and The Colony has turned the area around the intersection of State Highway 121 and the Dallas North Tollway into a new civic hub, GFF CEO Evan Beattie said.

“Compare what it feels like at [Highway] 121 and the Tollway to what it feels like to walk around Downtown Dallas or Downtown Fort Worth where there’s an existing street grid and a pattern of walkability,” Beattie said during Bisnow’s DFW Architecture and Design event Thursday at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas. “It’s really hard to re-create that out in a green field.” 

The region’s expansion north shows no signs of slowing down, and there is a clear demand for more downtowns in those growing cities, he said.

“Dallas has some real competitive advantages that will stand the test of time, but we also have a place in our region for more destination-type developments,” Beattie said. 

DFW’s northern suburbs are stepping up to supply those destinations with the Universal Kids Resort theme park coming to the 2,500-acre Fields development in Frisco, a $200M surf and adventure resort planned in McKinney, the $950M Kalahari water park slated for Allen, and more than $8B in resort projects on the way at Lake Texoma. 

When smaller communities experience those kinds of revolutionary projects, it can be nearly impossible for them to hold on to the traditions and character of their cities, The Beck Group Chief Revenue Officer Scott Lowe said.

“The decision to grow is very intentional, and while you can latch on to heritage and historical icons … you’re ultimately deciding to change,” Lowe said. “We have to understand that and do that in the most sensitive way.”

Mixed-use projects are attempting to re-create the connectivity of big cities like New York and Tokyo on a smaller scale throughout DFW, allowing residents to experience a walkable city despite the region's massive sprawl.

“We want to have what we want, when we want it, how we want it, as fast and as quickly as we possibly can,” Perkins & Will Principal Sarah Wicker said. “We want to have access to community close to our homes.”

That desire for connectivity extends to the region’s education centers and colleges, which are also being designed to allow for walkability, she said.

“No one wants to go to college in a sea of strip centers,” Wicker said.

Despite the need for change in the growing suburbs, panelists said some of the region’s oldest buildings are imperative to understanding The Metroplex’s history.

“We have buildings that are absolutely worth saving in our region,” Beattie said. “We have to resist that temptation to clear a site and build from scratch.”

That can mean designers working with developers and city officials to educate them on the importance of those buildings and the character that can be lost by tearing them down.

“Dallas is such a young city. If we tear down a building from the 1920s, we’re removing a lot of history that’s important for a time of our city,” Beattie said.

Perkins & Will’s work on the $3.7B overhaul and expansion of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center aims to incorporate elements from all the different neighborhoods of Dallas for visitors who may only spend a day or two in the city, Wicker said. 

“The big idea with the new convention center is it’s becoming a gateway to downtown [for] all of the neighborhoods,” Wicker said. “That’s a big lesson from other international cities — how do we open up our downtown to all these neighborhoods?”

When the topic turned to the use of artificial intelligence in architecture and design, several panelists agreed that it is a tool worth embracing.

“We need to grasp on to this and not be hung up on how but what we’re creating,” HKS Chief Design Officer Anthony Montalto said. “This is a superpowered teammate that depends on you.”

Lowe said all the major firms have already incorporated AI into their workflows. The pace of change in the industry has traditionally been slow, Beattie said, but AI is poised to make things more efficient and help firms deliver projects faster.

“I personally fear that a five-person shop working out of their garage with these tools will outperform us because we can’t get around learning new things,” Montalto said. “And image creation is like the gateway drug for this stuff.”