When They Tried Building Venice in Dallas | A Forgotten Urban Experiment
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- Опубліковано 31 тра 2023
- An empty Venice-inspired canal and an abandoned automated people mover, stuck in the middle of Dallas suburban sprawl. This is the story of Las Colinas.
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Sources:
www.jtbell.net/transit/Irving/
www.dallasnews.com/news/2014/...
www.dallasnews.com/business/r...
archive.org/details/APT_Conne...
www.dallasnews.com/news/curio...
www.dallasnews.com/business/r...
www.dallasnews.com/business/r...
www.keranews.org/texas-news/2...
www.texasmonthly.com/news-pol... - Розваги
My name is Laura Carpenter and my father was the developer of Las Colinas. I grew up there on the ranch where Las Colinas sits. The Urban Center was a hay field at that time. Many of the suggestions in the responses were part of the original plan. There is residential in the Urban Center. It was planned from the beginning. And much of the entirety of Las Colinas is residential - also from the beginning. Las Colinas is larger than the Urban Center. The are schools, parks, shopping centers.... the only thing missing a cemetery, a decision my father made. The downturn in the real estate market in the 1980's precipitated by the savings and loan crisis in banking caused the many real estate ventures to falter. Las Colinas was one of them. The "developers" who took control of Las Colinas (like many real estate developers) chose to pursue quick money - not building a long term thriving urban environment, hence the slowness of the original vision to come to fruition. The bones are there: there are waterways and parks throughout, all utilities underground - 12,000 acres. And the area just passed downtown Dallas in employment. Also, the drive on Carpenter Freeway from the north entrance of the airport through Las Colinas has no visual clutter - no billboards, no car dealerships, etc. all because of the ordinances put in place before the development started. My father always wanted the urban transit to be a maglev system; he was just ahead of his time.
Great info. A pity because these days we yearn for walkable mixed use places like this. I hope it can be revived. Try to contact the New Urbanism (CNU). They specialize in walkable communities.
Very cool to learn about the rich history here - I just started working in Tower 9 and absolutely love the lake!
Thanks for this recap and additional context
People who are so far ahead of their time unfortunately sometimes pay the price.
What a vision and what balls!
God bless your dad…
thank you for this: Arthur Erickson of Vancouver, BC stated in his seminal speech in the early sixties that we in Canada DID NOT want to follow the American car dream. And yes, the stupidity of the S&*L crisis stopped alot o f progressive ideas including gutting wages for a decade and more, and RR, Mulroney, and Thatcher all with their hostility to anyone with an on the ground idea. The bones are there: what built Vancouver's waterfront and industrial areas were high-rise concrete condos of at least sixty stories: they're actually easy to build and bring in many families and lots of employment and retail. it can happen , even still.
Wait, are we talking about the same place? I am a singing Gondolier on the canals of Las Colinas. We just opened The Toyota Music Factory complex with tons of restaurants, movie theater, and paddle boats on the lake. We are booming out here!!!
How did you manage to miss the huge fleet of gondolas that grace the waterway on a daily (and nightly) basis? How about the stand up paddle boards, kayaks, and pedal boats that take hundreds of people every weekend? You need to go back and shoot some current footage!! Weddings at the Venetian Terrace on the canals, photographers shooting engagement, family, and quinceanera photos, proposals and celebrations on the gondolas - at the right times, the canals are bustling. Did you shoot at 6am when no one was there?
I myself have taken a gondola ride through the canals and have done photoshoots there and I've enjoyed doing both! I'm not at all trying to make the canals look bad. I'm just fascinated by the original vision of the place and am more focused on how they weren't able to realize that vision.
As you admit, the most you can say for the canals even at their busiest is that they're used as a backdrop for photoshoots, gondola rides and special events. Even though I shot my footage at all times of day, if I missed some specific windows of time where you claim the canals are bustling, the only activities happening there are far from what would describe a fully realized urban space. That just means there's unrealized potential and that's what I was trying to focus on here.
I still love the canals and believe they're worth a visit!
Los Colinas was way ahead of its time - not just for Texas but for the nation. The "bones" are there to still turn this into something special, and it's a refreshing contrast to the "no trees" sprawl of suburban Texas cities.
I live on O’Connor and take 114 to belt line everyday. I’m 30 years old and have always loved las colinas. I remember my parents taking me to the mustangs fountain all the time. Recently the improvements they’ve made has been immaculate. For Toyota music factory, to the dart rail, and the convention center. Can’t wait to see what another 20 years does!
Interesting story, thank you. Missing is the "Hollywood on the Prairie" idea that never materialized. The Studios at Las Colinas and the Dallas Sound Lab Recording Studios were supposed to be the first building blocks in an effort to bring a lot of big name / big budget Film and TV Production to Dallas. Which... never happened.
This idea was not entirely without merit. Trammel Crow had done really well building the Apparel Mart which became a regional hub for the fashion industry. The nearby Infomart made a big splash with a building modeled after the iron and glass Crystal Palace, originally erected in Hyde Park (London) to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The Infomart was intended to draw a lot of Hi Tech business.
In the Production world, Dallas most accomplished player was Video Post and Transfer. Originally opened in the abandoned concourses of Love Field and led by the very capable Neil Feldman, Video Post quickly earned a reputation as a top-shelf regional Post house. Also worthy of mention was TM Communication - a powerhouse in the glory years of FM Radio. TM (and a few others) turned Dallas into the "Jingle Capital" that David Letterman famously mocked. While perhaps not a high art form, TM was such a prodigious producer of Radio Jingles, commercials and the like that they were (at one time) the biggest consumer of audio recording tape IN THE WORLD! (howls that for a trivia stat?)
Did I mention the stars of the hit TV show Dallas would come to town every year for 4 - 6 weeks to shoot exteriors? Well... they dd. (so there's that)
Anyway... Mr. Carpenter and others hoped they could fertilize these few eager seeds with some nice production facilities and the belief that people were tired of California and eager to get out. (they may have been a litte ahed of thier time on that one). They reasoned that Hollywood producers were incresingly looking for a right=to=work State, that was not too far away, that had a good airport and generally mild climate. All perfectly reasonable assumptions. But there was just one, teeny-tiny problem....
Not sure if they actually spoke to anyone in Hollywood before they went off and spent all this money.
Movie producers hate the way Dallas looks. Okay, maybe the don't "hate" it, but talk to people in the Business and they'll tell you that Dallas just does not work well for location shooting. It's a relatively newly built city, so does not have diversity of style in its neighborhoods. There no water / beaches / pretty lakes to speak of. Is butt-ugly burnt brown at least 1/2 the year. Has ZERO hills or other interesting topographical features. And - fair or not - is seen as a boring "steel and glass" center surrounded by a lot of strip malls and shopping centers. (I head this directly from a very famous Rock Star who was rehearsing at the Studios at Las Colinas)
So Hollywood DID NOT come-a-runnin' to Irving, Texas. Thanks to a couple of housewives with a great idea, The Studios did host a few seasons of Barney. And for a while there were a number of Rock Bands who did their Production Rehearsals at the soundstage, thanks to the fact that ShowCo was right down the street.
But the Sound Stage languished and was sold (for almost nothing) to some has-been Christian Artist in the 80's downturn, who then turned the once promising Studios at Las Colinas into the hokey-est, most cringe-worthy Tourist Attractions you've ever seen: "The Studio Tour at Las Colinas" or some such thing. It was like "and this is the HAT worn by Harrison Ford during Raider of the Lost Arc". Only it wasn't that hat, it was a hat someone had found at a yard sale. Pretty sad.
As for the Dallas Sound Lab, they had a big main room,, a very expensive mixing board and really nice looking facility - but did not have the clientele to support it. That caliber of room needs to be rented out for months at a time for major record work. They were renting by the hour for jingle sessions and voice over recording. It was never going to work.
In the end... it was Vancouver BC that beat Hollywood. Fantastic, diverse exteriors of all sorts. Mild climate. Great nucleus of technical and craft skills that grew and grew and grew. Huge support from local and federal Government. And a place that a lot of "Hollywood Types" wanted to be! Again, not that anybody hates Dallas - but for someone who lives in Santa Monica it's not their first choice to go to 105 degree Dallas fow two months in the Summer to shoot a Cop Show.
No Texan need feel any shame. You can't blame Texas for not trying! Andy hey... you still have The Cowboys@ Las Colinas was a cool concept in its' day and not every idea is a winner. Canals worked in San Antonio (of all places) but the "Venice Canal via Stemmons Freeway" thing just didn't quite catch on. (But please... let us know what else you guys are working on!)
I was JUST walking along the Las Colinas canals last week and pondering why a development so close to being the most walkable and European-style neighborhood in DFW fell just short of that vision. Then this video pops up on my feed! Grateful for the attention paid to my city and the optimistic ending note - we can hope that developments like this do someday undergo a revival to fulfill their potential!
If thats the area I'm thinking of, theres this sandwich shop called Subs n Stuff that is a really killer sandwich place. The area has some decent vietnamese food too.
This video fails to mention several important key factors.
The Toyota Music Factory has sparked a recent wave of development around it, including nationally acclaimed gourmet restaurants and attractions. The music venue is huge and brings in international touring artists, which has been prompting more developments in terms of housing, food, shops, and more. The Music Factory has been there for many years now.
Eight Fortune 500 companies currently call Irving home for their global headquarters, and the more than 8,500 other companies have been bringing regular traffic for many years now. Unlike this video would have you believe, Irving Las Colinas is not a dead wasteland. It’s a quiet part of town where business professionals live, work, and play. Just because the canals themselves aren’t lined with business or people does not mean that it’s a ghost town. You were keen on calling out the shutdowns post-Covid but not as excited to mention the mass exodus of people and businesses from places like California who have descended on Las Colinas and are now supporting this infrastructure once again. This is another point you missed that could have easily been made.
Additionally, I find it supremely odd that a video trying to put forth Las Colinas as a failed city resembling Venice and focusing so much on the water taxis brought in from Italy would not even MENTION the thriving gondola company on Lake Carolyn. It’s a best kept secret for locals and travelers, but the canals are far from deserted. This company has literally been on the lake for over 25 years and operates, by my count, over a dozen electric and actual Venetian gondolas, and partners with local restaurants to even do food cruises on the water. There is also a pedal boat and stand up paddle board company that has been operating for several years. I would trust your research more if you had thought to mention that. Seems like a crucial point to make for someone focusing so much on the water taxis, no?
You haven’t done a bad job with the history, but if you choose to do any future videos about similar spots, please be sure to not just ignore those elements that are flourishing simply because they don’t fit into your narrative. I’m sure many of the businesses that DO currently operate in Las Colinas would have appreciated the attention to detail. They deserve at least a sentence.
Yes!! I work for Gondola Adventures. They are great and we are ALWAYS busy!
I completely understand your perspective here but I want to be clear that I intended this video to focus on the Urban Center in terms of its original urban vision.
I mentioned water taxis and the APT because they were a means of transportation part of the urban vision of the space, and not a leisure experience. As for Toyota Music Factory, it exists outside the Urban Center's original vision. It doesn't connect to or acknowledge the canals and it even demolished portions of APT infrastructure, which I reference in the video.
When I talk about the canals being empty and the APT shutting down, that's not at all intended to be a reflection of the rest of Las Colinas, which is a completely different (and far more successful) story. In the video, I do repeatedly mention Las Colinas's success as a business center to try to make that clear.
I apologize if any of what I said comes off as if I'm making Las Colinas look bad. The intent was to cover what I thought was an incredibly fascinating and unique part of Las Colinas that I believe hasn't reached its potential.
We used to go to Los Colinas on the weekends in the 1980s. There were all sorts of shops and a fantastic Italian restaurant right there on the canal. We would go eat, check out the shops and then we would take a break hopping on one of the Italian water taxes and go for a ride. It was really cool!
I have been back recently, and it's like a ghost town. Walking around there now you get the feeling that you're the only person left on Earth.
Well put. Walking around the canals feels incredibly eerie to me and I always found it so weird when people would go out of their way to take wedding pictures etc. there
@@ambientnoiserockyeah man. Living in Las Colinas for the past year now and from East Plano/Richardson. This area is like a pretty little oasis from the outside, but soulless on the inside. I can’t explain it
@@parkerC1990s it's like the movie set was built but the movie was never filmed%$#@?
I stayed there several years ago. It was very interesting to walk along the canals. But it was very eerie as it felt abandoned.
What a colossal pity! Let's hope that this innovative development has a renaissance. Thank you for creating excellent video. 'A+'
Thanks for watching! Likewise, I'm really curious to see where the development goes from here.
I don't see why it would. A critical mass of density of people originating and ending trips is a necessity for any urban space. Unless residential development is built and that development has reason for people to walk or cycle through that development to get from A to B or with a particular destination in mind (maybe a transit stop), the space will never thrive as it's meant to. Even with residential zones around the place, you can't really expect to create an urban centre out of nothing - urban centres need a long history of economic activity which is why you typically see them built upon transport systems like ports on rivers, lakes, and even canals (that actually have a reason for use!). They also typically predate car-centric zoning and their built form was designed with a human scale in mind (which if done today can look unspontaneous and inorganic - which would be a great topic for another video btw!!)
Great first video @bharatimili! I would have liked to seen an aerial shot or map/layout of the development and it's proximity to Irving and Dallas town centres.
@@bharatarimilli My bet nowhere. Not all cities can be walkable like European cities. Today, July 15th it's over 100F in Las Colinas, with 75% humidity. I used to live in Dallas. From May to October it never falls below 90F in the day and 80F at night. It's AC or death. You run from building to car, and back. You park as close to the shops as passible. It's too hot. There is no city in Europe that comes even close to this kind of heat for 8 months straight day and night. In other cities it can work but not in Texas.
@@bharatarimilli IF there is something people area in the area hate its being called Dallas when its technically only Dallas county. If you ask anyone in las Colinas if there in Dallas most people will say no and it actually has a much different feel , look and types of people in it than the actual city of Dallas would.
They have built residential in the area as well as the Irving Convention center. It is definitely having a revival but not to what it was envisioned as becoming.
i remember going to las colinas to help my mom out with work at the top of the summit. setting up classes, rolling around the hallways on rollie chairs and drawing things on the marker board to surprise the coworkers the next day. man i miss those days 😕
This is wild, I worked in Las Colinas for about 10 years and never knew the canal area even existed. I still go out there from time to time, and residential is growing. There is also a big music venue out there, Toyota Music Factory, as well as a growing number of unique restaurants, so it is slowly becoming a more popular place to be for leisure and living.
If you listen to Kidd Kraddick in the Morning they always say they are broadcasting from "The Big Al Canal" cause their studio is on the las colinas canal/wannabe riverwalk. Psycho Shannon did a bit where she fell into the water and she got a staph infection from it apparently
I lived there on a work assignment just over a year ago. I love the idea of Las Colinas and the thought that went into its design. Now it reminds of a dystopian city, something you'd see in a 1970s sci-fi movie. Gleaming highrise buildings, a people mover, yet largely devoid of life and activity. I'm glad it is well maintained and hope that it sees a resurgence at some point.
It feels more like its moving slow than dead. In the north west they made a convention center and a concert stadium along with a lot of other retail and restaurants, and its been doing well. They have also been redoing all the roads on the west side. The east side away from the office buildings is almost built out with apartments.
While it did not live up to the full vision I think overall it did well for an ambitious project. Even disney world and epcot never lived up to its full visions of their times.
So cool. I’m one of the DART rail operators who goes through here daily. Didn’t realize just how cool the history was!
Why did they close the APT dart
@@rasundesilva6088 that was not a DART property or maintained situation. Couldn’t say. I freaking liked riding it years ago though. Wish it were still a thing
Well as someone who goes to las colinas pretty much every week I’m glad to see a lot of new improvements going on in the urban area, there’s 3 big apartments complexes being built, there’s two 10 stories towers that are beginning to be build and will be Wells Fargo regional campus which will add a few thousand people to the area, there’s another hotel being built and they are building a bunch of dense townhomes next to the DART station. The city in on the process of preparing a huge bike infrastructure plan for the city and I know it will improve Las colinas greatly, lots to look out for
Good to hear!
Making urban centers with no housing was a huge mistake repeated across the US last century. Those areas that successfully return housing to downtowns will survive the shift to remote work better.
then it may become an "urbane" place after all. just took it's time.
I hope bike plans include ways to actually get places and make connections with protected bike lines. No one wants to trust in a painted line and SUVs with no visibility blasting past inches away, and while meandering scenic bike paths through woodlands and parks are lovely it it won't create an actual usage case other than "i park at the bike trail lot and take my bike off the carrier on my car" when we need more cases of being able to bike over to a store or workplace.
A couple years ago I went to a family dinner at a restaurant along the canals in the mixed-use area. It was booming. The walkways along the canal were packed (there were even kids jumping in it over and over from the footbridge). The Toyota Music Factory and adjacent developments seem to be breathing new life into the area, which was always a little charming and a little wierd, with its long expanses of office parks generally devoid of life after business hours.
I worked there in the early 80’s when Xerox built the “Dark Crystal” all glass tower. While the Las Colima’s development included a lot of housing, it was really suburban housing and not connected to the urban center except by auto, there wasn’t even a surface bus line. My commute was to Richardson on the NE side of Dallas either by Beltline Road or the interstate. I did take the water taxi once when or manager took our section to lunch at the Four Seasons hotel at my suggestion, last time she did that after she saw the menu prices!
San Antonio pulled this kind of development off quite well because it's in the actual center of the city and connections pre-existing buildings, streets, and public parks.
I grew up nearby and remember walking the empty canals and riding my bike up 10 floors of parking garages in the evenings.
Interesting no mention of the Toyota Music Factory development. That project seemed to add a big boost to the area from both and economic and quality of life perspective for local residents. Seems like interest in the local rail should increase substantially once all the apartment complexes surrounding the lake are completed. Would be nice to take it from the west side of the lake over to the Dart station, or up to the Music Factory.
The gondolas were a wonderful experience for our young family. The restaurants on water street are also very nice. But if you descend down into the canals walkways it's a different story. It's completely abandoned. Aside from a few joggers we were the only foot traffic. The canals are also not fully walkable. Parts are blocked off by chainlink fence. There's a waterfall but you can't access it. It was very peaceful and you forget you're in the metroplex. But overall it lacked foot traffic, organic character, wasn't that walkable or accessible, and what there is to do is quite expensive.
Great stuff! Historical urbanist content seems to be blowing up, and youve got a nice and polished vision with this video alone. good luck!!
Las Colinas is a very important urban node in DFW. Only behind downtown Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington's entertainment district. They're still building residential towers in the area. As well as developing the area to the north. The main problem with Las Colinas is the price. It's a posh area made and frequented by the wealthy. That's why it's not bustling. Most people are priced out of the area.
Most areas Dallas are becoming too expensive for normal working people to live there.
Thankfully the new apartments on the other side of the lake are far more affordable and that's driving down the prices of the apartments on the older side of Las Colinas
A trip down memory lane! We lived in LC from 1986-2013. that canal system was really pretty. Cards shops, a kitchen shop, restaurants. First Burger King I ever recall shutting down😮 it was nice to walk around when the weather was good. Then it was a quick trip to Williams Square to see the Mustangs . After that, not much else to do. Went back a few years ago. Sorry to see that the Canal is still dead but the surrounding area is going gangbusters. Great video. Thanks!
The people mover reminds me of the subway at Tandy Center, Ft Worth or Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit. There was also the pedestrian-only mall fad of the 70s to turn a urban street into a futuristic concrete park with angled planters and benches (eg Fulton Mall Fresno, K Street Sacramento, Eugene Mall...). This kind of backfired in stimulating foot traffic. American transportation infrastructure imposes personal vehicles to get to destinations, with people hating the thought of walking to get someplace.
The Tandy Center was popular back when people were still using Tandy computers. I still remember Burger Junction.
My family loved going and staying at the Omni recently. It's the closest hotel to the canals. Great for pictures. I didn't think it felt like Venice because it looked like San Antonio's river walk. Which is awesome as well!
It still looks great.
I know in 1980's downtown Portland a lot of effort was made to get people to stay after work and come on weekends. This included Saturday markets, entertainment and events. These early efforts were a huge success in making Portland's first light rail line a success. Obviously today they seem to have forgotten everything they learnd.
Truth.
This is the greatest video about Las Colinas and I hope more people see how cool of a place this is to be in such a car dependent metropolitan area nowadays.
This is REALLY well made, I can't believe how its not getting the attention it deserves!
It's the first video by a channel with now 700 subscribers. If 40k views is not "getting the attention", what is?
I actually lived here in an apt overlooking the lake. It was a very convenient place to live. You could take the train to the airport and to downtown Dallas.
This is far from forgotten, the 50th anniversary celebration is going to be fabulous. I’ve lived in this area, first in an apartment and now a single family home, for thirty years. I love it.
The editing here is so well done, especially for a first video! I’m looking forward to more content!
You know what's funny is that Las Colinas in its prime reminds me of Frisco today. weird how history repeats itself.
Los Colinas has world headquarters like Caterpillar and Kimberly Clark, Many other headquarters and regional headquarters too. Over 2000 companies are located in Los Colinas.
The areas residential population has grown over the last 7-10 years with the construction of mixed use 5 over 1 developments with commercial on the first floor and residential above along with dozens of new Townhome and condominium developments.
The area is very vibrant and diverse with a large Indian & South East Asian population.
Just wanted to mention this if you’re not from the area, Los Colonies is still thriving, even if its not exactly the way it was originally planned. It’s got a new whole foods and Trader Joes to pick up groceries and tons of great dining options. Many entertainment options as well around the Toyota Music Factory.
**** It’s LAS Colinas. L-A-S
I was a student at the University of Dallas in the 70’s, which is near Las Colinas. I remember thinking then that this extravagant project was too removed from downtown Dallas to succeed and would not be accepted by car driven Dallasites.
DFW airport broke ground in 1968. It was completed in 1973. Las Colinas was developed to take advantage of its proximity to the airport. Today, more people work there than in downtown Dallas.
That are still has a lot of potential. I use to live in one of the apartments around the lake. What was weird to me was that there was so many young professionals living around the area, but you rarely seen the out and about unless you saw them in the parking garage headed out to somewhere else by car. The Music factory area has helped a ton, but there is still lots of work to do. They are running out of land though. I think they need to transform the little area around the canal into shops and restaurants and maybe a bar or two. They probably tried this before, but they need to try it again since there is more single people living around the lake than ever before. Other than that, the are is pretty built oout now. Maybe they can get the little people mover operating again. If you live in the southern part and your visiting the amphitheater or one of the restaurants, it feels too close drive, but to far away just to walk sometimes. It’s been years since I lived over there, but that’s my two cents.
I lived in Las Colinas and I just have to say it was such an amazing place to live. The whole development seemed like an experiment. And in my opinion it works! I love the canals. Sadly when I lived there the APT was no longer operating. But I could envision a future where the canals and the APT see more foot traffic. I also have to mention that if you are driving, you won’t know the canals are there. I dream of moving back to Las Colinas in the future.
I think that the future of the APT is expansion. I think that if you add a stop by the Music Factory and find a way to make to go across the freeway you'd see big use
you touched on this a bit, but i think the "why" of Las Colinas's downfall deserves to be fleshed out a bit. You gloss over things like lack of residential, poor connectivity, etc. All in all it seems like this was designed first and foremost to be an office-park novelty - if built as a community, with residential and other mixed-use construction and good integration to the surrounding areas, I could imagine this being an incredible little area. Great video!
Las Colina is essentially a garden variety office complex, albeit with a canal and old-world themed architecture for some of the buildings.
These city planners are all so allergic to mixed-use development and it sounds like it killed this project
Looks like there are no or very few restaurants and shops lining the canal. Bring some service industry and high density residential, and you’re set.
@@jackesioto it's an icon of the 1980s
@@larrys4618 Yeah, the 80's, the last decade of 20th century space age optimism. The first few years of which promised us space colonies, that the United States was to convert to the metric system, that nuclear was to be the power source of the future, etc. I know all this is unrelated to the Las Colina project, but still.
solid first video dude! sky's the limit!
Thanks for watching!
I learned a lot here. This content is quite original. The one time is was around there the mover was closed. Las Colinas could not overcome the cancer of sprawl development with a Centrum tablet.
This video hooked me up. I love learning about these type of topics, forgotten projects, abandoned places, architectural facts!
It would have been really cool to see what could have been!
It's interesting because the pieces are all still there to bring the whole vision back to life. I'm curious whether they'll attempt to make something of it or bias towards tearing it all down.
Yes Bharat, I totally agree. A part of me really hopes it happens…but only time will tell. Anyway great video!! :))
It shows that the United States is capable of
@@bharatarimillilook at San Antonio's River Walk
@@hobogthe Riverwalk is a much bigger system. And it has the advantage of running directly through downtown, goes to Hemisfair Plaza, and is a stones throw from the Alamo. And you have things like the Arneson River Theater (which is definitely an experience to watch a play or concert at). I’ve walked the canals in Las Colinas many times during lunch breaks when I worked there 15 years ago, and it’s just not big enough to support enough attractions to make it a destination.
I lived in the area for a year. I've always found the canal and the surrounding buildings peculiar. They had details of classical artecture here and there, but as a whole there's some dissonance and felt out of place. It never stopped me from being fascinated by it, though. I enjoyed walking along it, and exploring the deserted stations. The whole thing had a sweet sence of desolation to it.
Thank you for making this documentary. Now at least I know why it has come this way.
This was genuinely such a cool an interesting video! I would love to see more! The editing was top notch and overall it was just so well done! Great job!!! 🌟🌟🌟
don't mind me, just making a comment to please the algorithm because I love this video and i want more of it
Pre-pandemic I used to travel to Las Colinas for work all the time. I stayed at a Marriott right on the canals. After work I would go walk along the canals to get some exercise after staring at a computer all day. I always wondered why the canals were there in the first place. Thanks for explaining.
Great video. Well produced. Never had an inkling of its existence. Thanks!
Meanwhile the San Antonio Riverwalk, which was almost cemented over, over a century ago, is vibrant and an international tourist destination!
I've been to Los Colinas multiple times and didn't even know this existed!
It was visionary, but you not only have to have a strong mix of corporate, retail, and residential... you have to make the canal area a destination where you have reasons to be there.
There's an interesting development like this in Dubai, called the City of Arabia. Everything from a canal system, with condos and restaurants only steps away, to business towers and a giant indoor shopping mall in the background.
It is so funny watching so many people that say they live in Las Colinas never realize that Las Colinas is not a city. It's Irving, Texas. That is why you can't find it on a map. If your address says Las Colinas it's wrong. The post office is just humoring you. It was fun explaining that to lady that lived in the Hickory Creek neighborhood off of 114.
I suggest you do a video on The Woodlands, a vibrate town of 125,000 complete with a waterway carved out of 28,000 acres north of Houston.
Good idea. Unfortunately, the Woodlands suffers from the same ailment as Las Colinas. That would be Texas car culture.
This is really impressive for your first UA-cam video, Love it. Can you cover the strange neighborhood in the Dallas metro under the name Adriatica Village?
always wondered what was going on in las colinas when my DART train rolls thru. went to octoberfest there (better in ft worth). nice area. hope that they start up APT again and start water taxis again.
Worked along this canal a few years back doing contract work right before Covid hit. I used to walk this every lunch time. Thanks for the awesome video!
Pretty darn good for your first video. Looking forward to more!
This makes me so nostalgic for my childhood when my hometown of Dallas was headed in the right direction
this is an amazing history lesson on a Dallas suburb that I can't remember ever visiting although I grew up in Richardson. But I certainly would appreciate similar deep dives on local history. You definitely earned my sub!
I was shocked when you said it was your first video. This is really well done 👍
Very nice video! As someone who recently worked in Las Colinas I have always wondered about the backstory behind the canals and the rail system.
Very interesting video! Thank you so much for sharing this. 🙌🙌🙌
When we first moved to DFW, we lived in Irving. We'd go over and walk around Las Colinas all the time. I would have loved to seen it with the water taxis and tram in full operation.
This video is so high quality. Great job on production, visuals and narration.
Very well done. Great footage
The canals at Las Colinas are great . Its a booming area and they have big plans.
I used to work at Williams Square in the late 2000s/early 2010s. When I first started the area was basically dead except during business hours and o remember seeing the APT trundling around empty most of the time. Once the DART lines came in (I watched the 114 overpass bridge being built from my office window), all the apartments started being built and things really did pick up. Though I never understood why they demolished the unused APT piers rather than extending the system to the Irving Convention Center and the Toyota Music Factory area. Seems like it would have made sense, especially in transporting people from the hotels by the canals to the convention center.
And IIRC the APT was originally planned to extend to DFW at some point. Of course the Orange Line makes that moot.
Very interesting. Well done on your first UA-cam video. May there be many more to come!
What a great video!!! Keep them coming! ❤
Wow, if this was your first video, I am definitely subscribing to watch more! I love this kind of content and your method of combining mellifluent vocals with thoughtful editing.
Great video!
BRILLIANT VIDEO!!! Cannot wait for your next upload :)
Really well done, engaging, and unique.
Great first video. I've lived off of lake Lewisville my whole life and never knew this existed. Thanks
I worked at Waterway Tower for about 4 years in the mid 2010s. I was so morbidly fascinated by Las Colinas I had dreams about it. A failed visionary project left to a sad fake ghost city where people from outside the neighborhood would come in for a day of work then leave. One day I rode the elevated trolley thing on my lunch break. I was the only person on it and the operator asked where I wanted to stop and I said “I don’t know, I just wanted to ride it.” He was flabbergasted by this lol. I still find it oddly fascinating, like a utopia for the “liminal space” trend.
good job man on making this video. love the editing. keep it up.
Very interesting. I found this canal thing when my wife and I tried to go to the music factory but couldn't find parking for it. Closest free parking turned out to be at the side of the canal. This was a few months ago. We explored all around the main area that is shown in this video. Beautiful architecture that hosts empty spaces, sad. I had no idea that this had more history then just some weird waterways in Dallas. I wonder if you could connect this to one of the rivers and encourage boaters to boat into this area? Like the Harbor in Rockwall.
FABULOUS! VERY WELL MADE VIDEO!
Nice video! Glad to find your channel
Very cool, I hope you keep making content.
Well done! Subscribed!
Great video, looking forward to more
Interesting topic and a really good job for a first effort! Keep up the good work.
Great Video!!
They tried this in Bakersfield, California too! You can find the canals they dug and never used.
I worked at Las Colinas for a short time. Little hints of the canal but never saw it like that. Rode on the tram once and it breaks my heart the fact they shut it down. They need to redevelop it and expanded because it would really kick off these days
Great video! I worked in Las Colinas for a few weeks in January - February 2020. I was shocked as something so nice was so empty. I took the APT a few times and it was great yet desolate. Las Colinas can still come around but it needs serious investment in affordable housing.
What a great video. Can tell you put in tremendous effort and time into your first youtube video. Would love to see more.
Great video
Fantastic First Video, I'm excited to see what you produce next. Cheers!
Can’t wait to see more videos!!
Your video style is already very professional, scripting is crystal clear, editing is interesting ! I hope (and think) you'll blow up soon !
I remember riding the APT three times. Twice in 2014 and once in 2017.
I loved going to Las Colinas, my Son enjoyed the Mustangs
Fascinating mini doco. Living outside the States, and comparing these urban designs to my country and others I travelled to is eye opening.
Great video, really surprised to hear this was your first effort. Would love to see the residential area thrive and drive more retail and restaurants.
great video
First Video? Wow. Fantastic job. Terrific subject matter!
It’s so frustrating and sad to look at beautifully built infrastructures go to waste!
I’ve lived in DFW for around 25 years and never knew this existed! So crazy! This whole area is in the crapper when it comes to sprawl. It’s a same ideas like this don’t work out well here. The heat is one thing and the car dependency is a monster of a problem.
Good stuff!
Nice video, this would be a good series