Crescent Real Estate's short list of Uptown architects included four ...

Pelli Clarke Pelli's planned Uptown project. (Crescent Real Estate )

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When Crescent Real Estate Holdings began to ponder the development plan for its McKinney Avenue block in Uptown, the developer thought big.

The Fort Worth-based real estate firm started by talking to almost a dozen architectural firms to take their pulse for the project, which Crescent hopes will be a new landmark for the neighborhood.

After some initial conversations, the developer narrowed its dance card down to four top architectural firms.

The short list of designers Crescent came up included some of the world?s best known urban designers.

The finalists were New York?s Kohn Pederson Fox, Foster + Partners of London, New England-based Pickard Chilton and Pelli Clarke Pelli of New Haven, Conn.

Kohn Pederson Fox?is no stranger to Dallas. The firm designed the award-winning Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas on Pearl Street.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas by Kohn Pederson Fox. (DMN files)

And Foster+Partners did the Dallas? Winspear Opera House ? a standout in the Arts District with its bright red curving walls.

Pickard Chilton a few years ago was tapped to design a 30-story office tower for Dallas? Victory Park. But the planned skyscraper never made it off the drawing board.

Pelli Clarke Pelli?s founder Cesar Pelli was approached by Dallas-area developers back in the 1980s and 1990s to do projects in the area ? including downtown skyscrapers and a mixed-use project up on LBJ Freeway. But none of those deals ever got past the talking stage.

Crescent?s Uptown project will be Pelli?s signature deal for Dallas.

Crescent officials picked Pelli Clarke Pelli to do their project because, ?their buildings are sexy,? said CEO John Goff.

Foster + Partners Winspear Opera House. (DMN files)

?We spent a day with Cesar Pelli and walked the whole area with him,? Goff said, before the architect came up with the final design.

The 86-year-old master architect already has some of the world?s landmark buildings under his belt. His Petronas Towers in Malaysia were the tallest buildings on the planet when they opened in 1998.
And the firm has designed major cultural facilities in Osaka, Japan; Connecticut; and California.

Source: http://bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com/2012/10/crescent-real-estates-short-list-of-uptown-architects-included-four-stars.html/

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