Historic Preservation League News, February 1993 Page: 4 of 8
[8] p. : ill.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Dallas City Council January 13 voted to close the book
on the 56-year-old Cokesbury Bookstore in downtown Dallas.
The Council's action added yet another historic building to
the graveyard of landmark properties.
By a 9-5 vote, the Council ratified a motion by Councilman
Chris Luna to allow the building's manager Prentiss Copley
Investment Group, to have the Art Deco structure demolished.
Taking its place will be-another surface parking lot!
Just what Downtown needs!
"Thirty-five percent of the land downtown is devoted to
parking lots," Landmark Commission Trudy O'Reilly told the
Council. "This is an alarming and scary trend for downtown.
A survey taken over a decade ago identified 150 older Dallas
buildings worthy of Landmark designation. More than 40
percent of those structures are gone. Only three of the sites
have been built on; the remainder are parking lots.
Dallas has more parking spaces per downtown worker than
any other city in the country That is startling, and certainly
nothing to brag about.
The only bright light in the Council Chambers in City Hall
came when Councilman Luna amended his motion to call for
development of an "early warning" system, so historic buildings
can be identified before they are scheduled for demolition.The action to set the wrecking ball in motion also thwarted
efforts by the Historic Preservation League, Landmark
Commission, and other citizen and professional groups to
preserve the buildings.
The Landmark Commission had voted January 6 to
designate Cokesbury Bookstore a City Landmark worthy of
preservation. In effect, the Landmark Commission's action
would have delayed actual demolition 60 days.
Prentiss Properties told the Landmark Commission it had
already signed a contract to sell the building to an unnamed
buyer Prentiss revealed the buyer intended to use the site
along with adjoining space totaling about 40,000 square feet as
a surface parking lot.
Kirk Williams, the attorney representing Prentiss, told the
Commission his client had searched for a viable economic
alternative to the demolition, but nothing could be worked
out.
Trudy O'Reilly was the first to urge the Council to grant
the 60-day delay to find a reuse for the building. She noted
that Prentiss Properties had agreed to a 30-day demolition delay
to enable the Landmark Commission time to find a user who
would rehab the building.
Actually, the Commission had a potential buyer for the
Cokesbury building, but no one wanted to buy the adjacent
land, so the deal fell through.
Several architects, including Chris Hunter, Graham Green,
and HPL Trustee Craig Melde told the Council they were
convinced the building could be rehabilitated. Green said a
potential buyer wanted to use the building for storage, but
didn't disclose details.
Green also called upon the City Council to create a task
force or to establish a policy that can "be understood by all of
us (building owners, developers, the public).
"We felt we could offer the owner more than what it would
get from the buyer under contract," Trudy noted. "It's a
dilemma for everyone who cares about downtown."
"Eventually, there won't be any inventory left for the newly
designated Urban Main Street program," added Trudy
She also stressed the need for a task force to look at ways
to avert "these eleventh hour situations..."
"What we used to have within the city was an automatic
delay of demolition on anything that was eligible for historic
designation, and we'd like to consider a district, especially the
Urban Main Street District, where we again have an automatic
delay so that we have an opportunity to work with owners to
find alternatives, and we don't get into these situations where
we are under the eleventh hour crisis."
HPL Trustee Frank Welch, chairman of the Urban Design
Advisory Committee, not only addressed the Council hearing
but also sent City Manager Jan Hart a letter on this matter.
Frank urged the City to place a 180-day moratorium on
demolition permits in the Central Business District unless the
applicant simultaneously applies for a building permit for a
major structure on the property
Welch added that the City of Dallas should consider
ordinances like those in Denver and Atlanta where economic
incentives are provided for re-use of structures and parking
lots were put on a five-year hold.
Dallas Attorney Susan Mead, chair of the Housing
Committee of the Central Dallas Association, urged the City
Council to encourage housing in the downtown area. She
reminded them of the City's commitment to Main City Center
"The old buildings stock is what makes downtown Dallas4
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Dallas Historic Preservation League. Historic Preservation League News, February 1993, periodical, February 1993; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth887689/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Preservation Dallas.