CityLab Daily: A 1980s Texas Business Hub Looks Beyond Offices
Also today: The plan to put a skyscraper on top of a skyscraper faces backlash, and where US tech investment is growing the most.
The Xerox Centre in Las Colinas, built in 1982 and now known as the Urban Towers, boasted its own monorail station.
Photo: HUM Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
When Las Colinas was founded 50 years ago, the affluent North Texas suburb was a rare example of a master-planned community that put business first. It boasted a downtown core with tall office buildings alongside an artificial lake and canals, linked by a monorail and surrounded by planned residential neighborhoods.
But like other planned communities built around cars, the town suffered growing pains. Its focus on offices left the core empty after work hours, and in debt during economic downturns. Las Colinas has since tweaked its formula to embrace mid-rise apartments, transit-oriented development and walkability, and in doing so, it’s evolved into a genuine – and quirky – urban area. Read more from Anthony Paletta today on CityLab: A 1980s Edge City Comes Back From the Brink, Minus Its Monorail