Tonight at the Belmont, Larry Beasley to Update Plans for That West Dallas Makeover

Back in October, the Trinity Trust ponied up $2 mil for the creation of the City Design Studio, to be based out of Dallas City Hall and run by, among others, bcWORKSHOP's Brent Brown. Larry Beasley, an urban planner known as the man who built Vancouver, was also tapped to serve as the studio's consultant as it works to plot development in West Dallas, along the Trinity Corridor.

If you're wondering how that West Dallas redo's coming along look no further than the 16 pages of notes, sketches and suggestions from the February design charrette. (That doc, incidentally, was produced entirely in-house by CDS.) Or: You could be at the Belmont Hotel tonight, when the Congress for the New Urbanism North Texas Chapter hosts Beasley at 8 p.m. for a free poolside meet-and-greet followed by an "urban conversation" concerning the future of development in West Dallas.

"Because it's outside, the ability to show imagery will be difficult," says Brown, who will also be part of the talk. "So it'll be a conversation, and we'll talk about how the studio's working and what we're working on. Larry and I will talk about things we've done, and then we'll go to a Q&A, which will be more meaningful anyway. When we talk about streets, we're talking abut public realm, and when we're talking about public realm, we're talking about people. And people bike and walk, and that's at the core of the work of the studio -- creating places people will love, and that's about honoring the paces that exist. Not everything has to be new."

Oh, like you need a reason to drink by the pool at the Belmont.