Hotel is a test of change around FW museums

Fort Worth’s Cultural District, with its world-class museums, is a treasure well worth protecting.

The city’s leaders have worked hard for decades to both protect and promote those museums.

But it has never been “protect the museums at all costs.” As the city grows, we’ve always known that the neighborhoods around the Cultural District will grow and change.

Now a proposal for a much-needed hotel nearby will test how much change is acceptable.

Board members of the Kimbell Art Museum and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art met last week with representatives of Illinois-based Heart of America Group, which has proposed a 12-story, 212-room hotel at the northwest corner of Camp Bowie Boulevard and Van Cliburn Way.

Kimbell Director Eric Lee told Star-Telegram reporter Sandra Baker that the hotel would be visible from a serene interior courtyard at the museum and would appear to be “looming” over it.

City Councilman Dennis Shingleton said museum representatives also worry that the hotel would harm the “aesthetic” of the area along University Drive and Camp Bowie Boulevard near the Kimbell, the Carter and Modern Art museums.

The city is paying half the cost of a $450 million multipurpose arena expected to open off Montgomery Street in 2020, and the hotel would benefit that project.

Resolving this problem is a leadership test for City Hall. Museum leaders should prepare for compromise.

This story was originally published March 6, 2017 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Hotel is a test of change around FW museums."