Waco, Texas

Downtown Waco is small compared to many other Texas cities, such as Houston or Dallas, or even San Antonio, Fort Worth, El Paso or Austin. However, each day roughly 17,000 people commute to and from work in downtown. Downtown Waco was built around the Waco Suspension Bridge, which was a crucial crossing of the Brazos River. In May 1953, the worst tornado in Texas history struck downtown Waco killing 114, and injuring hundreds. It caused millions of dollars in damage, and dented Waco’s economy for years to come. Downtown Waco is home to the ALICO tower, which was completed in 1910, and was once the tallest structure in the Southwest. Downtown Waco is now the location of the famous Dr Pepper Museum, where Dr Pepper was first invented, and the McLennan County Courthouse. In the past few decades, Downtown Waco was slowly decaying as Waco grew to the West away from Downtown. But recently Waco's city leaders have been taking strides into making Downtown Waco the city center again. There are two projects currently being worked on in Heritage Square, which takes up two blocks in downtown, between 3rd and 4th streets and Washington Avenue and Franklin Avenue. The first project is the new Chamber of Commerce of Waco, which will be an environment-friendly building. The second project, which broke ground in the spring of 2008, is a mixed-use development with commercial and residential buildings. The two-story, 13,916-square-foot (1,292.8 m2) Greater Waco Chamber Headquarters is under construction adjacent to Heritage Square and will be the marketing center for Greater Waco and the cornerstone of Waco Town Square. The building has been designed to accommodate the organization's committees and staff who are advancing an expanded economic and community development agenda. The Third Street facade will have large, retail-style windows, contributing to an interesting urban feel of the development and is Waco's first LEED (Leadership in Engineering and Environment Design)-certifie...

Channel: www.CheckMyCity.com Video Length: 2m 13s Date Found: Sun, Mar 07 2010 11:22 PM Category: Travel Date Produced: Sun, Mar 07 2010 11:11 PM View Count: 0