The Kessler Theater is setting trends again.
Work could begin on a $220,000 makeover for the theater’s sidewalks in the next few months, and the corner is expected to set the tone for upcoming improvements all along West Davis.
The theater applied for a North Texas Council of Governments grant about four years ago. About eight months ago, it won $160,000 for sidewalk improvements, and the city pitched in another $60,000 from tax increment financing funds.
All of the money will go toward improving public spaces; none of it will be used for private property, says Kessler owner Edwin Cabaniss.
The sidewalks along two blocks that form an “L” around the Kessler — Davis between Winnetka and Clinton and Clinton between Davis and Seventh — will be widened. Also planned are bollards, bike racks, trees, planters and historically accurate streetlights.
Cabaniss has worked with the City Design Studio and the Dallas Landmark Commission in an effort to choose designs that would work for the entire West Davis corridor from Montclair to Zang, where sidewalk improvements are coming soon.
Instead of a complete street, Cabaniss calls the project a “complete corner.”
“It’s a relatively small project in the overall scheme of things, but it’s important because it does set the tone for the other three corners,” he says.
Those other three corners are Seventh and Rosemont, Tyler and Davis and Davis and Zang. The city has almost $1 million to improve sidewalks along the corridor, and they are looking for money to create other improvements.
