{"id":445224,"date":"2026-09-23T15:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/445224\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T15:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:22:11","slug":"fort-worths-flying-saucer-is-going-down-so-are-its-cultural-credentials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/445224\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth&#8217;s flying saucer is going down. So are its cultural credentials"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Fort Worth is moving ahead with plans to demolish the Fort Worth Convention Center Arena in early 2027, and the building that opened in 1968 is described as a landmark with a flying saucer shape. The arena has hosted Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, and BTS, and it was once home to the Texas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association. A 4-story glass-fronted extension designed by TVS will replace the arena, while another Preston M. Geren building at 919 Summit Ave. is also slated for demolition. The former Fort Worth Community Arts Center has been shut for more than a year after the city said it needed about $30 million in maintenance and repairs. That complex opened in 1954, was designed by Herbert Bayer, and was later expanded in the 1970s by O&#8217;Neil Ford. Heritage Park Plaza, completed in 1980 by Lawrence Halprin, has been closed to public access for nearly two decades, even as Downtown Fort Worth Inc. has raised roughly $45 million toward a $50 million restoration project. After years of delays and promises, the city still has no definitive start date for the park work, and Fort Worth&#8217;s historic sites remain under pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fort Worth is moving ahead with plans to demolish the Fort Worth Convention Center Arena in early 2027,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[62979,33854,144186,28448,77022,116,118,117,75452,153658],"class_list":["post-445224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-american-basketball-association","tag-bob-dylan","tag-bob-marley","tag-elvis-presley","tag-flying-saucer","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news","tag-rolling-stones","tag-texas-chaparrals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}