New 5.2-acre park in Dallas caps freeway, connects urban neighborhoods.
Similar to Cincinnati’s plans to cap Fort Washington Way, Dallas has just opened a 5.2-acre park spanning the Woodall Rodgers Freeway. Not only will the park connect Dallas’ downtown with its uptown, but it will also provide a much needed public gathering space for the city which has recently added two other parks to its center city. More from Next American City:
Taking 10 years to plan and $110 million to build, Klyde Warren park is most recent “bridge” to come online in the last seven months, succeeding the newly christened, Santiago Calatrava- designed Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, which opened in March to the tune of $182 million….
Both [of downtown Dallas’ new] parks operate under the auspice of good design as a driver of success. Additionally, they are also regularly patrolled by a private security force and are maintained by private cleaning crews in order to perpetuate the goodness of the design. Though the parks are nice, there is something quaint about them — the prospect of stumbling onto something unexpected is not expected, and raises the question of how to allow an organic “place,” which ultimately defines good public spaces, to evolve.
