Monday, November 16, 2009

Cheers for Woodall Rogers Park

I am excited about the new deck park now being constructed over the Woodall Rogers Freeway in Dallas. It reminds me, on a much smaller scale, of the great park I enjoyed so much when I lived in New York City--Central Park, designed by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead and architect Calvert Vaux. One big reason Central Park succeeded was the thoughtful handling of vehicular traffic in such a way as to separate it, visually and acoustically, from the pedestrian and horse-drawn park traffic. The Woodall Rogers park (see picture above) will heal a gigantic "gash" across downtown Dallas and will conceal the roaring freeway from the park users above.

How fortunate it is that the freeway was built sufficiently recessed to allow the park to bridge between the two sidewalk levels on each bank of the trench. Maybe good planning, maybe just dumb luck. Either way, we'll take it. And how amazing that it's actually getting built!

The picture below shows the extent of the 5.2 acre park overlaid on the existing streets.

For a good article on the park, click on this link to SocialWhirl.com.