Jessica Melton
About a dozen D Magazine Partners staffers recently got a sneak peek of Klyde Warren Park, the deck park that’s under construction over Woodall Rodgers Freeway. (Other than the foundation’s board of directors, we were the first group to tour the site.) It’s still a little bare bones, but getting to walk on the grounds made it easier to experience how large the park is—and how surprisingly quiet it can be.
The park will be able to hold more than 10,000 people in its more than 200,000 square feet—60 percent of which will be shaded, thanks to the addition of about 320 trees.
Mark Banta, the park’s new president, led the tour. He said infill development and property values are both likely to spike, because people will want to get closer to the action. “It’s not something we could stop if we wanted to,” he said.
Looking east from the center of Klyde Warren Park
The plan is to keep the park highly active, with four or five events per day. There are spaces in the park for activities such as yoga, zumba, tango classes, and fitness boot camps, in addition to concerts and other planned activities.
Even if there’s not a planned activity going on, there are things to see and ways to keep busy, including three interactive fountains, an area dedicated specifically for kids, a quiet space for people wanting to relax, ping-pong tables, a dog park that can hold about 30 dogs, and a putting green.
The park will feature a restaurant (whose operator is yet to be announced), with prices similar to Stephan Pyles and valet parking. For more traditional “park food purists,” there will also be a station where people can go to grab a quick chili dog and cotton candy, Banta said.
So where is everyone going to stash their cars? There are 23 spots around the park and 40 metered spots nearby, and the park is negotiating additional access to 1,400 spots at the Texas Capital building. Bike racks will be also be available on-site for those with two-wheeled transportation.
Scroll down for more photos of the park, slated to open in late fall 2012. Click on the images for a larger view.
Looking east from the western section of the park.
Looking west; Hunt Oil's headquarters in the background.
The eastern section of the park, expected to be a quieter area.
The team from D. Our office (in background) sits about a block away from the park.
12 comments
Cool, can’t wait! My little one has already said she wants to have her 6th birthday party there.
Did the signature fountain get scrapped or is it just delayed?
Let’s see how long those trees hold up against The Museum Tower’s reflection
am i bad at math?
“The park will be able to hold more than 10,000 people”
“There are 23 spots around the park” – how are we building a 10k person park with 23 free parking spots? #buryingthelead
“and 40 metered spots nearby”
“he park is negotiating additional access to 1,400 spots at the Texas Capital building”
ok, so…23+40+1400=1463. Let’s say each car is full with 4 passengers (which is unlikely, but giving benefit of doubt). that is parking for less than 60% of the parks capacity (5852) . more likely, about 25-30% of its capacity.
arts distrcit parking is basically full if there is an event, so that won’t work.
all this is fine – but let’s be realistic about how many people are coming to the park. how the hell could the area support 10k people worth of cars?
people will not be riding dart or their bikes to eat at a restaurant with stephen pyles price points.
Looking forward to the opening, but 1,463 parking spots for 10,000+ people?
The park is walking distance from the folks the live/work in Downtown and uptown where we have plenty of parking already… Anyone who is going to go to a park should be willing to walk a block or two to get to it… Central Park would require a huge garage if the provided parking for everyone that is going to use it.
Ok, in New York, granted there are parking garages around Central Park, people also actually use public transportation there and it’s a highly walkable city, so that takes a load off. Chicago’s Millennium Park has at least 4 parking garages right next to/around it that are almost specifically for the park, plus awesome public transportation that will drop you 2 short blocks away.
The M-Line Trolly extension will help, but still not everyone that will come to the park lives/works downtown or in uptown. If the 1,463 spaces are all there is to offer, then those within walking distance will end up being the ones enjoying the park.
It’s one thing to say the park can hold 10,000 people and another to say they will ever expect 10,000 people at the park. Any event with that much expected attendance would probably be held at Fair Park.
I’d actually be very surprised if you ever see more than 1,000 people at the park at once.
Honestly, you’re worried about parking??
The majority of the daily visitors to this park are going to be walking from their office/residence or stumbling upon the park after spending an entire day in downtown or nearby. Sure, for events people will drive specifically to the park, but with the ample amounts of parking downtown, nearby DART access, the M Line and not to mention bicycling…there are more than a few ways to get there.
It’s an urban park, people. Think outside the car.
The park is less than 1/2 mile from the Pearl and St. Paul DART stations. The trolley will stop at its front door. Most humans have two functioning legs.
Plenty of alternatives to driving to the park.
I’m totally surprised (actually shocked!) the article mentions “how large the park is—and how surprisingly quiet it can be”??This has always been my concern — that the park was simply to small and noisy (surrounded by access roads and freeway off ramps) to be our “signature” urban park.
I have personally walked this area numerous times recently and even snuck into the middle of the park at night and find it to be extremely noisy and small (too thin and linear) to hold any large events. The fact that its really 2 separate parks with the through street for traffic (Olive St.) leaves it to be no more than a lawn or pocket park similar to Main Street Garden and Belo Garden that nearby residents/workers will use as a place for their dogs to poop.
While I love the fact we’ve created a cool tunnel by decking Woodall Rogers and bridged the Uptown/Downtown divide, we really can do better than this Dallas! We need a major urban park downtown with a minimum of 15-20 acres.
The park is just part of an overall space that, in my mind, includes the walkable parts of the arts district and uptown. When you factor that in, the general area is far more than 15-20 acres. This park, by bridging those areas, creates a whole that is far greater than the sum of its parts.