Harold Simmons Park is transforming Dallas’ landscape as the city’s largest green space project begins construction.
DALLAS — This story was originally published by our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal. Read the original version here.
A long-promised park that seeks to make Dallas’ green space a central part of the city’s social fabric is making the leap from the drawing board to reality.
Harold Simmons Park, now taking shape along the Trinity River, will be the biggest project of its kind in Dallas. The effort is led by the Trinity Park Conservancy, which points to visible progress on the ambitious, $325 million project emerging above the managed levees and pump stations of the river, between the iconic Margaret McDermott Bridge and the Ronald Kirk Bridge. Construction crews have finished clearing 22 acres for the the first phase, called the West Overlook, and recently began preliminary site work. Groundbreaking occurred in early April.
TPC aims to create a park where nature can unite all residents in Dallas as well as enhance peoples’ health and wellbeing. Just the West Overlook will be four times the size of the acclaimed Klyde Warren Park, the popular highway deck park that connects downtown with Uptown Dallas and spans just over 5 acres. For comparison, Central Park in Manhattan encompasses 843 acres.
“People are using the floodway, but only those who have geographical knowledge,” Trinity Park Conservancy CEO Tony Moore said of the current state of the river. “From a Dallas point of view, it’s one of the best kept secrets — so our job is to let the park be this place of unity that draws people together to that central area.”
