The Connected City

The strategic plan aspires to be part of a collective dream, one that spans Native American history to also include contemporary culture. The project’s vision ensures that as Downtown Dallas continues to grow, it will do so while integrating ecological, transportation, land-use, and socioeconomic concerns.

The urban sequence extends from the Arts District, lengthening the pedestrian corridor to the new Science and Nature Program and Energy Park, and Leisure Trinity Park and new Sunset Promenade. ‘D Walk’ is a concept that connects the Dallas Museum of Art to the Perot Museum and the JFK Memorial, and across several new bridges, connecting Main Street with the river, the Bio Dome, parks, and new lakes.

The original Blackland prairie environment is tapped to become an ecological support system that provides an intense street-level hard/soft landscape design, with planting along all main streets and a network of magnets, including the +E Museum and Park (with pavilions) and outdoor neighbourhood markets that regenerate nature through local/global biomimetics.

The plan integrates the toll road and highways through a unified view of urbanism that links four new riverfront districts to Downtown Dallas through a multifaceted mobility scheme. The scheme pulls citizens away from a single mode of mobility, adding car sharing, park and ride, and BRT (90 percent rapid bus and 10 percent rail). The scheme promotes development around a series of interchange hubs that seamlessly connect transport modes and ensures that people’s homes are in walking distance from their jobs and daily activities.

District-by-district design and interurban connections create a sense of place and identity, a ‘genius loci’ from where to grow. The Trinity Riverfront promenade becomes the urban and natural spine of the city, with magnets to activate a living ground floor where interior and exterior streets are connected, leading to multilevel decks overlooking the Trinity lakes and parks.