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Above you can see for yourself a 3-D animated rendering of what all the whiz-bang new ideas for Klyde Warren Park would look like if the city ponies up $40 million (and another $50 million is mined from other sources), and it all comes to be.
FrontBurner Nation appears to have reached a consensus that putting up a parking garage and calling it “Sky Park” — a big component of this proposal — is the mostest “most Dallas thing ever.” But members of the Park Board generally seemed to have no problem with the totality of the vision that the park foundation’s chairman, Jody Grant, laid out for them at a briefing this morning (where this video was first released publicly.)
However, they weren’t sanguine about the odds of the city finding $40 million in its couch cushions (i.e. the next bond program) to fund Grant’s request. They pressed him on whether there was a smaller amount he might ask for that might allow the project to be completed in phases, perhaps, but Grant was insistent that $40 million is the magic number and that it’s best to tackle this all at once. He said it would all be more expensive in the long run if done piecemeal.
I still don’t get why we need to add parking and office space for the foundation on an additional deck between St. Paul and Akard streets. Couldn’t office space be donated by one of the buildings that fronts the park, as much benefit as their property values have gotten from it? And do we really need another upscale restaurant there when most visitors have more fun eating from the food trucks anyway?
Park Board members also seemed impressed with the proposed “Sky Bridge” to the Perot museum. Multiple times the idea that it would become Dallas’ version of New York’s popular High Line was expressed, but the High Line doesn’t look down upon a major highway, so I’m not sure the comparisons are apt.
That said, a lot of the other plans look great: expanding the popular and often-packed Children’s Park, the water feature on Pearl Street, a bridge over Pearl to the Arts District, closing Olive Street to full connect the eastern end of the park.
Too bad, according to Grant, we need that garage on the west side and no less than $40 million of city money to make it happen.
