Downtown Dallas Changes Present Opportunity For City To Embrace Walkability
With the impending loss of AT&T and the future of City Hall up in the air, Downtown Dallas could soon find itself at a crossroads. And that presents an opportunity for the area to embrace pedestrian design and be reinvented as a more walkable, welcoming place.
Uptown has been successful in establishing that walkability with landscaped areas that separate sidewalks from streets and create a sense of safety for pedestrians, GFF CEO Evan Beattie said during Bisnow’s DFW Architecture and Design Summit at the Renaissance Dallas Addison Hotel on Wednesday.
"Dallas has a real opportunity to get urban spaces that are great for pedestrians right and drive really sustained value and demand to be here through investing in them,” Beattie said about the future of downtown.
Since so much of Dallas was designed around vehicles, Beattie said pedestrians rarely feel settled enough to try to traverse much of the city on foot. With the changes that could happen in downtown, panelists said the city needs to carefully consider future development and put its population's needs at the center of upcoming projects.
The success of Klyde Warren Park is evidence of the demand for pedestrian spaces and gathering areas in Dallas. A 1.7-acre expansion of the deck park built above the Woodall Rodgers Freeway is scheduled to begin this summer.
Dallas officials hope to repeat that success with the 5.5-acre Halperin Park being built in Oak Cliff over Interstate 35E. Its first phase is scheduled to open later this year.
Instead of focusing on cars, future Dallas projects need to be designed around how people behave and what they find comfortable and inviting, according to Perkins & Will Managing Director Vandana Nayak.
"Public programming might change, technology might change … but what doesn't change is how people want to come together and how they want to belong in a certain place,” Nayak said. “Starting with that human being and that comfort would be the first step in making sure that space has longevity."
The projects that have proven most successful in achieving that longevity are those made through a true partnership between the designer and the developer, Beattie said. Designers who present a bold vision can help foster community support and excitement from government officials.
And once the community gets behind an initiative, designers and developers will line up with it, too, Nayak said.
That need for a fresh perspective could soon arrive in Downtown Dallas.
In early January, AT&T announced plans to move its global headquarters from downtown’s Whitacre Tower to a 54-acre site in Plano. The telecommunications titan doesn’t plan to begin its relocation until the second half of 2028, but it’s unknown how the move will affect the AT&T Discovery District adjacent to Whitacre Tower.
City Hall could also vacate Downtown Dallas after the city council voted to explore options for redeveloping the I.M. Pei-designed building during the early morning hours of March 5. A report from the Dallas Economic Development Corp., delivered in late February, found that renovations needed to fully restore City Hall would total around $906M, though city operating costs could push it past $1.1B over 20 years.
However, vacating the nearly 50-year-old building hasn’t been decided as the council also instructed city staff to explore repairing the structure, The Dallas Morning News reported.
If downtown ultimately does have to be reimagined, Beattie said it is important it is done authentically. The population’s priorities have to be balanced with design without losing the spirit and character of the city.
A development that becomes culturally embedded will grow with the community. And when a project successfully creates a place people want to live, work and play, it becomes a neighborhood, he said.
"The best places are able to change with culture, change with technology — they don't depend on today,” Beattie said.
