Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

This project has popped up here in various threads (under its former name Water Garden) but I figured it deserved its own discussion after getting a small update presentation yesterday. Groundbreaking is expected in 2024. Here is a link to the cityhall presentation PDF presented to the parks board in may. Also, this rendering on the right seems to be new and is not in the PDF.

"Dallas Water Commons to Transform Overlooked Channel"
- https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/dallas-water-commons-to-transform-overlooked-channel/3067807/

Ferguson said flood control will still be the primary function of the Water Commons as she showed the renderings of the site.

“We have these retention ponds, that's always going to be the case. That's the area of Dallas Water Utilities. But this is the part about the Parks Department. We can make it a beautiful space where people can come and play,” Ferguson said.

The ditch was once the main channel of the Trinity River through Dallas before the river was moved between levees in a floodway 90 years ago.

A few slides from the PDF:






"In the Cedars, Dallas Envisions New Wetlands That Will Educate and Prevent Flooding"
- https://www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/2022/09/in-the-cedars-dallas-envisions-new-wetlands-that-will-educate-and-prevent-flooding/

"How 17 acres of wetlands could be transformed to protect Dallas from severe flooding"
- https://www.dallasnews.com/news/environment/2022/09/08/how-17-acres-of-wetlands-could-be-transformed-to-protect-dallas-from-severe-flooding/

Lets focus on this part of the news report...

Final design for the Water Commons has not been finished, and supporters of the project had no estimated date for project completion.

But renderings and details are more advanced than in years past.

At least it's an attempt to work with nature instead of control it.

Also he properly put the project under a non-profit with an obvious lead to Matthews Southwest being the contractor so he can benefit from the project building with tax money and donations fitting the bill and his real estate holdings in the area benefiting in value when it's complete.

Kind of disappointing compared to the older renderings. The square ponds were at least somewhat interesting.
These just look like the a regular pond in las colinas or some suburban residential development.
It completely dropped the flooded woodlands section.
It also seems they narrowed the size of the gardens. Perhaps this is only phase 1 of many to come?

Here is a link to the old proposal and some renderings
https://dallascityhall.com/government/m ... ardens.pdf

This is the equivalent of the big observation wheel on Riverfront finally getting built as one of those portable ferris wheels you see at the fair. That said, as long as the money raised is what this project really costs then go ahead and build it.

We need more public-access greenspace and this can be seen as a test for a much larger version.

quixomniac wrote:Kind of disappointing compared to the older renderings. The square ponds were at least somewhat interesting.
These just look like the a regular pond in las colinas or some suburban residential development.
It completely dropped the flooded woodlands section.
It also seems they narrowed the size of the gardens. Perhaps this is only phase 1 of many to come?

Here is a link to the old proposal and some renderings
https://dallascityhall.com/government/m ... ardens.pdf

Agreed. There's nothing in town quite like the square ponds, while the new renderings are DFW-esque to a fault.

And to your second point, the PDF does mention a Phase I and a more expensive Phase II, but what those entail exactly is not clear to me.

There's nothing in town quite like the square ponds, while the new renderings are DFW-esque to a fault.

The water features at Fair Park? Swimming pools? I'd say putting a bunch of swimming pool shaped water features next to a natural river is DFW-esque.

If they maintain them and keep the poison ivy away, they will definitely be better than your average suburban pond or creek in DFW.

This is a Jack Matthews project to get the taxpayers to cough up $7.5 million for a private shoring up of his land adjacent to his project.

Old idea, over ten years old now in 2022. I would expect in the presentation to see how many pollutants like nitrates and phosphates are filtered out of the water. The area is so small that not much bio remediation can happen.

What about the submarine USS Dallas and the ferris wheel? Two more phantom ideas that now are just fake PR releases like everything else.

I think these designs are more functional than the previous square ponds were, as usual, marketing flash without any real understanding of how a project like this would actually work or be built. This project will help encourage a bunch of lands to be marketable for urban redevelopments like homes, offices, and retail. For the CBD to be an attractive space for big corporate HQ's we need all the surrounding neighborhoods to progress upwards in some form and this helps this neighborhood move from empty lots to taxable generating neighborhoods. Currently, it's not in a condition most developers are willing to tackle. I think this plan adds a publicly accessible amenity that is more functionally and reasonable than a Ferris wheel or a submarine or fake water rapids on the Trinity River.

Some of the same out of town consultants who led the City of Dallas down the dead end road with the Trinity River Park are consulting this project. What could go wrong? Who is still listening to these people? Why? Their mission to deliver a park is a failure. Now this? Really? Go away.

Who I can I pester to find out the status of this? The articles up top mentioned that design work would be done in 2023 for a possible groundbreaking in 2024.
I'm not sure how viable the actual funding for this project is, but I would love to see what kind of designs they're sitting on.

IcedCowboyCoffee wrote:Who I can I pester to find out the status of this? The articles up top mentioned that design work would be done in 2023 for a possible groundbreaking in 2024.
I'm not sure how viable the actual funding for this project is, but I would love to see what kind of designs they're sitting on.

I know whbarch, who's in the Discord server, is on the oversight board for this project. He let us know it wasn't dead, uh, late 2022 or early 2023? Been awhile. Have tagged him a few times since then but hasn't been back on, it seems. Also have pestered him a few times on IG but no dice. Maybe the more pesterers, the merrier?

I often wonder about the status of this project. Seems like such a great addition to the area.

There actually was a bit of an update earlier this month for the city council, but it wasn't much of an update. Just kind of an affirmation that things are still moving along.

Not a day later and Mark Lamster puts out a really solid summary of the project. Happy to see it get more attention because I really like this project.

"Meet the Trinity park no one knows"

. . . Groundbreaking is expected sometime this year, pending approvals from city agencies and the Army Corps of Engineers, which controls the Trinity floodplain. “We’ve done all the due diligence all the way along and we anticipate their allowance for the permits that are necessary to move forward,” says Ferguson. . . .

- Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/architecture/2024/02/27/meet-the-trinity-park-no-one-knows/

IcedCowboyCoffee wrote:Not a day later and Mark Lamster puts out a really solid summary of the project. Happy to see it get more attention because I really like this project.

"Meet the Trinity park no one knows"

. . . Groundbreaking is expected sometime this year, pending approvals from city agencies and the Army Corps of Engineers, which controls the Trinity floodplain. “We’ve done all the due diligence all the way along and we anticipate their allowance for the permits that are necessary to move forward,” says Ferguson. . . .

- Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/architecture/2024/02/27/meet-the-trinity-park-no-one-knows/

Ditto on that! Hope it starts on time!