Dallas opens its second deck park on May 9.
Halperin Park joins Klyde Warren Park as a green space that doubles as an impressive engineering feat.
The three-acre park, bridges Interstate 35 E between Ewing and Marsalis avenues in Oak Cliff, symbolically reuniting the historic Oak Cliff community divided by highway construction in the 1950s.
Ahead of its grand opening, we got a tour of the park from April Allen, the park’s president and CEO.
“Our tagline is ‘Park with a Purpose,’” Allen said. “It's about the green space, but it's also about how we lift up this local community and catalyze growth and development in the area.”
MUSIC AND SHADE
As Allen led us into the park, the first thing that grabbed our attention was the large bandshell just inside the Ewing entrance.
Architectural nerds will appreciate the use of organic materials and the overall sense of nature in the architecture throughout the park, but especially here in the bandshell. The interior arches are 30 feet tall and were created with mass timber—that's the process of bonding layers of lumber to create strong structures—in this case, beams.
Besides being a space for performances, concerts and movie nights, it’s also a great place to grab some much-needed shade during the heat of the summer--or anytime—because, you know, Texas.
Bonus: There’s a bubbly water feature nearby that the kids will love.
NATURE ALL AROUND
Allen said that the park is designed to make you feel like you're sitting in the treetops above Oak Cliff.
“I always talk about the fact that when you cross the Trinity River in Dallas, it's pretty much flat all the way to Oklahoma, but here in Oak Cliff, we have beautiful topography, tree cover, we're in the middle of the Blackland Prairie, you see a lot of pollinator-friendly native plantings,” Allen said. “Our landscape team did a fantastic job of developing a plan for that that really honors where we are.”
We continued our tour up an elevated walkway overlooking the children's playground, inspired by the trees, creeks and streams throughout Oak Cliff. Kids feel like they're playing in the woods as they climb a treehouse and splash in yet another water feature. This one, called a rain curtain, trickles down in an S pattern from an alcove ceiling.
Treehouses and water features aside, one of the best things at the park is the numerous restrooms, including several located right in the playground area. As a parent, I cannot emphasize how great this is.
PARKING AT THE PARK
Let’s face it, you live in Dallas, parking is always a consideration, and Halperin Park is no exception.
You have a few options:
You can ditch parking altogether and take DART--that's the red line to the Dallas Zoo.
There are ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft.
If you want to drive, the Dallas Zoo just opened a parking garage across from the DART station. It cost $14 , and it's a short walk to the park entrance on Ewing.
RECONNECTING A COMMUNITY
We finished our tour on the rooftop space above the treetops. Here’s where you’ll find fabulous breezes and beautiful sweeping views of Oak Cliff, the downtown skyline and Fair Park. Keep this rooftop locale in your back pocket when you’re looking for places to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July
It’s a beautiful bit of nature in the city. But park planners hope for something deeper.
“We know that the interstates were built back at a time when there were efforts to divide and to separate, and we have this beautiful space where we can reconnect, where we can heal some of those wounds that were created by that division and create space for that healing,” Allen said. “We have the opportunity to demonstrate how you do this in a neighborhood like this, for a city like ours, to all of our friends around the nation, and I'm excited that we have that chance.”
