Three popular Dallas trails are getting linked up as part of planners’ goal to create a 50-mile loop around the city.
The Loop Plaza, set to open at the end of the month, is the city’s latest effort to expand its trail network by connecting the Katy Trail, the Hi Line Connector and the Trinity Strand Trail.
Philip Haigh, executive director of the nonprofit Loop Dallas, calls the plaza “a mixmaster” for trails that ties two neighborhoods – Uptown and the Design District.
The new plaza is built where there was once a large retaining wall along Houston Street near the American Airlines Center.
“It's the first of its kind because we actually took that retaining wall and blew it out,” Haigh told KERA. “We removed it and where there was once fill dirt and a wall is now a bridge that continues the Katy Trail use, but then creates two new plazas and a ramp that goes through that space.”
Haigh added it’s a new feature that’s unique to the city.
“This is a type of project that you would really see in cities that are being more creative with their space because they've run out of real estate,” Haigh said. “So you'd see something like this in like a San Francisco or a New York, you know, a Chicago, rather than something that we've done here in Dallas before.”
Jodi House, a principal designer with TBG Partners, has been working on the project from the beginning. She said the plaza is going to shape the city’s trail network.
“I want it to be a place where people say, ‘meet me at the Loop Plaza and let's walk to the Katy Trail Ice House, or let's meet at the Loop Plaza and take our bikes down the Trinity Strand Trail,’” House said.
The plaza features a gateway of curving sculptures made of weathered steel, which House said creates “portal moments” for cyclists and pedestrians passing through.
“That like, ‘you have arrived’ type of moment,” she said. “It becomes an actual spot instead of just a movement zone.”
The Loop Plaza is slated to open by the end of September. A grand opening celebration is planned for Oct. 20.
Pablo Arauz Peña is KERA’s growth and infrastructure reporter. Got a tip? Email Pablo at parauzpena@kera.org.
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