What’s next for

How East Dallas neighbors are shaping the park between the levees

BY WILL MADDOX PHOTOS BY DANNY FULGENCIO

rom the ashes of several iterations of Trinity river design, a nonprofit organization called the Trinity Park Conservancy is leading the charge in fundraising, designing and seeking public input about what a park between the Trinity River levees should be. The park will be developed in a public-private partnership between the city and the conservancy, called a Local Government Corporation.

Trinity Park Conservancy President, CEO and East Dallas neighbor Brent Brown has been involved with the Trinity project for years, and now he is leading the charge for a park between the levees.

Brown says he wants to turn the green space into something that stitches the city together and entices Dallasites from both sides of the Trinity. “The park is a vehicle,” he says. “Yes, we are building a park, but we are also building a city.”

Brown founded bcWorkshop, a nonprofit design firm that sought to improve life in Dallas. He also worked for CityDesign Studio, where he helped guide design for the City of Dallas from 2011-2017.

Designing a park in a flood plain will require a unique sensitivity to nature. “There is a tension between the natural forces surrounding our river and the physical construction and management of the space,” he says. “Nature is fighting to have it be less manmade. We are going to build a park, and it is going to flood.”

But there are opponents to the very idea of the Trinity Park Conservancy who have other visions