DALTX Real EstateDALTX Real EstateDALTX Real Estate
  • Home
  • Guest Post
  • Agents
  • Contact Us
  • About
  • Advertise With Us
Reading: Transforming Dallas: Dallas AIA Summit Analyzed How Transportation Changes a City’s Livability
Share
Font ResizerAa
DALTX Real EstateDALTX Real Estate
Font ResizerAa
  • Home
  • Guest Post
  • Agents
  • Contact Us
  • About
  • Advertise With Us
  • Home
  • Guest Post
  • Agents
  • Contact Us
  • About
  • Advertise With Us
Follow US
© DALTX. All Rights Reserved.
DALTX Real Estate > Dallas real estate news > Transforming Dallas: Dallas AIA Summit Analyzed How Transportation Changes a City’s Livability
Dallas real estate news

Transforming Dallas: Dallas AIA Summit Analyzed How Transportation Changes a City’s Livability

0 Min Read
SHARE
Trinity-Tollway-Rendering-NTTA
Will Alex Krieger’s vision of a narrow, four-lane parkway next to the Trinity River win over a massive toll road?

Last week, the Dallas chapter of the American Institute of Architects took a couple of days to really home in on the challenges that Dallas must overcome to be a sustainable and attractive city in the long term. A city that can compete with other areas that offer more holistic transportation solutions in an urban environment. Those lofty goals were all addressed at the organization’s Mobility Summit.

Long a car-centric city, the next generation of Dallas residents are upending the long-held belief that commuting is a forgone conclusion, measuring distance in hours door-to-door. Instead, more and more thinkers are looking critically at Dallas and our eight-lane highways, our toll roads, and our elevated high-speed thoroughfares.

As usual, Robert Wilonsky (who, I swear writes 99 percent of the copy on the Dallasnews.com site) did a fabulous job breaking down the big issues and discussions at the event, and the breakthroughs brought on by gathering so many people passionate about Dallas’ design future. The most impact was felt by Harvard professor and urban planner Alex Krieger, a co-author of Dallas’ Balanced Vision Plan, when he backed off his support of a road within the levees of the Trinity River.

[S]peaking to an audience of city officials and policy-makers and architects, he apologized for having played a part in the plan that initially proposed a smaller, four-lane “parkway” that has ballooned into a $1.5-billion massive highway that would likely restrict access to the other amenities proposed in the 2003 plan.

Said Krieger to a hearty round of applause, the road Dallas City Hall has long been pushing for “would be detrimental to the Trinity corridor and probably would not serve traffic particularly well long-term in Dallas.”

Krieger offered a sincere apology to those who were opposed to a road within the park on the outset, especially Gail Thomas with the Trinity Trust Foundation. While she said that Krieger didn’t need to apologize to her, Thomas is obviously ready to move on and enjoy views of an incredible park that looks more like the beautiful watercolor images from the original plans.

Gail Thomas, president and CEO of the Trinity Trust Foundation, is among those who refuses to publicly comment on the road. She says it’s a “political debate” for which she has neither the time nor the energy.

“I’ll tell you what I do want: I want the amenities we envisioned in the Trinity corridor and for the people of Dallas to come together as a community and enjoy the Trinity the same way the enjoy the Continental Bridge,” she says. “That’s what I want. That’s where my focus is.”

Of course, another project that got plenty of attention during the two-day summit was the campaign to demolish I-345. It’s something that Patrick Kennedy, transportation advocate and panelist at the event, has championed over and over. Transportation planner Jeff Tumlin — an expert who has worked to remove highways in San Francisco — addressed the issue with I-345 rather opaquely, asking Dallasites to look at transportation as a metric of livability on the whole, rather than specific projects, according to Peter Simek:

Instead [Tumlin] pointed to a simple reason why Dallas, a city that has produced numerous well-considered plans for building a more efficient, sustainable, and urban core, has failed to realize the urban vision laid out in those plans. Goals and visions have to be translated into quantifiable objectives and qualify-able metrics, he said. In other words, planning documents are great, but unless they are translated into the language of the people who are implementing transportation policy — people like the bureaucrats at the NCTCOG — then nothing will ever get done.

On the whole, Tumlin said that the near future of Dallas will be critical to the city’s transformation. Will big and bigger highways and regionalism de-emphasize Dallas as a central power, or will more mass transit and human-scaled projects bring the kind of critical mass back to Dallas that it needs to thrive in the future?

That’s the big question.

San Antonio and Houston May be Popular With Millennials, but NAR Says Austin and Dallas are Better Values
University Park Unveils an Unbelievable Build by LRO Residential
Adorable Casa View Cottage Zoned for Terrific Elementary School
Easy, Breezy, Beautiful Midcentury Modern For $465K
How Much of Museum Tower is Under Contract? MT Marketing Flier Says 25%, But D-Mag Editor-at-Large Tim Rogers Says 13%
TAGGED:Balance Vision PlanDallas AIADallas Center for ArchitectureDallas real estate newsTrinity RiverTrinity TollroadTrinity TollwayUrban Planning
Share This Article
Facebook Email Copy Link Print
Previous Article Mike Modano Sells Mimosa Lane House in Preston Hollow
Next Article Ask Candy: Why The Big Discrepancy in Some Condo Appraisals?
Popular News
Affordable Housing

Resource Center of Dallas Breaks Ground on Oak Lawn Place, North Texas’ First Affordable Housing For LGBTQIA+ Senior Citizens

A Design District Luxury Loft Offers Bang for Your Buck
Take a Big Chance on This Coastal Land Offering in Big Sur, California
Is the North Texas Real Estate Market Sputtering? More Like a Soft Landing?
Ahead of Its Time, Pink Door Perfection Lives on North Oak Cliff Blvd.
about us

DaltxRealEstate.com is the largest real estate blog and the only one in North Texas.

Links

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Contact Us
  • Paid Guest Post Submission

Categories

  • Wednesday WTF
  • East Dallas
  • Monday Morning Millionaire
  • Upon Closer Inspection

Get Involved

  • Advertise With Us
  • Write for Us: Submit Guest Post

Find Us on Socials

© DALTX. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?