Howdy! As a landscape architect (technically landscape designer, but I’m 1/4th of the way to being an LA!), something that is always top on my list of things to see when I visit a new place are parks! I work on designing parks for a living, so basically it’s market research when I drag my friends to new parks, right? Well, since I’m constantly going to visit parks across the state of Texas, I wanted to start a new series on my blog featuring my favorite parks! Of course, I had to kick this series off with the crown jewel of parks in Dallas: Klyde Warren Park!
History
The vision for Klyde Warren Park actually began back in the 1960s, when the freeway was decided to be recessed. This was done in order for a deck park to be built one day. However, the funding efforts for the park didn’t begin till 2002! In 2004, the Woodwall Rogers Park Foundation formed. The Foundation was the driving force to getting the $110 million dollars needed for the park to be built! The park is owned by the City of Dallas, but operated and maintained by the Foundation. Once funding was complete, construction began in 2009 and Klyde Warren Park opened in 2012!
Location & Hours
Klyde Warren Park is located along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul & Pearl St. It is directly across from the Dallas Museum of Art, and it’s pretty close to the Perot Museum! The Park is open daily from 6 am to 11 pm.
Parking can be pretty tricky because there isn’t a ton of on-street, metered parking around the park itself. However, If you turn down St. Paul Street there are usually some parallel parking spots available at the meters. If you’re willing to pay more money or are planning to walk around downtown Dallas some, there is a parking garage attached to the Dallas Museum of Art that you can park at. Alternatively, it’s fairly easy to reach the parking using only public transit. The DART has two stations closes to the park and the Trolley actually runs through the park! I’ve used the DART to get to the park before and it was really simple! Honestly, probably more simple than finding a parking spot.
Design
The Office of James Burnett was the landscape architecture firm behind Klyde Warren Park. The design of the 5-acre park is a pretty cool engineering feat that uses a combo of geofoam and specially-designed soil to help keep the deck from becoming too heavy! As you move through Klyde Warren Park, you enter into different “rooms”. There are 15 distinct areas within the park:
- The Butterfly Garden (my personal favorite)
- Chase Promenade
- Children’s Park
- East Lawn
- Great Lawn
- Hart Boulevard
- Jane’s Lane (which has beautiful arches that go across it
- Moody Plaza
- Performance Pavilion
- Dog Park
- Fisher Pavilion
- Reading and Game Room
- Botanical Garden
- The Grove
- The Porch
In addition to the “rooms” in the park, there are also tons of food trucks that line up along Woodall Rodgers Freeway. When I say tons, I mean tons! Any type of food you’re craving, there will be a food truck serving it.
Activities
Obviously, I wouldn’t suggest checking out Klyde Warren Park if there weren’t really amazing activities within it the park. The park offers free fitness classes like Zumba and yoga weekly. I’ve even seen people doing goat yoga on the lawn in Klyde Warren! Which yes, is something I really want to join in on someday.
Speaking of the lawn, there are also movie nights on Saturdays! Concerts and other performances are also common weekend activities! There are also lawn games in the park, like table tennis, connect four, and cornhole, as well as a little magazine reading area! Oh, there is also free Wi-Fi, so bring your laptop and get some work done in the park!
Well, there you have it! Klyde Warren Park is an awesome award-winning park, that if you find yourself in Dallas, you need to check out! Also, just to clarify, I have used some photos (the map and aerial photo) from Klyde Warren Park’s website to help show some of the park’s amazing features!
