A stretch of interstate in Dallas Texas (Interstate-35E) that once divided communities has been transformed into an intervention for socially driven urban design. Designed by HKS and SWA, Halperin Park has been built in the historic Oak Cliff neighbourhood to reconnect areas that were severed by highway construction in the 1950s.
Oak Cliff neighbourhood holds deep historical and cultural significance within African American history. Once home to a thriving commercial corridor, the community was dramatically reshaped in the 1950s when Interstate 35E cut through the area, demolishing homes and businesses while severing long-standing social, cultural and economic connections. Decades of disinvestment, pollution and infrastructural neglect further deepened these divisions. When the Texas Department of Transportation announced a major reconstruction of I-35E, local leaders and residents recognised the opportunity to repair the urban and social fabric fractured by the freeway.
The project approached as an opportunity for civic repair, is built on a structural deck spanning 14 lanes of traffic, the park restores pedestrian connections through the tree-lined 12th Street Promenade while introducing gardens, play spaces, water features, shaded plazas and a large public lawn. A defining architectural feature is the flowing glulam bandshell, an engineered timber structure that provides shade, acoustics and gathering space while reducing structural weight and embodied carbon. Sculpted landforms inspired by Oak Cliff’s geology buffer highway noise and create elevated viewpoints across Southern Dallas.
Crucially, the park’s design emerged from extensive community engagement involving more than 500 residents, businesses and organisations. This “Community First Plan” shaped programming around health, equity, cultural identity and economic opportunity. “While it’s a park to reconnect communities, it’s also a park that we wanted the communities to feel like they helped design; they helped influence the programming,” says Todd Strawn, managing principal for SWA’s Dallas studio and lead designer on the project.
By reclaiming infrastructure for public life, the Halperin Park is an active demonstration of urban design as tool for restoring social equality by providing a great public realm space as an anchor for community.
