January 2022 - Parks & Recreation - 14

WE ARE PARKS AND RECREATION
Transforming Fair Park in Dallas
By Dan Biederman
F
or 135 years, Fair Park in Dallas - the site of The Cotton Bowl and
the State Fair of Texas - has been a local treasure. But throughout
the decades, revitalization has been increasingly needed.
Over time, the park has experienced a long list of setbacks: financial
shortfalls, tensions with its neighboring communities, management turnover, loss
of tenants, and a lack of ongoing preservation and maintenance. These setbacks
led to a loss of identity, relevancy and use for the park. The site had become a
sleeping giant that would awaken once a year for the state fair or an occasional
event, but then would quickly return to a state of dormancy and neglect.
Putting the Park
Back in Fair Park
In 2014, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings
convened a task force to discuss
the future of Fair Park. Its recommendations
included the need to
enhance access and activity, " to put
the park back in Fair Park, " and to
establish a public-private partnership
to manage and market the park.
In January 2019, these recommendations
took form when the
new operators of Fair Park -
Fair Park First, Spectra and Biederman
Redevelopment Ventures
(BRV) - were chosen to revitalize
the park.
The Community Park within Fair Park is the
first step to putting the green back in the
park and the first project from the master
plan to be implemented.
Addressing Fair
Park's Challenges
The biggest struggle for Fair Park is
becoming a space for recreation and
leisure on an everyday basis, yearround.
This is where the new operators
of Fair Park stepped in to provide
a slate of free programming and
amenities with the goal of building
an everyday audience. BRV's philosophy
is simple - program first, then
everything else will follow.
BRV also has led the development
of an updated master plan in partnership
with the Minneapolis office of
the design firm Perkins and Will. The
principal goal of this plan is to green
the park. Currently, the grounds are
comprised of more than 75 percent
impervious surfaces with parking lots
accounting for most. This has led to
the park's alternative moniker -
Fair Parking. This overarching issue
lays the foundation of the plan's recommendations
- to turn gray into
green, increase the site's resiliency
and create more usability.
The Community Park within Fair
Park is the first step to putting the
green back in the park and the first
project from the master plan to be
implemented. Currently, the location
of what will become the Community
Park is one of the site's largest parking
lots, but was historically a Black
neighborhood acquired via eminent
domain in the 1960s to provide the
State Fair of Texas with more parking.
One of BRV's goals for the new
Fair Park is to give back to the surrounding
community and to restitch
the neighborhood by building a stateof-the-art
space that is curated by the
community - from design to programming
to amenities. The Community
Park will be the epicenter for
daily programming and will feature
Texas-sized amenities - splash pads,
multiple play structures for different
ages and abilities, a performance pavilion,
and flex lawns, to name a few.
Studio-MLA of Los Angeles has been
selected as the park designers and the
park is slated to be completed by 2024.
By turning gray to green and providing
free programming - selected
by those who live near the park -
the new Community Park will be a
welcome addition to Fair Park.
Dan Biederman is President of
Biederman Redevelopment Ventures
Corporation (contactus@brvcorp.com).
14 Parks & Recreation |
J ANUAR Y 2 0 22 | PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
PHOTO COURTESY OF FAIR PARK/BIEDERMAN REDEVELOPMENT VENTURES
January 2022 - Parks & Recreation

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