SAN DIEGO, CA The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) today announced Klyde Warren Park, a freeway deck park in Dallas, Texas, designed by OJB Landscape Architecture (OJB), as the recipient of the ASLA Design Award of Excellence. This prestigious designation is awarded to only one project per year. The award will be presented at the ASLA National Meeting in Los Angeles, California.

Klyde Warren Park was constructed over one of the busiest freeways in Texas. The freeway had severed the city's Arts District from Uptown for many years. Restoring the connection has transformed the city by bridging the gap and creating a new heart of downtown.

The park sits over the eight-lane Woodall Rodgers Freeway and is designed to reflect the district through its inspirational design. Acting as a common ground for the surrounding museums and businesses, the 5.2-acre urban park has been warmly embraced by the community and has been a catalyst for economic development.

Conceived as a Public/Private Partnership (P3), the park's construction was funded jointly by the city of Dallas, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the U.S. Department of Transportation, and private donations to the non-profit Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation (WRPF).

The park has made a positive impact on the Dallas community. Operating under a long-term lease with the city of Dallas, the WRPF's event programming staff keeps the park's calendar full of offerings including Dallas Opera simulcasts, free concerts, regular fitness classes and a rotating menu of the city's most popular food trucks. The park's flexible design features a children's park, great lawn, restaurant, performance pavilion, fountain plaza, games area, dog park and botanical gardens. Opening the park has also provided a significant economic boost to the once-desolate area surrounding the freeway, spurring a flurry of office and residential projects on parcels surrounding the project.  

The park's sustainable landscape provides dramatic environmental improvements including the sequestration of CO2 through native planted trees, temperature reductions from shade producing trees and canopies and water conservation through the subgrade reservoir's collection of stormwater. Klyde Warren Park has gracefully reconnected the city, and has become an integral and endeared open space in downtown Dallas.