Data-driven effort, design aims to become
national model for healthy, green communities
DALLAS, May 14, 2024
/PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Leadership from Texas Trees Foundation
(TTF) and the Dallas-based
Southwestern Medical District (SWMD), home to three, world-class
healthcare institutions, today announced they have unveiled the
design and launched the Urban Streetscape and Park Transformation
Project. The evidence-based design project aims to augment this
critical area – which is also the largest "heat island" in the
City of Dallas – into a healthy,
cool oasis that unites the community, promotes health, healing, and
safety, and acts as an 'intersection of health and nature' – one
that supports the quality of the healthcare provided within the
hospital walls.
"Research shows that healthy
environments improve health outcomes. We believe Dallas deserves a better place to work, visit
and live – a place meant for healing and health beyond the
footprint of the buildings," says Janette
Monear, president and chief executive officer of
TTF.
Made possible through a partnership with the City of Dallas, Dallas County, the North Central Texas Council
of Governments and foundations and donors, which have already
secured $28.9 million, the project
aims to address the negative ambient heat impact on more than
42,000 Medical District employees and 3.4 million healthcare
patients and visitors.
Results of the 2017 Dallas Urban Heat Island Study by TTF
revealed that Dallas "must take
action" to reduce the ambient heat impact on the SMWD area and the
people working and visiting it – especially as Dallas is projected to get hotter and
hotter.
Additionally, TTF conducted specific research and modeling that
determined this project can capture additional environmental
challenges beyond urban heat – such as air quality, water quality
and conditions that exacerbate health issues – that affect human
health. (See Birds Eye View detailed
graphic)
"Research shows that healthy environments improve health
outcomes. The Medical District and Texas Trees Foundation
leadership believe Dallas deserves
a better place to work, visit and live – a place meant for healing
and health beyond the footprint of the buildings," says
Janette Monear, president and chief
executive officer of TTF.
Texas Trees Foundation Chairman Dan
Patterson adds: "This project will be the new model for what
a medical district should be: a more holistic, green campus that
unites the community, promotes health, healing, and safety, and
acts as an 'intersection of health and nature'."
At its center, the project will increase the Medical District's
tree canopy to up 37 percent and will transform the streetscapes
within the Medical District from car-centric to people-centric, by
greening two miles of public right-of-way and transforming the
aging concrete "clover leaf" area into a 10-acre park. The canopy
currently covers less than 7 percent, which is well below
Dallas' Comprehensive
Environmental Climate Action Plan (CECAP) goal to reduce ambient
heat.
"The Southwestern Medical District Board, in partnership with
the Texas Trees Foundation and our stakeholders, is transforming
the streetscape of Harry Hines into
a green, healthy, connected, and safe linear parkway with a central
park. Completion of this project will have an impact on every
medical professional, student, patient, and visitor in this
critically important Medical District," says David Biegler, chairman of the SWMD Board of
Directors.
According to Field Operations, the landscape architects
partnering in the project, the unique evidence-based design will be
a rich and complex landscape environment lifted over Inwood Dr. and
fronting either side of Harry Hines Blvd. – dubbed the "Green
Spine." The surrounding Green Park will include pedestrian
pathways, gathering plazas and spaces, sensory gardens, vantage
points, and food truck services – all under continuous shade
coverage provided by tree plantings. Additional key project team
members include DRW Planning, Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.,
Hyphae Design Laboratory, MIG, Inc., and Rise360.
"We are inspired by TTF's ambition to rethink the role of
infrastructure in our cities, and aim to create a connected,
healthy, and safe place—an urban oasis for respite, rejuvenation,
and healing in the Southwestern Medical District," says
James Corner, founding partner and
chief executive officer of Field Operations.
The multi-year project kicks off in late 2025, starting with the
Green Spine from northwest of Bulter St. to southeast of Medical
District Dr.
Click here for renderings of the SWMD Urban Streetscape
& Park Transformation Project and a Birds Eye View of the
project in detail.
About Texas Trees Foundation
With more than 40 years of urban forestry impact in Texas, the Texas Trees Foundation serves as a
catalyst in creating a new green legacy for North Texas through transformational,
research-based plans that educate and mobilize the public to
activate the social, economic, environmental, and health benefits
that trees and urban forestry provide for a better quality of life.
Visit texastrees.org and SWMDTransformation.com.
About Southwestern Medical District
Located northwest of downtown Dallas between Interstate 35E and the Dallas
North Tollway, the 1,000-acre area interconnects medical providers,
researchers, and scholars from three world-class health care
institutions – UT Southwestern Medical Center, Parkland and
Children's Health, to deliver renowned health care, innovative and
cutting-edge research, and nationally ranked biomedical education.
Visit swmeddistrict.org.
Media Contact
Melissa Flynn, APR
Melissa Flynn PR & Marketing
Melissa@melissaflynnpr.com
843.817.7653 (cell)
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SOURCE Texas Trees Foundation