Transposing the American urban grid into an abstract base

Located in the Dallas Arts District between the opera house designed by Norman Foster and the theater designed by Rem Koolhaas, this vacant plot has become the first public space in this city’s cultural hub. Countless underground parking lots, combined with the extremely harsh and hot Texas climate, make it hard for large trees to flourish and thrive. In a neighborhood that continuously adapts alongside ever-changing financial and cultural opportunities, any predetermined layout would be ill-suited to the needs of the space. Thomas Jefferson’s checkerboard grid – the urban grid system behind many American downtown areas – offers endless opportunities for reconfiguration, making it the ideal tool for spatial composition. Here, that malleable grid is scaled to size and transformed into a miniature, abstract base reminiscent of an Eames board game. The space features a collection of materials and textures, both present and future, to playfully mix and match: rectangular gardens, reflecting pools, ramps, terraces, and more. The American urban structure, remade into art, becomes a community public space.