The Connected City Challenge

LOCATION
Dallas, TX

DESIGN TEAM
Zachary Moshier & Mark Ryan Talma

COMPETITION OUTLINE
The city of Dallas initiated the Connected City Design Challenge, as an open call for urban design strategies to connect Downtown Dallas and the Trinity River. The competition sought both professional and open stream submissions. The professional submissions incluided work from the global firms Stoss Landscape + Shop Architects, OMA, and Ricardo Bofill. The open stream submissions welcomed proposals from design professionals and students.

The City of Dallas created a masterplan for the Trinity River Corridor to transform the current floodway into public space. While the masteplan creates urban vitality at the waterfront, the designated proposal sits isolated from downtown, providing no natural or urbanized connection. The current interstitial area between downtown and the waterfront holds many challenges, orphaned by highway, flood and rail infrastructure. The Challenge seeks solutions to overcome the current physical, psychological, and economic divide, with a vision for development potential to further enhance the livability of downtown Dallas.

EXISTING SITE CONDITIONS: LOOKING EAST FROM DOWNTOWN

EXISTING INTERSTITIAL AREA: LOOKING EAST FROM REUNION TOWER

EXISTING TRINITY RIVER CORRIDOR: LOOKING WEST TOWARDS DOWNTOWN

Existing Barriers

FORGING NEW CONNECTIONS

DESIGN PROPOSAL: A PROTOYPE FOR SUSTAINABLE MIXED-USE COMMUNITIES

The Urban Bridge connects downtown Dallas and the Trinity River through inspired place making. A choreographed framework of mixed-use program, a new gondola transit system, and pedestrian corridors bridge the city’s divisions and activate orphaned and underdeveloped land. These strategies provide a “critical mass” of activity along new nodes of transit and provide an audience for the development of active, live/work communities and residential density to compliment and encourage development along the riverfront. The Urban Bridge recognizes the need for phased development, proposing a prototype of layered urbanism. This concept allows for the gradual implementation of urban amenities as development can expand and eventually fill the void.