July 22nd-The Trinity Project Dallas (Hosted by the Trinity River Trust)

Having class on a birthday is never a fun thing, but with my luck, class was held at an event highlighting the Trinity Project in Dallas, hosted by The Trinity Trust. The Urban Land Institute aligned with the Trust to allow the pubic to gain insight into progressions of the overall project.

We engaged in conversations complemented by drinks and Hor d'oeuvres to kick off the event, and shifted into the presentation thereafter.

An urban planner affiliated with the Trust named Don Raines initiated interaction, and jumped right into details of the proposed plan. A crash course of the history of the Trinity River clearly emphasized it's importance to the city and it's upbringing over the years. An interesting point he made was that due to immense flooding through the 1900's, all of the bedrock limestone was removed from the base of the river. The Margaret Hunt Bridge has kicked off the major development for the project, and the Trust is pushing the importance of "selling the water, to sell the land." Since the land values are projected to increase from their dismal levels currently, water based activities are being stressed. The public private involvement is going to be very important, as funding right now is almost non-existent. On that token, it seems that even the City of Dallas can't put too much into the project just yet with its current budget shortfall and dropping property values (no revenue coming in!=no fun new projects=duh).

The project in whole encompasses 10,000 acres, and includes an Ampitheatre (lily pad shaped concept), miles of hiking/biking trails, water activities, sporting complexes, and live/work/play developments along the banks of the river. With a project and vision of this caliber, it will be many years until everything comes to fruition. Currently there is a model that is displayed at the location, but according to Mr. Raines 30% of the drawings were accurately in place. Rumors have it that a sky tram carrying people from different areas is also being proposed.

Overall, the experience was great, and the networking opportunity was even better. I feel a lot more educated about what is going on with the area now, and will be staying in tune with projects as they start sprouting up over the years.

Now its time to celebrate, as if I didn't have enough beers at the event. Cheers!