All the State Fair hullabaloo (check out our October cover story) has us thinking about Fair Park, but what does the park do when it’s not housing craft competitions, Ferris wheels, fried food and Big Tex?
The Dallas Architecture Forum will host a panel to discuss that question and others in “The Elephant in South Dallas’ Living Room: What Do We Do With Fair Park?” on Tuesday, Oct. 2 at 6:30 p.m. in suite 100 of the Five Star Institute Building at 1909 Woodall Rodgers. Peter Simek, arts editor at D Magazine, will moderate.
Here are some of the questions the forum will discuss:
“Fair Park is one of the city of Dallas’ architectural jewels, a historic site filled with an unprecedented collection of art deco buildings. But Fair Park is also a border between downtown Dallas and Deep Ellum and some of the city’s most impoverished and decrepit neighborhoods. To what extent does Fair Park’s design — a gargantuan campus fully used only once a year and surrounded by acres of parking lots — contribute to urban decay of South Dallas? Could addressing Fair Park’s use play a role in transforming South Dallas? And what is our responsibility to the site’s historic architecture? In the wake of a summer that saw simmering tension in the neighborhoods around Fair Park, this panel will discuss the architecture and future of Fair Park and ask the question, could rethinking Fair Park’s design and functionality be the key to transforming South Dallas?”
