CallisonRTKL’s Re-design for Thanks-Giving Square Featured in Dallas Morning New

Announcement | April 6, 2021

Dallas, Texas—April 6, 2021—CallisonRTKL’s pro bono design for a re-envisioned Thanks-Giving Square in downtown Dallas has received high praise from the Dallas Morning News architecture critic Mark Lamster.

“A new plan, put forward by the Thanks-Giving Square Foundation and designed by the architects CallisonRTKL (who have their office across the street from the park, in the Republic Center), might just be the cure the square has long needed,” writes Lamster.

The nationally acclaimed critic and Harvard Loeb Fellow is the author of Philip Johnson, The Man in the Glass House, and “The Story of Joppa,” a recently published special report in the Dallas Morning News. His full-page article, “Let Us Be Grateful,” was published in the newspapers Sunday edition on March 21.

For the past three years, CallisonRTKL has been providing pro bono services to re-envision Thanks-Giving Square, which was originally designed in 1977 to serve as a public space for contemplation and reflection. Since then, the downtown population has increased immensely, but Thanks-Giving Square, with its fortress-like concrete walls, did not draw office workers or residents.

CallisonRTKL’s re-design incorporates street lanes and activates the sidewalk area outside the walls with walkways, landscaping and seating. A portion of the walls would be removed to offer a sweeping view of the park, beckoning passersby. To make Thanks-Giving Square ADA compliant, the plan would rebuild an elevated catwalk and add a glassed-in elevator.

Read the entire article below: