Dallas, TX
Alexan Henderson
Alongside New Development, an Engaging Streetscape Becomes a Home for Public Art
status
Completed 2017
client
Trammell Crow Residential
expertise
Residential
services
Landscape Architecture
Enhancing the Urban Experience
In a textbook Urban Infill project, LandDesign delivered a luxury living product for residents while designing a sophisticated streetscape that became an amenity for the community.
Located in Dallas, TX, Henderson is an up-and-coming neighborhood that straddles US Route 75, providing easy access to the rest of the City. In response to a high demand for housing, Trammell Crow Residential saw this area as an opportunity to bring units to market while adding value to the community it would inhabit. Rather than prioritizing expedition, quantity, and profit, the Client favored an approach that carefully curated features that would constitute community, luxury, and areas of respite for residents just beyond bustling downtown Dallas. LandDesign provided landscape architecture services for the property amenities and exterior streetscape in addition to overseeing the placement of public artwork in order to realize the Client’s goals. This project was a watershed moment for LandDesign — being the first product of new landscape architectural relationships in Dallas, and solidifying plans to establish a permanent presence in the city.
The vision for the Alexan Henderson was to provide high-quality design for an equally enjoyable experience to residents as well as passersby. The inward expression of the project manifested in a concentrated amenity area in the pool courtyard, featuring a swim-up bar, fire feature, and various seating options allowing ample space to relax or socialize. The outward expression transformed the streetscape through distinct paving patterns, generous sidewalks, on-street parking, strategic lighting, and integration of public art as focal points, which secondarily function as useful wayfinding tools; a blue bunny sculpture stands outside the leasing office.
Alexan Henderson was one of the first instances of new development in the Henderson neighborhood. It was a new urban infill project among older building stock that could easily have been perceived as a harbinger of gentrification. To alleviate the community’s trepidation, LandDesign aspired to create a streetscape that would serve as an amenity to those who would experience it. It has been received as a distinct success for its orchestration of public art placement in conjunction with a comfortable exterior environment.
On the residential side, to bring the highest caliber of design and luxury living to residents, LandDesign faced a dramatic grade change that posed a problem for accommodating all the amenities for the courtyard. LandDesign provided an innovative solution that resulted in a swim-up bar where one edge of the pool was at bar-height, allowing interaction with the grilling area without ever having to leave the pool.