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RECONSTRUCTING THE URBAN FABRIC

The existing barracks-style housing units (this page) within the West Dallas Housing Projects are similar to those found in countless other urban slum clearance projects of the 1950s.

Blank windowless ends of building units front the street and parking areas. Some residents must walk a full block to reach their units. Because of the weak visual connection between apartments and nearby streets, vandalism and auto theft are rampant.

The existing 550-acre West Dallas Housing Projects (plan, below left) are almost entirely comprised of one building type—flat-roofed rowhouse structures containing six to eight apartment units in each.

This basic building is replicated with little variation throughout the project area. Large undefined open areas exist near Fishtrap Lake and at the center of the site.

The proposed Lake West redevelopment plan (below right) modifies and fills in around existing rowhouse buildings to structure normal town blocks. In some locations adjacent buildings are moved to form blocks of differing shapes and size.

Individual single-family homes are moved (a common practice in some parts of Dallas) from nearby neighborhoods to fill in several underutilized areas within the project site.

A new town center focuses on a reshaped Fishtrap Lake (bottom center of plan). An existing drainage pond has been reconfigured into a series of waterways that weave in and around several large public open spaces.

148

LAKE WEST COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT PLAN

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The proposed town center (left and plan, below left) organizes workplace, civic and retail uses around a new town square and an existing north-south road. Warehouse and light manufacturing facilities (foreground in photo, left) are at the project's outer edge.

Within Lake West's new plan, a series of small squares occur at regular intervals among its residential blocks. In one part of the development (plan, below right) five such squares can be found.

Small modules of about 450 housing units (examples: highlighted at lower right in plan) cluster around a single neighborhood square. A small service building, pavilion and playground are among the facilities provided within each.

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The reconfigured rowhouse blocks (left and below left) provide a more defined street connection and residential image for the units. New streets are located between pairs of rowhouses; rear yards fill the blocks' center.

Proposed infill buildings and projecting wings at the ends of blocks help to contain the perimeter that separates public (street) and private (rear yard) spaces.

Lake West's planning team used only four block types (below right). Each results from a different modification of the existing building pattern. They include a short block, long block, "L" block and "H" block.