Carpenter Park is located on the eastern edge of Downtown, near Deep Ellum. At 5.75 acres, it is the largest park in the urban core.
The expanded Carpenter Park hosts a range of amenities including a basketball court, dog play, interactive fountain, children’s environmental playscape, gardens and walking paths.
Landscape architecture firm Hargreaves Jones, who authored the 2004 Downtown Parks Master Plan and its 2013 Update, led the design team.
The park integrates a significant piece of Dallas public art into the landscape. Contemporary artist Robert Irwin worked with the design team to reimagine his sculpture for the new park and retitled it “Portal Park Slice.”
Carpenter Park is a renovation and expansion of Carpenter Plaza, a park dedicated in 1981 that was bisected by roads.
“The Portal and the Park” — a 10-minute documentary by filmmaker Quin Mathews — looks back at the history and evolution of an important piece of public artwork by Robert Irwin located in Carpenter Park.
Originally known as “Portal Park Piece (Slice)”, this sculpture has long been considered Irwin’s seminal work in a career of minimalist, site-specific installations that span more than five decades. The film explores the reimagining of public land and the Irwin sculpture to serve as a “portal” into Downtown for a new generation of Dallasites.
