Your First Look at Proposed Renovations for Historic Pike Park in Old Little Mexico

The proposed gateway to a new and improved Pike Park

​Pike Park, on Harry Hines as you're heading into downtown, sits more or less in the shadow of the American Airlines Center; you've probably driven by it hundreds of times, even if you've never stopped once. Built in 1914 at the cost of a little more than $18,000 in what used to be known as the Second Ward, it was originally known as Summit Play Park and was designated as a city landmark in 1981 -- exactly 50 years after it became the first park in the city to allow Hispanics to use its facilities.

But over the years, Pike Park's fallen into an odd sort of limbo: It's the site of Mark Cuban's beautiful little $1.5-million ball park, but redos over recent decades have left it looking a little strange -- timeless in some places, dated in others, a little withered and weary all over (especially the oak trees, three of which are dying). Hence the item on today's Park Board agenda to spend $270,000 in 2006 bond funds to renovate the gazebo-bandstand, redo the entrances and the plaza and create "additional plaza space with pedestrian connecting walkways."

Not at all coincidentally, Pike Place also appears on the Landmark Commission's agenda for next week, as the redo will need its approval given the park's landmark status. And, interestingly, Landmark's task force has recommended denying the renovations because "design does not reflect the historic design of the original plaza," which was heavily tinkered with during a revamp in the '70s, well before designation. Landmark staff, on the other hand, disagrees and says Park and Rec should be able to proceed:

This application is interesting because while the preservation criteria recommends the landscaping design reflect the "historic landscaping" design, the timeline and history of the park indicates that there was never much of a "formal" landscaping design. The introduction of elements and themes that reflect the surrounding "Little Mexico" neighborhood is also interesting due to the fact that those elements were not part of the original design of thep ark, but have nonetheless become focal points and icons of the park to users and the remaining residents of the neighborhood. Staff is comfortable with thew work as proposed ...

You can see the back-and-forth on the other side, in the thick packet of documents, emails and proposals Landmark will discuss next week. Pike Park