Carpenter Park

Skirting I-345 and situated between North Pearl Street, North Cesar Chavez Boulevard, Pacific Avenue, and Live Oak Street, this 5.75-acre park bridges downtown with Deep Ellum, a neighborhood rich in cultural and artistic history. The park was created from a site divided by several streets, later reconfigured, and features a sculpture by artist Robert Irwin.

Named after John W. Carpenter, a prominent industrialist and conservationist, a plaza first opened in 1981 and was intended to serve as an eastern gateway to the city’s central business district. It was then composed of three lawn planted medians. Irwin positioned his Corten steel Portal Park Piece (Slice), appearing to bisect two of them, and framing the freeway’s exit ramp.

In 2013 Mary Margaret Jones of Hargreaves Associates (now Hargreaves Jones) updated a downtown parks master plan (2004) that included the site’s redesign. In 2021 thoroughfares that had once segmented it were closed and a new continuous park was created. At the northwest corner, a cluster of deciduous trees and Robert Berks’s bronze sculpture of Carpenter beckons visitors. Returning to the project, Irwin modified his sculpture and renamed it Portal Park Slice. Under his direction, it was relocated to the park’s north end, through a new mound, and rotated 90 degrees. This berm appears severed by the sculpture’s two steel planes, and, at center, seems to disappear into the topography.

A meandering path of hexagonal granite pavers navigates the park—past an opening in the sculpture, remnant orchards, and winding past a play area and central grove of regularly placed, redbud trees. At the park’s southern end, this path spills into a paved plaza bordered by shrubs and curved lawn panels that are anchored by an oval splash pad. Here, three teardrop-shaped planting beds are partitioned by snaking, gravel paths and curved benches. To the east, support buildings and amenities are located under the interstate, where Irwin added intricate filigree detailing carved into the steel.