Landscape Information
Two blocks west of I-30 and one block south of the Santa Fe trail, at the intersection of Willow and Commerce Streets, lies a compact, 0.2-acre garden surrounding a three-story, Classical Revival, former substation (1920) of the Dallas Power and Light Company that once provided electricity to the city’s streetcar system. In 2011 the rectangular lot was rehabilitated by Hocker Design Group, and the building by architect Ron Wommack for a non-profit dedicated to contemporary art.
Starting at the perimeter, the corner lot is bracketed by four deciduous, canopy trees that parallel Willow Street, and a specimen mesquite tree at the northwestern corner. Honoring the substation’s former ceremonial entrance, this walkway is planted with an apron of spineless prickly-pear cacti, set in gravel. This axis extends south to the curbline, where a permeable surface of concrete circles is set in finer gravel. Flanking the building, vertical Corten steel posts serve as a fenced enclosure: with the western one inviting universal access to the inner garden, and, to the east, meeting a tall concrete wall.
From the garden’s entrance, a path leads through a landscape of industrial architectural elements: the gallery’s address affixed to a steel I-beam and two sunken remnant concrete shafts bisected by the path that are planted with iris, sedges, and horsetail reed. The building’s stair tower is covered with climbing vines. The converse of the permeable path at the front is mirrored at the rear. To the east, a concrete wall encloses a rectangular, gravel courtyard where artist an untitled work (2012) Jacob Kassay was installed. It is composed of eight hollow bronze forms arranged in a circular pattern.
The Power Station building is a contributing feature of the Deep Ellum District listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2023. The project was awarded an Honor Award in Design from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2016.
