Our Mission
A Reimagined Medical District
Led by Texas Trees Foundation, the SWMD Urban Streetscape and Park Transformation Project will become the new model for what a medical district should be: a more holistic, green campus that unites the community, promotes health, healing, and safety, and acts as an ‘intersection of health and nature’. The Southwestern Medical District in Dallas, Texas is anchored by three hospitals that deliver renowned health care in partnership with innovative, world-class research and education. The district thrives on the presence and well-being of its diverse community, encompassing patients, healthcare professionals, students, residents, business owners, and visitors. The Foundation is dedicated to elevating the District's mission of health and healing by transforming a 2-mile segment along the Harry Hines Corridor, spanning from Treadway Street to Lucas Drive, into a greener, safer, and multi-modal thoroughfare and constructing a 10-acre Green Park at Harry Hines and Inwood Road.
Our Goals
Environmentally Healthy District
Restore the environment to leverage the health benefits of nature by providing a healing sanctuary for all users of the area's world-class hospitals – UT Southwestern Medical Center, Parkland Health and Hospital System, and Children’s Medical Center
Safety
Establish a system to protect and accommodate the District’s estimated 3 million annual patients, employees and visitors
Connection Point
Create a flexible and accessible network for all modes of travel, services, and community
Holistic Design
Provide a vibrant space that engages the mind, activates the body, and lifts the spirit to improve the quality of life of each individual who works or visits the District
Our Work
Creating a Healthy Medical District
The Southwestern Medical District in Dallas, Texas is home to world-renowned hospitals and is a place of innovation, hope, and healing. Step outside of these remarkable institutions and into the streetscape, and a less vibrant and healthy story emerges….
Texas Trees Foundation is rewriting the story by leading a visionary, therapeutic landscape redesign to transform the antiquated Harry Hines corridor from Treadway Street to Lucas Drive into a vibrant, connected, and safe multi-modal linear parkway with a 10-acre park.
Through a lens of robust engagement, the holistic restructuring will focus on evidence-based design that enhances the environment, uplifts adjoining neighborhoods and businesses, spurs economic development, and nurtures the body, mind, and spirit of the nearly 3 million individuals who experience the district annually.
“This is an extraordinary project—one that brings health and healing to the SWMD through nature, while pushing the envelope in terms of innovation and environmental sustainability.”
-Best Practice Advisor
Our Approach
More than a Streetscape: An Opportunity
Equitable Engagement
Cultivating conversations where people have a direct bridge to express their needs, goals, desires, and incorporate their voices.
Evidence-Based Design
Modeling, optimizing, and validating design concepts to have the greatest health and environmental benefit.
Green Infrastructure and Health Research
Creating healthy people, healthy systems, and healthy environments.