Sure, the economy’s dreadful in Texas. New office buildings aren’t able to lease space. UHaul Trailers are all headed back to Michigan. And landscape architects throughout the state have updated their resumes. But there’s at least one group of landscape architects who choose to look past today’s dropping oil prices, and thoughtfully plan a smallpart of Texas (the Oak Lawn area of Dallas) to demonstrate the full, long-range scope of the landscape architecture profession.

Landscape architects from over a dozen firms in Dallas, together with several related professionals, actively participated in the project, under the banner of Treescape/Dallas Inc. It certainly wasn’t the first time that Dallas landscape architects took the lead on a Treescape project, but it’s easily the largest.

It all began back in 1982, when the Central Dallas Association and the Junior League of Dallas foresaw the need for public awareness of the”greening” of the Central Business District. But, awareness wasn’t enough. They realized that to bring about genuine, long-term change, the public, and the design professions, needed to actively participate, regardless of the economy of the time. With this charge, Treescape/Dallas came into being.

Under the Treescape umbrella, the firm of Johnson, Johnson & Roy Inc. is acting as coordinator and conceptualizer for the project. Frank Clements, a Principal of the firm, and Ann Landry are in command. Volunteer designers from the landscape architectural firms of SWA Group, Mesa Designs, P.O.D., Blalock’s, Entenmann Designs, RTKL, Carter & Burgess, Sasaki Associates, Boyd & Heiderich, Myrick, Newman & Dahlberg, and Amphion Environmental then went to work. Lending support were city council member Lori Palmer, the Oak Lawn Committee, the Alliance of Design Professionals, the Turtle Creek Association, several city of Dallas staffers, the Maple Avenue Economic Development Corp., as well as many Oak Lawn residents and retailers. Several teams, composed of landscape architects and support people, each took a portion of Oak Lawn and developed plans. An overview committee made sure that each portion fit logically with the adjacent one. When it was alt presented in late July, enthusiasm was to be found in every corner.

Pat Eaton, Treescape’s Executive Director, feels that this enthusiasm keeps the project right on schedule. The design phase being successful, the first stages of the implementation phase are likely to begin in early Fall. Then she added that, in light o f the current slow economy, it may take 10 years to do the whole thing.” And you can be sure that the 65 volunteer landscape architects will play a key role, and be in the forefront of an improving economy.

The author, G. Owen Yost, is a Board member of Treescape/Dallas and is a landscape architect with Blalock’s in Dallas.