State Fair News

Fair Park Dallas selects Calif design firm to turn parking lot into park

They're going to turn a parking lot into a park.

Photo courtesy of Fair Park First

A renowned landscape architect firm from California has been selected to design a new community park at Fair Park, the 277-acre National Historic Landmark in Dallas that's home to the State Fair of Texas.

Studio-MLA, a Los Angeles-based firm founded by landscape guru Mia Lehrer, will design a new Community Park to replace a 1,000-space parking lot. The studio won the appointment from a field of 30 applicants, following a nationwide search launched in June 2020. Dallas loves a nationwide search.

The 11-acre park is the first project to come out of the Fair Park Master Plan Update, which recently received the Unbuilt Dream/Study Award from the Greater Dallas Planning Council.

According to a release, Studio-MLA's presentation showed an innovative approach that won over community stakeholders and Fair Park's leadership team alike. The decision was made by Fair Park First, Spectra, and Biederman Redevelopment Ventures (BRV)—the management and operations team of Fair Park.

Completed Studio-MLA projects include Natural History Museum's Nature Gardens in Los Angeles, and the revitalization of the Los Angeles River. Lehrer is an advocate for protecting and preserving urban waterways and also a proponent of green schoolyards.

The planned Community Park design will likely include:

large lawn
children's play area with an interactive water feature
naturalized plantings
remembrance gardens
small pavilion for gatherings
movable tables and chairs

The park will also provide free programming for children, adults, and seniors. A typical calendar of events during a week might include fitness classes, small musical performances, art workshops, drum circles, a reading room, and outdoor movies.

Studio-MLA is part of a core team that also includes Dallas landscape architects Studio Outside, internationally award-winning architect Allison Grace Williams, FAIA, and Dallas-based architects and historical narrative storytellers building community WORKSHOP.

It doesn't stop there. Sub-consultants experts include Fluidity for fountain design; Essential Light; CRTKL for graphics and wayfinding; JQ Engineers for Structural, Civil, and stormwater innovation strategies; Terracon for Environmental Engineering; MEPCE for M/E/P Engineering, Hines irrigation consultants; and Project Resources Group for cost consultation.

BRV president Dan Biederman, who gained national prominence for his transformation of New York City's Bryant Park, says that "the creation of the Community Park is a step towards reawakening a sleeping giant in South Dallas."

"Parks and green spaces with community-curated, daily programs and amenities can create catalytic change," Biederman says. "Parks with daily free programming can grow the local economy, drive tourism, connect communities, create a sense of place, improve public health, provide safety, and protect the city's most important natural places. The Community Park will be just that - a park for the community."

Fair Park First's mission is to restore, revitalize, and renew Fair Park to attract attention from across the region and the country.

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Texas shocks as America's No. 3 least safe state in 2026 report

Photo by Hiroshi Kimura on Unsplash

Texas ranks as the 48th "safest" state — out of 50.

While no state is invulnerable, some do more to protect their residents than others. And a new study has declared Texas one of the five least safe states in America.

WalletHub's "Safest States in America (2026)" report examined all 50 states for their emergency preparedness and for residents' personal and residential, financial, workplace, and road safety. Factors that weighed into the rankings include specific crime rates per capita, the share of the population that is uninsured, road quality ratings, workplace injury statistics, and more.

Texas ranked at the bottom of the list as the 48th "safest" state — or the third least safe state. It's joined by several other Southern states, like Mississippi (No. 50), Louisiana (No. 49), Florida (No. 47), and Arkansas (No. 46).

According to WalletHub, Texas specifically ranks third to last in the nationwide "emergency preparedness" category, which was determined based on the prevalence of climate disasters causing $1 billion or more in damages from 1980-2024, and the loss amount resulting from those disasters.

The Lone Star State also ranked 40th (or 10th worst) across three safety categories: personal and residential safety, financial safety, and road safety. The report additionally found that Texas has the highest rate of uninsured residents nationally.

Texas' "workplace safety" was the state's highest-ranking category, landing 30th nationally.

Additional rankings that determined Texas' overall safety include:

No. 30 – Assaults per capita
No. 32 – Fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 full-time workers
No. 32 – Sex offenders per capita
No. 35 – Murders and non-negligent manslaughters per capita
No. 36 – Fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles of travel
No. 41 – Loss amounts from climate disasters per capita

According to the report, the five safest states in America are all located in the Northeast. Vermont leads as the country's safest state in 2026, followed by Massachusetts (No. 2), Maine (No. 3), New Hampshire (No. 4), and Connecticut (No. 5).

Though every state has varying levels of safety, WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo asserted that the safest places in the U.S. categorically invest in protecting their residents. Top-ranking states have low crime rates and diligently maintain their road infrastructure, and other states that prioritize their residents' safety have "strong economies and job markets that prevent people from falling into dangerous financial situations."

"[The safest states in America] have high levels of occupational safety and disaster preparedness, too," Lupo said. "In addition, states are made safer by efforts that individual residents take, such as forming a neighborhood watch or working in firefighting and EMT jobs at high rates."

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