From its inception, the project has paired park-making with community development. Trinity Park Conservancy, the nonprofit stewarding the park, was structured to include both a park creation team and a dedicated community development group, ensuring the vision remains grounded in local context and is responsive to neighborhood needs. The park is designed to connect the city, serving as a daily space for nearby residents and a destination for all. The decision for the first phase of Harold Simmons Park to be the West Overlook in West Dallas reflects this intent—bringing visible investment to a historically under-resourced area and anchoring the broader park vision in the local community. 

Inspired by natural tree-lined bluffs found in the downstream meanders of the Trinity River, robust native Texas plantings paired with reimagined site topography will shape the overlook parks, helping define program areas as well as creating accessible routes between elements. The West Overlook will support a full range of experiences: water play, water gardens, destination playgrounds, a picnic grove, and lawns for events and relaxation. A land bridge connecting over an existing arterial roadway to an Overlook Lawn atop the West Levee crest will offer a new event space and connection to the river valley beyond.

Integrated into the design are physical artifacts from the site’s history, namely an existing 1,000-foot-long steel fabrication shed that has been adapted to create an open-air industrial-scale arcade. The repurposed structure is interwoven with park program, providing shade and rain cover under its generous roofline. New architecture includes an event building overlooking the park, a welcome and education center, a multi-level cafe, new restrooms, and the cable ferry pavilion.