In Remembrance: Kevin Sloan, Hon. AIA Dallas

Kevin founded Kevin Sloan Studio in 2004, and the firm’s work has been nationally and internationally recognized. His design studio work was principally concerned with the urban design and landscape architectural problems generated by the metropolitan city and its new and unprecedented formation.

Kevin had a Master of Architecture degree from Syracuse University and was a 2000 Harvard Loeb Fellow finalist. He taught architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design at Syracuse University and was a visiting assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs.

Over the course of his career, Kevin wrote for many professional publications, including Landscape Architecture and Texas Architect. He was a prolific contributor to AIA Dallas’ Columns, where he served as author, source, or subject for over 20 articles over the past decade. Kevin was a longtime member of the AIA Dallas Columns Advisory Board and established the popular Kevin Sloan Award for Best Travel Sketch within the AIA Dallas Ken Roberts Memorial Delineation Competition.

Earlier this month, the City of Dallas gave the 12th Street Connector Park a new name: the Kevin W. Sloan Park. In a D Magazine story about the honor, former council member Angela Hunt, Hon. AIA Dallas put together a list of Kevin’s many contributions to the City of Dallas and North Texas:

• Served on the Urban Design Peer Review board for several years fulfilling the duties of Committee Chair and Vice Chair (2013 to 2020).
• During his work with HOK in the 1990s, did a planning study to look at a park across Woodall Rodgers that would connect downtown Dallas with uptown. (A deck park was a portion of that park but Kevin’s concept was a larger scale.)
• When Klyde Warren Park was first conceived and fundraising efforts were initially underway, park founder Shelia Grant approached Kevin about creating graphics to help donors see the vision of the park. Kevin contacted renowned illustrator Michael McCann to create a series of hand drawn watercolor renderings for such a purpose and assisted him in the creation of these drawings. Ms. Grant has given a great deal of praise to Kevin for his involvement and helping them reach the fundraising goals and make nationally known park a reality. Kevin also assisted McCann again recently when he created more illustrations for the planned expansion of the park.
• Kevin was a part of the SMU planning team that put together the proposal for the George W. Bush Presidential Library. Kevin again teamed up with Michael McCann to create renderings for the proposal. The effort was obviously successful and the Library had its own design team that he was not a part of. As a thank you to Kevin for the work he did, the University awarded him the design of Centennial Plaza to commemorate SMU’s 100th year of existence in 2011. The plaza has become one of the more beloved places on the campus and has been the site of at least one marriage proposal.
• Kevin authored numerous pro bono articles and essays for Dallas-based publications to promote various Dallas design ideas. Those include the “DFW Branch Waters Network” for Columns magazine, a publication put out by the Dallas chapter of the American Institute of Architects. (That article eventually led to the idea of re-wilding the Trinity River floodway.) Kevin highlights his re-wilding concept in an article featured in the March 2017 “Wild Dallas” issue of D Magazine. He was also an opinion piece columnist for The Dallas Morning News writing on several topics.
• Was part of the design team for the Winspear Opera House / AT&T Performing Arts Center and was involved in the early phases of planning and development. An important contribution of Kevin’s was the micro-climate research he did for the area proving there was an almost 40° surface temperature difference between shaded landscape areas and non-shaded paved areas during the summer. This research inspired the architects to add the shade canopy to the building that makes the area a much more pleasant space to be in during our hottest months.
• Was the landscape architect and planner for the award-winning Urban Reserve project in Dallas, a nationally-known modern housing development that had one of Dallas’ first bio-filtering streets. Vanguard Way is a street conceived in section having a dry and a wet side. The dry side slopes to the wet side where the runoff is collected, then goes through a bio-filtering media where the water is then collected in a pond and reused for irrigation of the development.
• Served as the landscape architect for the Dallas Urban Commons project, which is the same developer as Urban Reserve. However, this project will contain smaller more economical housing centering around landscape and a creek that runs through the property. The project is currently under construction.
• Since 2005 Kevin has contributed to the education of numerous North Texas architects and landscape architects as a Professor of Practice at the University of Texas Arlington College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs. Inspiring numerous designers to careers in which they have had a dramatic impact on the fabric of Dallas and surrounding area.
• Provided pro-bono design work for the Jefferson / 12th Connector project in Oak Cliff prior to being hired as the design landscape architect for the project. This will involve the removal of a dangerous street and replace it with public open space. Kevin and his wife, Diane, live on North Clinton Avenue only two blocks from the project. (It should be noted that while Kevin was technically paid something for the design work it is a fraction of the fee that the firm would get for a project of that size. So, it was in no way a money making venture for the firm.)
• Was the landscape architect for Singing Hills Recreation Center which is the only City of Dallas recreation center that is directly connected to a DART Light Rail station. The project includes indigenous Blackland Prairie landscape and an amphitheater / plaza that connects to the DART station.
• Served as the landscape architect for the Casa Linda Playground which is part of Casa Linda Park. It is one of the only playgrounds in that neighborhood.
• Participated in numerous pro-bono speaking engagements for various entities across North Texas to advance and educate different groups. These include the Dallas AIA chapter, Greater Dallas Planning Council, DFW section of Texas American Society Landscape Architects, and the Texas Native Plants Society.
• Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects, Dallas Chapter for his contributions to the local chapter.
• Recently completed a landscape master plan for the Friends of the Northaven Trail which will help the Friends group focus their fundraising toward specific areas of the trail. It should be noted that there is a re-wilding component to the master plan.
• Designed the streetscapes and courtyards for numerous multi-family buildings throughout the DFW area, including Novell Bishop Arts and a few Gables properties in Uptown.
• Played a significant role as a team member in the recent Fair Park Master Plan update.
• Significant projects of note that Kevin was involved with, but are not in the City of Dallas, include Vitruvian Park in Addison, Airfield Falls Conservation Park in Fort Worth, the Redevelopment of Downtown Richardson, Lakeside Village development in Flower Mound, the library for the Collin College-Frisco Campus (designed the architecture), The Fort Worth Gateway Project (ground-breaking soon), the Tilley Bridge West bank revitalization (soon to begin construction), as well as many others.
• Nationally known projects in Kevin’s career include the Alamo Transit Mall (streetscape in front of the Alamo) and the former Sprint World Headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas.
• Championed the resurgence, recognition, and protection of North Texas’ Blackland Prairie habitat, an indigenous and fragile ecosystem.
• Conceptualized and spoke nationally and internationally about the idea of Watershed Urbanism the Dallas-Fort Worth Branch Waters Network, a bold plan to daylight the expansive DFW watershed and fundamentally reshape the urban environment. This work was recently exhibited in the Venice Biennale in Italy.
• Within the academic context, Kevin has inspired the unique cross-pollination of landscape and architecture into ideas of the constructed landscapes in the built environment. He has been one of the most influential instructors in the University of Texas Arlington School of Architecture for more than a decade.
• Served on numerous boards, including: Advisory Board of the Fay Jones School of Architecture at University of Arkansas and AIA Dallas Columns Advisory Board.

Kevin’s immense intellectual curiosity, passion for North Texas, and inquisitive and innovative spirit will be deeply missed. Service arrangements are pending and we will share as we learn more.