The Art Behind Parkland Hospital
Crow Holdings’ 2013 redevelopment of the Old Parkland Campus with four buildings totaling 334k SF in Dallas created not only a new office complex, but a park-like atmosphere. Surrounding the buildings is an art and sculpture collection referred to as The American Experiment. We got a behind-the-scenes look.
There are 30 works of art, including architectural elements, sculptures and quotes inscribed into walls. The campus features historic works and commissioned pieces by Chas Fagan, Zenos Frudakis and Alexander Stoddart.
Pictured: an entry gate. Iron drive and pedestrian entry gates feature a bronze centerpiece of the US seal, which includes a shield with initials for each of the 13 original colonies and symbols representing the countries that first populated the US (England, France, Germany, Holland, Ireland and Scotland).
Alexander Hamilton was one of the most influential interpreters and supporters of the US Constitution. He’s represented outside Commonwealth Hall in a bronze life-size statue by American sculptor Jerry Williams. Crow Holdings chairman & CEO Harlan Crow says the American Experiment is a term other countries used in the late 18th century after Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and the American colonies defied Britain, the most powerful nation on earth at the time. At Old Parkland, those early ideals are revived and celebrated through art, statuary, architectural components and historical items.
Two six-foot-diameter bronze paving medallions (sculpted by Deran Wright) depicting the Fugio Cent coin and an image of Benjamin Franklin’s “Join, or Die” snake (pictured) are on the porch of Parkland Hall. That six-story, 87k SF building is the campus’s landmark building thanks to its copper dome. It provides views of Downtown while complementing the original historical buildings on the campus.
Outside the entry to Oak Lawn Hall, the bronze sculpture of Benjamin Franklin (by sculptor Zenos Frudakis) is an homage to one of America’s Founding Fathers. As a scientist, he was one of the major figures in the American Enlightenment.
The book garden contains granite-carved stepping stones replicating title pages of books that inspired the Founding Fathers. Among the books featured: Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke, Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith, Common Sense by Thomas Paine and The King James Bible. The garden stones serve as a walkway for visitors outside the Green Dragon Restaurant. It was designed by James Guy Design Services and fabricated by John Pelkey Jr.
