The Master Plan for the 320 acre site of the new Texas Rangers Ballpark required compatibly locating a variety of uses within the context of a new 48,000 seat Major League baseball stadium. In addition to the ballpark, the Rangers required a youth ballpark, Sports Hall of Fame, amphitheater, and a large amount of commercial uses. In addition to being the master planner, DMSAS also acted as the landscape design architect for the master plan.
The plan creates the feeling of a ‘park within a park’ through a series of paths and landscaped areas. The design utilizes walkway layouts, trees, plantings, and earth-berms to break down the scale of the 16,000 surface parking spaces while making the fan’s walk, within the hot Texas sun, from his or her car to the ballpark a shaded and pleasant experience. Johnson Creek, which bisects the site, was modified into a centerpiece of the plan, creating twin lakes covering approximately 12 acres. The lake design was coordinated with the Army Corps of Engineers to ensure that criteria were met related to runoff, retention and flood plain impacts.
