Kevin Sloan, an Oak Cliff-based landscape architect at the forefront of the idea to “re-wild” Dallas green spaces, has died. He was 63.
His Kevin Sloan Studio is known for its work on projects including Vetruvian Park in Addison, the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas and the Singing Hills Recreation Center in Oak Cliff.
Sloan was diagnosed with brain cancer in February 2020 and died Thursday.
The studio announced his passing on Instagram: “We have lost a great friend and mentor, whose life, work and enthusiasm had a significant impact on many people, from his students to the individual that may have just shared a short conversation with him at an event.”
The City of Dallas will name the park that will replace the Jefferson/12th Connector in honor of Sloan.
The park replacing the Jefferson/12th Connector in Winnetka Heights will be named for landscape architect Kevin Sloan.
Sloan’s later career focused on “re-wilding” urban green spaces to meet the needs of people and wildlife, Green Source DFW reports.
“This is the perfect way to honor someone who has been focused on bringing green space and beauty and recreational opportunities to the urban landscape for four decades in our city, and someone who’s had a hand in projects in Dallas, both big and small,” former Dallas City Council member Angela Hunt told the website.
Sloan’s wife, Diane, noted that Sir David Attenborough mentioned “re-wilding” as a way of combatting species decline, in his 2020 documentary, A Life on Our Planet.
“Re-wilding changes your ambient temperature. If there’s a large enough re-wilded area, it can change the climate,” she told Green Source DFW. “It has these global impacts as well as impacts on individual people and it’s a huge thing. I think that Kevin is in very good company agreeing with David Attenborough. But that has become really the emphasis of his work. He wants people to see the natural world. He wants us to rediscover it.”
