Cityplace/Uptown station (formerly Cityplace station) is a

DART light rail The DART light rail system serves the metropolitan area of Dallas, Texas. It is owned and operated by Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART). The system opened June 14, 1996 and serves 65 stations and four lines, covering : the , the , the , and th ...

station located in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

. The station is located on the , , and serves the Cityplace and

Uptown Uptown may refer to: Neighborhoods or regions in several cities United States * Uptown, Chicago, Illinois * Uptown Manhattan, New York City, New York * Uptown, Richmond, Virginia * Uptown, Dallas, Texas * Uptown, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania * Upt ...

districts. It also serves as a transfer point to the

M-Line Trolley The M-Line Trolley (previously McKinney Avenue Trolley) is a heritage streetcar line in the Uptown neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. The trolley line, which has been in service since 1989, is notable for its use of restored historic streetcar veh ...

. The station is located beneath

North Central Expressway North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

(

US 75 U.S. Route 75 is a north–south U.S. Highway that runs in the central United States. The highway's northern terminus is located at the Canadian border near Noyes, Minnesota, at a now-closed border crossing. From this point, the highway ...

) at its intersection with Haskell Avenue, and it is located on a tunnel connecting Downtown Dallas to SMU/Mockingbird station. The station is the only underground station on the DART rail system, as well as the only active underground rail station in the state of Texas.

Station

Cityplace/Uptown station is tri-level in design. At ground level, the station has entrances (dubbed "portals") on both sides of

. Both portals have a corresponding bus stop located on the expressway's

frontage road A frontage road (also known as an access road, outer road, service road, feeder road, or parallel road) is a local road running parallel to a higher-speed, limited-access road. Where parallel high-speed roads are provided as part of a maj ...

. The West Portal, located in Uptown's

West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The West Village is bounded by the Hudson River to the west and 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to ...

, consists of a small headhouse and a

railway turntable A railway turntable or wheelhouse is a device for turning railway rolling stock, usually locomotives, to face a different direction. It is especially used in areas where economic considerations or a lack of sufficient space have served to weig ...

, which is used as a stop for the

. The East Portal is located on the ground floor of

Cityplace Tower The Cityplace Tower (also previously known as the Tower at Cityplace) is a 42-story building located at 2711 North Haskell Avenue, at North Central Expressway (US 75), in the Cityplace district of Uptown Dallas, Texas (USA). The building is ta ...

. Both portals lead a central

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft with non-sloped ...

containing an information desk and

ticket vending machines A ticket machine, also known as a ticket vending machine (TVM), is a vending machine that produces paper or electronic Ticket (admission), tickets, or recharges a stored-value card or smart card or the user's mobile wallet, typically on a smartp ...

. From there, another set of escalators lead to the southern end of the rail platforms. Early plans for the station called for an additional set of entrances to the north of Haskell Avenue, which would connect to the northern end of the rail platforms. In total, the station extends beneath ground level. The station contains two

inclined elevator An inclined elevator or inclined lift is a form of cable railway that hauls rail cars up a steep gradient. Introduction An inclined elevator consists of one or two inclined tracks on a slope with a single car on each carrying payload. In ...

s, six escalators, and 213 total steps. The station's longest escalators are , which made them the longest escalators in the western U.S. at installation.

Artwork

The station contains an "evolution-themed design" based on geological strata, with each of the station's three levels representing a different time period. The stations contains etchings of children's drawings, depictions of Native American artifacts discovered during its excavation, and five Native American-styled murals. The walls of the rail platforms depict local fossils, artifacts from the nearby Freedman's Cemetery, and the

Texas Electric Railway The Texas Electric Railway was a historic interurban railroad that operated from Dallas, Texas, to Denison, Corsicana, and Waco. It began operation in 1908 and through the merger of several companies became the largest interurban railway operat ...

system that previously connected Dallas to Denison.

History

In late 1983, developer Southland Corporation announced plans for Cityplace, a

mixed-use Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions ...

project, the centerpiece of which would be two office towers connected by a pedestrian bridge. As the project's site was located along a proposed rail transit corridor, the developer proposed adding a passenger station on this corridor to the pedestrian bridge. In 1985, the Dallas City Council endorsed a revised plan that moved the rail corridor to an underground tunnel between Mockingbird Lane and downtown; the planned Cityplace station was moved underground to accommodate this change. In 1988, Cityplace leadership offered to pay for up to $22 million of the station's cost if it was located at Haskell Avenue near the north end of the development, but local residents proposed an alternate location on Lemmon Avenue that was closer to existing housing. At the same time, Cityplace was also attempting to rezone its land for denser development, which was also opposed by residents. An investigation by ''

The Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation in 2022 of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ' ...

'' found secret negotiations between DART, Cityplace, and the Dallas municipal government that would make the rezoning contingent on Cityplace paying for the station (as well as road and utility improvements), which was viewed as illegal contract zoning. After the investigation, DART ultimately settled on a compromise site between Haskell and Lemmon, which caused Cityplace to retract its payment offer. In 1991, DART announced plans to begin excavating the underground tunnel that would contain Cityplace station. The excavation would be completed by 1993. However, it was also announced that the Cityplace station would not open until 1999 for financial reasons; completing the station after excavation would cost $13.7 million. In 1996, as part of a settlement with the city, Cityplace agreed to pay $3.5 million to finance the station, which the city would reimburse through a

tax increment financing Tax increment financing (TIF) is a public financing method that is used as a subsidy for redevelopment, infrastructure, and other community-improvement projects in many countries, including the United States. The original intent of a TIF program i ...

district. The station was opened on December 18, 2000. In early 2001, the

McKinney Avenue Transit Authority The M-Line Trolley (previously McKinney Avenue Trolley) is a heritage streetcar line in the Uptown, Dallas, Uptown neighborhood of Dallas, Texas. The trolley line, which has been in service since 1989, is notable for its use of restored histori ...

(MATA) received a $2.5 million grant to extend its

heritage streetcar Heritage streetcars or heritage trams are a part of the efforts to preserve rail transit heritage. In addition to preserving street-running rail vehicles, heritage streetcar operations can include upkeep of historic rail infrastructure. Working ...

line to Cityplace station. The extension opened the following year. In 2011, MATA constructed a

turntable A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding phys ...

at the entrance to Cityplace, and DART rebuilt the West Portal

headhouse A head house or headhouse may be an enclosed building attached to an open-sided shed, including the piers extending into a waterway, or the aboveground part of a subway station. Markets In the 18th and early 19th centuries, head houses were oft ...

so that the entrance points to the turntable. On July 30, 2012, the station was renamed to Cityplace/Uptown station to emphasize its connection to the Uptown neighborhood.

Notes

References

External links

Dallas Area Rapid Transit

Cityplace/Uptown station
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cityplace (Dart Station) Dallas Area Rapid Transit light rail stations in Dallas Railway stations in the United States opened in 2000 2000 establishments in Texas Railway stations located underground in the United States Railway stations in Dallas County, Texas Blue Line (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) Orange Line (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) Red Line (Dallas Area Rapid Transit)