If you’ve ever been to the Meddlesome Moth or Virgin Hotels Dallas, you’ve been on Hi Line Drive. But you might be surprised to know that the short, landscaped boulevard isn’t just a challenging place to park; it’s the only thing connecting the Katy Trail to the Trinity Strand Trail along Turtle Creek. So it’s a big deal for cyclists and amblers. And it’s a big deal for Philip Hiatt Haigh, the executive director of The Loop Dallas, the organization building a 50-mile cycling and jogging circuit around the city that will extend as far north as White Rock Lake and as far south as the Great Trinity Forest.
Prior to the creation of the Hi Line Connector, the 1-mile trail that now runs through the street’s landscaped median, the Katy and the Strand never had a path to tie them; the Katy terminates on a hill above Houston Street, and the entrance to the Strand is semi-hidden behind the Virgin hotel. But Hiatt Haigh knew that the connector alone wouldn’t be enough to solve the dilemma. Runners and cyclists tended to get confused by the bit that runs under I-35E and an elevated rail line, where the rumble of DART and Trinity Railway Express trains boom like thunderclaps, warning people who aren’t in cars that this space isn’t for them.
“I love murals as landmarks for people to know where they are. It’s a more playful way to exist in the world, more whimsical.”
“That was the barrier between Victory and the Design District, and there are very few ways to get across that barrier,” Hiatt Haigh says. “But we really needed that to be a gateway.”
Enter the artists. At the invitation of Hiatt Haigh, the muralist Mariell Guzman brought along friends who also like to paint on walls: Will Heron, Sam Lao, Alec DeJesus, Hatziel Flores, and Mari Pohlman. In August, they finished transforming this heretofore unwelcoming section of Hi Line into something beautiful and functional, fulfilling The Loop’s goal of connecting Dallas to Dallas by clearly and colorfully showing the way.
Rather than claim individual panels, the artists conceptualized a piece that blends their work. Bright pop art colors fill the outlines of cacti, skyscrapers, skateboarders, and runners. It is a kaleidoscopic collaboration that reflects the diversity of both the people who made it and the city they’re honoring.
“I love murals as landmarks for people to know where they are,” Guzman says. “It’s a more playful way to exist in the world, more whimsical.”
Muralist Mariell Guzman paints an area under a DART bridge as part of the Hi-Line Connector Project.
Courtesy The Loop Dallas
Hatziel Flores splashes color to his portion of the mural in the Design District.
Courtesy The Loop Dallas
A work in progress.
Courtesy Loop Dallas
Left to Right: Will Heron and Sam Lao prepare to go into the air to paint their portions of the Hi-Line Connector mural.
Courtesy The Loop Dallas
Left to Right: Will Heron, Mari Pohlman, and Hatziel Flores. Instead of assigning specific segments to each artist, the Hi Line Connector mural interspersed their work.
Courtesy Loop Dallas
Left to Right: Mari Pohlman, Mariell Guzman, Sam Lao (kneeling), Will Heron, Hatziel Flores. The team had to have hours of training before DART would allow them to paint its bridge.
Courtesy Loop Dallas
Left to Right: Sam Lao, Will Heron (kneeling), Hatziel Flores, Mariell Guzman (kneeling), Alex DeJesus, and Mari Pohlman.
Courtesy Loop Dallas
This story originally appeared in the November issue of D Magazine with the headline “Map Quest.” Write to matt.goodman@dmagazine.com.
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