This package was originally published in Dallas-Fort Worth Real Estate Review.

In the late 1970s, North Lake was a popular fishing spot. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, its southern shore served as a park. Today, it’s the centerpiece of Cypress Waters. A key goal for the development is to enhance the beauty of the lake and open it up for the enjoyment of residents, tenants, and visitors.“We’re restoring a good portion of shoreline that extends into three coves of the lake and two peninsulas,” says Mark Thomas, a landscape designer and project manager at Studio Outside, which is overseeing landscape design at Cypress Waters.

Thomas designed three parks in Cypress Waters’ office development, as well as a large bridge at The Sound, a lakeside “town square” that Lucy Billingsley calls “the heartthrob of the place.” The Sound will connect to the development’s 6-mile pedestrian trail system. The system in turn will connect to Irving’s Campíon Trail and, pending approval, a proposed extension of the Cotton Belt Trail.

Billingsley and Studio Outside hope it will be comparable to the 12-mile pathway at Dallas’ White Rock Lake and that it will eventually stretch around North Lake.

The trail is a key part of Cypress Waters’ focus on fitness.

“We anticipate having a very bike-friendly environment in the future,” says Tary Arterburn, founding principal of Studio Outside. “The other fitness is going to be based in most of the multifamily projects. The corporate buildings have facilities, too, and people can use these wonderful outdoor facilities adjacent to the fitness centers.”

Arterburn expects to see the development’s pedestrian trail built within the next four years, though there have been some challenges. “We’re having to create a completely new shoreline,” he says, noting that a huge amount of dirt has been hauled in from a nearby excavation site at LBJ Freeway. “We’re trying to look at the careful use of water for irrigation, using native plants and trees in many places, so it’s not super high-maintenance water use.” Part of this effort will include planting cypress trees to attract wildlife and waterfowl, as well as planting lakeside fields of milkweed to attract migrating monarch butterflies.

The entrances to the development will feature rows of cloned cypress trees—each a perfect copy of the other. “We’ve installed some nice-size trees out there,” Thomas says. “In such a big space, you need big trees to make a statement.”

The whole development features an impressive array of sculptures and other artistic design elements.

“I don’t know much about art, but I do know that we’re all complimented when we pass a sculpture,’” says Billingsley. “The humanities are, in our adult lives, either lost or much less than when we were in school. This is just one small way of bringing them in.”

This story originally appeared in the Dallas-Fort Worth Real Estate Review.

Read all stories from the Cypress Waters Anatomy of a Deal package:

Creating a Lakeside Legacy
7-Eleven’s New Heaven
Nation Building
Workplace of the Future
A New Multifamily Paradigm
The 25-Year Vision
Educating for the Future
Embracing the Great Outdoors
A Time to Be Bold: Lucy Billingsley