Post Oak Park Closes This Month for $1.1 Million in Upgrades

If you're one of the regulars at Post Oak Park — kids in tow, dog on a leash, or just a morning walk around the pond — plan your detour now. The town is closing the park this month for a full reconstruction, and the more than $1.1 million in renovations are expected to take about a month to complete.

Construction will replace some gravel trails with concrete and add restrooms, among other improvements. The biggest visible change will be the playground itself. The current equipment will be replaced with a berm-style playground featuring synthetic grass hills with playground elements throughout, in addition to ground-level equipment and a pair of tot swings. Less standard-issue plastic, more topography.

The designer behind it, Landon Bell of Parkhill, put it plainly: "We wanted to come up with something that is more engaging, but still natural in feel and fits into the aesthetic of Post Oak Park." Whether that vision survives a Texas summer of kids and sun is the question worth asking in August.

The restrooms will be located near the entrance of the park, just before the playground, and will have two family stalls within a pre-manufactured restroom building. That alone will make a lot of parents happy. The lack of facilities has been a long-running frustration at Post Oak, and it should have been fixed years ago.

Sales taxes dedicated to improvements will fund the project, which was planned during the review of the Parks and Recreation Master Plan in 2017. This isn't a surprise spend — it's been in the pipeline for nearly a decade. Whether that's reassuring or maddening depends entirely on how you feel about nine years of gravel trails.

Post Oak Park was originally named Skillern Park in 2001 and was renamed Post Oak Park in 2012 when it was developed, so anyone who knew it by its old name has been using this spot for a long time. A month offline is manageable. The real test is whether the berm design holds up as promised and whether the town hits its timeline. Watch for a reopening announcement. When the gates open back up, take a look around and ask whether $1.1 million built something that lasts.