Massive Public Art Piece Returning to New Downtown Dallas Park Robert Irwin's 700-foot-long, 8-foot-tall sculpture, once nearly resigned to the scrap heap, is being reinstalled at the site of a new downtown Dallas park. By Alex Macon Published in FrontBurner April 28, 2021 9:17 am For years, sculptor Robert Irwin’s Portal Park Piece (Slice) ran through John Carpenter Plaza on the east side of downtown. Installed in 1981, the 700-foot-long, 8-foot-tall work fell into a state of disrepair along with the plaza itself. Realigned roads cut off what had initially been conceived as a sort of welcoming greenspace that would pull in foot traffic from East Dallas and Deep Ellum. The sculpture was mostly ignored by the city and by visitors unless they happened to catch a glance of the big metal wall on its green island as they were driving into downtown. (It did receive more regular attention from vandals.) As plans to redevelop the park began to pick up steam, Irwin himself said Dallas might as well get rid of his massive hunk of public art.