Taniguchi Park, located near the corner of Sorin and Margarita streets, spans 1 acre and features an open green space for picnics and lawn games, a garden, a terrace, and restrooms.
The big picture
Mueller now has 122 acres of park space, making the neighborhood's master planner, Catellus, two parks away from fulfilling its goal of providing 140 total acres of park space.
The Eva Carrillo de Garcia park is under construction near Marshall Middle School, and the Roger Taylor park will break ground soon, Catellus President Greg Weaver said.
What’s in a name
The park is named after Isamu Taniguchi, who was born in Japan and moved to California before World War II. During the war, Taniguchi and his family were imprisoned in South Texas. After they were released, Taniguchi worked as a farmer in the Rio Grande Valley before eventually retiring and moving to Austin, where his son worked as a professor and later the dean of architecture at The University of Texas at Austin.
Taniguchi’s son connected him with members of the Parks and Recreation Department, who set aside 3 acres of Zilker Park for him to develop without a contract, salary or written plan, Mueller representatives said. Taniguchi developed the land into a Japanese garden dedicated to peace, now known as the Zilker Botanical Gardens.
