The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) recently held Leading with Landscape II: The Houston Transformation, a three day event highlighted by a conference discussing how Houston is reshaping its identity through landscape architecture. The conference’s impressive list of speakers included internationally significant private-sector practitioners working on current and proposed projects in Houston, municipal leaders, academics, and leading critics and thinkers. Charles Birnbaum, founder and CEO of TCLF, kickstarted the conference by sharing his unique way of looking at Houston history. He divided it up into 3 eras: engineering (freeways), architecture (buildings), and landscape architecture (parks and greenspace). William Fulton, Director of Rice University’s Kinder Institute, who spoke toward the end of the conference, took this idea and ran with it.

Fulton agreed with Birnbaum’s point that we are currently in this third era of landscape architecture and he also recognized that it is an unquestionably great thing for Houston. We are experiencing a certain parks renaissance, with the city’s largest parks, Hermann Park, Buffalo Bayou Park, and Memorial Park all going through major upgrades. The creation of Discovery Green, a vibrant 12-acre park in the heart of downtown, which opened in 2008, is another huge advancement in this third era of parks and greenspace improvements. Just this past weekend, Discovery Green hosted the March Madness Music Festival, a free concert series full of headlining acts which brought thousands to the park for three straight days, culminating with performances by Flo Rida, Pitbull, and Maroon 5 on Sunday. Public-private partnerships such as the Buffalo Bayou Partnership are a driving force behind this landscape architecture enhancement initiative. Buffalo Bayou Partnership, in addition to transforming Buffalo Bayou Park, frequently puts on different events which draw countless people to the park. The wide array of events include boat rides along the bayou and the upcoming Bayou Bash, which will feature crawfish, libations and live entertainment.

Scene from the March Madness Music Festival at Discovery Green

Even though we are in the midst of an era full of massive landscape architecture enhancements, Fulton argues that we need to move forward to a fourth era which he calls urban design. This urban design era is about creating a paradigm shift. He states that Instead of just appreciating natural treasures like Buffalo Bayou Park as quality greenspaces completely separate from our urban landscape, we need to see them as connected. Our city has been constructed with a design in which the freeways are used to funnel everything downtown. Fulton sees the need for an alternate design in which the city is reimagined using the east-west lines of the bayous as opposed to the freeways. And he wants our urban and natural environments to be seamlessly intertwined.

There are signs that Houston is indeed entering this urban design era that is connecting our urban and natural environments. One of the first examples of this is Buffalo Bayou Path: Smith Street/Travis Street Link, which had its ribbon-cutting ceremony last Thursday. The completed project ties together two stretches of Buffalo Bayou Trail by bridging a gap between Travis and Smith Streets. This is the kind of action that Fulton is looking for in this fourth era. The path instantly makes downtown more accessible by foot or bike along Buffalo Bayou. This path is one of six separate projects that were made possible by way of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant awarded in 2012 for the Houston Regional Bike/Pedestrian Connections to Transit project. The other five, like Buffalo Bayou Path, are aiming to unite trail segments along major transportation corridors to create alternative transportation connections for Houstonians.

Buffalo Bayou Path: Smith Street/Travis Street Link

This TIGER grant illustrates the local support for movement into this urban design era while also debunking the outsider perspective of Houston as a city completely reliant on driving and one not caring about parks and greenspaces. We are tapping into the national movement seen in other major metropolises that are creating parks that will become important connectors for their cities. Blossom Parks Connector is another example of Houston moving into this urban design era. The project, designed by Houston Tomorrow, will ultimately link Memorial Park to Buffalo Bayou Park, giving pedestrians, cyclists, and runners a safe way to get from one park to the other.

Houston’s commitment to its parks and greenspaces has become quite obvious in recent years and it is great to see places all over the city where Houstonians can properly take advantage of the outdoors. This movement to now incorporate these parks and greenspaces into the city’s urban environment is truly exciting. Hopefully we’ll continue to see more and more examples of this in the coming years as Houston ushers in the urban design era.

Buying or selling a home or just want to discuss how Houston is reshaping its identity through landscape architecture? Give me a call at 713.829.3052 or email me at cynthia@cynthiamullins.com.

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