The recently demolished Houston Main Building, owned by MD Anderson, will soon become a simply designed green space after debris is cleared around August. The unnamed park, designed by Keiji Asakura, features native rain gardens and meadows in contrast with the dense urban surroundings. The green space will remain in place for several years until MD Anderson begins construction on a new clinical building.
Origami seed pots and rainwater harvesting: Girl Scouts learn simple, fun, green techniques at Houston’s Arboretum. Click here to watch the video from Fox News.
08.17.11 That was the kick-off date for a nationwide public awareness campaign for Landscape Architects. At 12:00 noon landscape architects across the country, including members of the ASLA Texas section, launched various educational and marketing efforts. Keiji, Margaret, and others, met at Discovery Green to educate and inform the unsuspecting public about the role that landscape architects play in their recreation and quality of life. Luckily enough, a group of YMCA day-campers were visiting the park and got roped in to join the fun of on-the-spot design. Hopefully some budding landscape architects were inspired! For more information on the many creative efforts put forth visit: http://www.facebook.com/theunderstory
ASLA Texas Section members who participated included: Keiji Asakura, Margaret Robinson and Kimberly Terrell.
URBAN BLIGHT TO URBAN MIGHT (From Culture Map Houston 7/23/2011)
The term “creative placemaking” may not have made its way into your everyday vocabulary, but it’s happening in a very active way in Houston’s Third Ward. Specifically, that place is the Park at Palm Center, and helping to make it more creative is a grant to the neighborhood’s University of Houston from the National Endowment for the Arts under the auspices of the “Our Town” initiative.
UH was one of only 51 recipients nationwide of the Our Town grant, receiving $100,000 to support a series of public art installations, new media initiatives and cultural activities at the Park at Palm Center at 5400 Griggs Rd.
“The NEA’s really trying to do something remarkable,” says UH research professor Carroll Parrott Blue, who applied to the program on behalf of the university’s Third Ward Arts Initiative. That initiative won the hearts of the NEA thanks to its New Media Technology for Public Spaces committee, which draws upon 20 design professionals, educators and local residents. UH president Renu Khator, Mayor Annise Parker and Judge Zinetta A. Burney were also crucial teammates in the application, said Blue.
Once an abandoned lot, the Park at Palm Center is currently a simple urban park surrounded by low-income housing. The Our Town grant will sponsor new features, including a fruit orchard, walking trail, barbecue area, splash park, playground, vegetable garden and public gathering space with a pavilion for local events and productions. The park’s second phase is being designed by landscape architecture firm Asakura Robinson, the masterminds behind the grounds of the Sakowitz Apartments and Montrose’s Mandell Park.
Then, there’s the promised “new media” element. That buzz phrase could be implemented in the form of interactive multimedia-based artworks, a wifi hotspot and learning stations where visitors may enrich their understanding of such topics as local history and nutrition.
“It will be a real lab of sorts,” says Theola Petteway, executive director of the Old Spanish Trail/Almeda Corridors Redevelopment Authority Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ #7). “There’s a digital divide in this area because a lot of people don’t have access to computers. Hopefully this will get people more excited about the Internet, while also promoting exercise or getting involved in the urban garden,” she explains.
Among the authority’s other projects are the redesign of Emancipation Park and renovations to thoroughfares Dowling and Holman streets with enhanced intersections, street lights, public art, pedestrian amenities and historical markers. A YMCA and elementary school on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard recently opened to the public and a new library on Griggs Road is also on the map.
“What we’re hoping is that this will generate other renovations in the area, attract new businesses and make it a more liveable place,” says Blue. Part of that vision is the Palm Center stop on the future Southeast METRORail line. “If you begin to pay attention to a place and people come in, vitality will follow,” she says.
Envision a neighborhood highlighted by new parks and a growing network of cultural institutions, all knit together by two new public transit corridors — that’s what the future holds for the ever-vibrant Third Ward.
Completion for the second phase of the Park at Palm Center is slated for 2012. Want to have your say on the park’s blueprint? View promotional video and Take this survey.
The Park at Palm Center as it stands today. Phase II will include a community garden and Smart Park elements.
I’ve written elsewhere about my love of off-street bike facilities. I feel that they are an incredibly important part of a city’s biking infrastructure, as they provide an opportunity for people to get comfortable on their bikes without worrying about traffic. As time goes on, people invariably become more comfortable biking in other places as well. Trails are are the backbones of a first class biking infrastructure.
I say this place is moat like a real Sushi restaurant in Houston- Teppay on Westheimer at Hillcroft.
Too bad that we need to be reminded about this but maybe we should have them in more places.
Thanks to everyone who made it out to the first public meeting for the Clear Lake Bicyclist and Pedestrian Study last night. We received a TON of great feedback that will help us make Clear Lake a more connected, healthful and sustainable neighborhood of Houston!
If you missed the meeting, the presentation boards are below:
Please take time to fill out the survey, which remains available online at www.walkbikeclearlake.com.
The remaining public meeting dates are:
July 20, 2011 (Ideas and Recommendations) 6 pm, preceded by a group bike ride at 5 pm.
September 7, 2011 (Implementation Priorities) 6 pm.
Both meetings are at the CLCCA Pavilion Building at 16511 Diana Lane.
On September 24, 2011, Asakura Robinson will be saddling up (our bicycles) to help raise money for Houston Habitat for Humanity and we need your help!
You can join our team or support us by clicking here!
The ride begins & ends at Discovery Green in Downtown Houston and has 10 and 20 mile courses.
8:30 a.m. start rain or shine
$25 Registration includes t-shirt, breakfast, route support, snacks
Following the ride, all our supporters are invited to join riders and MC Sherry Williams from KHOU at Discovery Green for the Post-Ride Party with live entertainment, children’s games, sponsor activities and food & beverages sponsored by Sysco.
You can also start your own team by clicking here.
