Set along Sims Bayou in Sunnyside, one of Houston’s oldest historically Black communities, Hill at Sims transforms a 106-acre stormwater detention basin into a regional park that pairs flood protection with public access, ecological restoration, and everyday recreation. Built around a four-story mound of earth created during the basin’s excavation in 2005, the park reimagines a once-inaccessible piece of infrastructure as a civic landmark, offering 360-degree views across the surrounding neighborhood, Sims Bayou, and the downtown Houston skyline more than seven miles away.
Organized around the hill, basin, bayou, and new trail connections, the park layers an ambitious public program onto working flood infrastructure capable of holding up to 325 million gallons of stormwater. At the center, the Brown Foundation Hilltop Pavilion crowns the earthen mound, creating a shaded overlook and destination visible from across the basin. Below, more than 4.5 miles of hike-and-bike trails move through the site, linking open basin landscapes, restored habitat areas, gathering spaces, and new points of access from the surrounding community. The Dr. Alma Allen pedestrian bridge spans Sims Bayou, connecting the park to the existing Sims Bayou Greenway and nearly 20 miles of regional trails, while the Scott Street Greenway extends the park’s reach northward toward neighborhood schools, health facilities, transit, and civic anchors. At key entries, the Al Green Pavilion and a nature pavilion support outdoor learning, trail use, and community gathering. Together, these elements turn a single-purpose detention basin into a connected landscape for movement, education, flood resilience, and public life.
Developed through a public-private partnership led by Harris County Precinct One and Houston Parks Board, with planning and design shaped by extensive community engagement, Hill at Sims continues Houston’s long effort to see its bayous not only as drainage corridors, but as civic and ecological assets. For Sunnyside and surrounding South Central Houston neighborhoods, the park creates new access to regional greenspace while preserving the basin’s critical flood-control function—demonstrating how large-scale infrastructure can be adapted to serve social, environmental, and recreational needs at once.
Homecrest Playground
Part of the larger Shore Parkway, an 816.1-acre collection of parks that stretches across Brooklyn and Queens, Homecrest Playground originally opened in 1942 with a baseball field, basketball courts, handball courts, and benches for community use. This park redesign focuses on providing different playground and recreation amenities for surrounding residents. In the early 1970s, the National Park Service began the enormous task of creating a new national recreation area in the midst of an urban center—the San Francisco Bay Area, home to 4.5 million people at the time. Riding the wake of the environmental revolution of the late 1960s, the Park Service would need to find consensus among a wide range of constituents, ... Canvas Park is an activity-packed recreation center at the heart of Regions North, the latest addition to the growing New Haven community in Ontario. Centering on sports, family play, and social activities, the park offers a 5,000-square-foot lap pool, flexible lawn spaces, sport courts, and reservable outdoor spaces that residents can use for private gatherin... This neighborhood park renovation was a collaborative effort with the city and neighborhood to create a welcoming space. The new vision sought to make the site more universally accessible and attractive for multi-generational community members. Four new “play rooms” include an outdoor fitness facility, sensory play zones, a n...Golden Gate National Recreation Area
Canvas Park
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