With the coming expansion and realignment of the highways around Downtown Houston, SWA identified the opportunity to enact a bold vision: a multi-use branded connectivity system that will leverage the immense reconstruction investment. SWA’s concept creates a continuous pedestrian loop over, under, and around the downtown highway system, thus redirecting the unpleasant experience and appearance of the freeway infrastructure into unique pedestrian-scale experiences while creating meaningful exchanges among neighborhoods and urban districts. The loop re-imagines the civic commons by artfully negotiating topography, land use, and natural resources. The renderings aim to demonstrate strategic investment zones that have the potential to initiate development of the Houston Green Loop. These visuals successfully served as a tool for communicating possibilities and investment value to the mayor’s stakeholder committee, which is comprised of prominent city officials, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists. As one example of a sustainable gesture along the Loop, at Frostown Crossing, the design proposal creates an outdoor amenity along a detention pond that is activated by the restoration of a historic bridge.
TxDOT Green Ribbon Project
The Green Ribbon establishes strategies for corridor aesthetics and landscape enhancements along Texas highways surrounding Houston. This plan addresses existing infrastructure and future expansion needs of the growing urban area.
The project focuses on intensive landscape plantings and architectural treatments, improving aesthetics while addressing air...
Heights Mercantile
In an era of one-click purchases and next-day deliveries, urban residents yearn for the once-prevalent ambiance of a lively urban environment. Heights Mercantile offers Houston an antidote. Revitalizing two acres in the heart of Houston’s historic Heights neighborhood, this low-rise, mixed-use development preserves the area’s charm while providing ...
Mason Park Bridge
Mason Park, located at the confluence of two bayous, has served as an urban oasis since 1928. Despite a century of improvements to amenities, user access was significantly compromised by the wide expanse of Brays Bayou, which bisected the 104-acre green space into distinct northern and southern sections. Adjacent road and rail infrastructure further exacerbate...
Portsmouth Square
Portsmouth Square is the heart of San Francisco’s Chinatown: the main civic park for all community festivals and events as well as an important day-to-day outdoor living room for the community. Centered in the densest community in the United States west of the Hudson River, the park plays a critical role in the health and well-being of the local residents, ove...