UrbanPublicSpaces.com

At Minute Maid Baseball Park–home of the Houston Astros–there is a privately maintained park space open to the sidewalk with perfectly maintain grass, plants, trees, statuary, and covered benches that are actually dug outs in the simulated ball field setting. As you walk to the edge and glance in the park you will get the feeling of neighborhood baseball games.  Next time you are going to a game take a moment, step off the sidewalk and enjoy the space, the baseball history and a serene moment. (more…)

When Chevron moved their corporate headquaters to downtown Houston they moved into the two towers on Smith St. and out of Houston Center 3 that was known as the Chevron Building. So that made a great property available and the law form of Fullbright and Jaworski grab it. The space is at the Fubright Tower at the corner of McKinney and Caroline. (more…)

The Houston Public Central Library in downtown was always a wonderful modern facility with great windows and views in a modern multi-story brick building with escalators. That is a long way from the one where I grew up. But time past and it needed to be updated–particularly to serve the internet connected world.  Along with the inside improvements the outside plaza area was overhauled. (more…)

Bridges have a way of attracting an element of society that is unfortunately something we must deal with — the homeless. This post is  not to propose making their lives harder but rather to share a solution for controlling public space under bridges.

I came across a solution that seems to be almost perfect as it is cheap, no one will steal it, you cannot sleep on it and it should age and discolor evenly and look like other aging concrete structures that are not considered unsightly. (more…)

An aspect about downtown Houston, and likely your city, that many may not consider when rushing to work, the theater, a ball game or out to dinner is that there are layers that go beyond the streets, sidewalks and many floors of the buildings; even beyond the pedestrian tunnels here in Houston. Admittedly downtown Houston is flat–or seems to be–until you approach Buffalo Bayou on the north and west side of the Theater District.  The varying levels of public space provides an aspect of letting one “escape” that, for me, takes the space to another dimension. (more…)