UrbanPublicSpaces.com

Lauren’s Garden is a memorial to Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas, a Houstonian killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. She was a passenger on United Flight 93, the hijacked airplane that crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside.  The garden includes a fountain and a memorial to all victims of the 2001 tragedy. It is another of the destinations inside the one-acre park that has a sense of place all to itself. Certainly the memory of that horrific day and the deaths of so many like Lauren brings a much deserved respectful quiet and peace to the small area. (more…)

Hines, a world leader in real estate investment, built an elegant public space at the corner of Lamar and Louisiana Streets in downtown Houston. The area had been a large open paved patio with a large contemporary sculpture that 99.9% of the public hurried past–it did not contribute to their day. (more…)

Houston Center is a business, living and leisure complex of sky-walk connected buildings in downtown Houston. The buildings and the centrally located garden in this photo are managed by Crescent Real Estate Equities, Ltd. The garden, at the corner of McKinney and Caroline, is a great place to get away from the glass, metal and concrete world of the inner downtown Houston office towers. (more…)

I have driven through roundabouts in England but do not recall how the pedestrian space around them was used. In the case of one of the new roundabouts here in Houston the design provided great garden-like open spaces with benches and large plants. This space is part of the Washington on Westcott Roundabout Initiative, Inc.–a non-profit organization of neighborhood associations and community leaders donating their time. (more…)

The Travis St. Bayou Portal to Buffalo Bayou was built by the Cotswold Project as a pedestrian connection from the street down to the future walkway along the bayou. The winding, tree lined, lighted walkway is on the west side of the Travis St. bridge on the south side of the bayou across the street from the Spaghetti Warehouse restaurant. In this photo it is on the right side of the image. The simpler walkway on the left side of the image is the accessible route. More about that below. (more…)