Market Square Park’s Re-opening
The contractor’s fence came down as the last minute touches were made getting ready for the opening Saturday. But, for those looking for a place to eat lunch, walk the dog or curious to see the changes the park was “open”.
The concept of the new park, as opposed to the previous concept of an art and historic park, is leading to far more usage. There are the usual benches and stone walkways, fountains, color flower beds, great lighting at night and, in a couple of weeks, a local favorite eatery selling Greek fast food. There was unfettered green space for the dogs but they made that space unappealing to the non-dogs. The new park has a great dog area-the best I have seen-with plastic bag dispensers.
I
equate the previous design to an outdoor history museum/art gallery and the new design to a park with art and history elements-plus a whole lot more. Certainly the dog area with a pool does a good job of trying to corral the little compost makers. The restaurant with outdoor tables will hopefully have enough revenue streams to make it. Niko Nikos was selected to run it and they have a strong following at the original venue on Montrose.
A very classy part of the park is Lauren’s Garden, funded by the Lauren Catuzzi Grandcolas Foundation in memory of Lauren and the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Lauren died that day as she was in the plane aimed at the White House when it went down in the field in Pennsylvania. Be sure to find the story of the fountain and the various symbols created in memory of that flight. For example the 41 stones positioned above the surface of the water are for the 41 people on the plane with Lauren. This is the first memorial in Houston to the victims of the 9-11 attacks.
It is true that more money was spent and more things are included now than in the last design. To me what made the difference was starting out to meet as many needs and desires as possible of those that would use the park. This is another park where the initial idea gathering and development was led by Project for Public Spaces. They stress that for a park to be successful it must have 10 places to go and 10 things to do at each place. That is what Market Square Park did not have-but now does. Mary and I are proud that we led one of the Saturday morning teams as part of the PPS Workshop.
Watch for more posts about the places in this park. Click here for a location map.
Tags: Dogs, Publicly-Owned
