Houston Center’s on-street garden
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.
The trees were planted when the garden was first developed at the time the adjacent building, known as 1 Houston Center, was opened in 1978. Therefore, the live oaks that were part of the original garden are mature and provides the canopy and fantastic shade the day this photo was taken.
The winding walks with benches on a filled area creates changes in the walkway elevations and a feeling of more space than if it was level. A person in the park is higher than the passing cars. That, combined with the plantings as screening, contributes to not feeling like you are on the street. An interesting part of this park is that it is over a parking garage.
The photo was taken as I was walking across the sky bridge from the The Shops at Houston Center to 1 Houston Center at lunch time, saw the great view with the sun just right and people in the area. The only camera available was my BlackBerry with a view through the tinted glass of the sky walk. But, you get the idea that it is a great place–even that day when the temperature was in the 90′s.
Tags: Private_Owner
