Transcript
The
A Newsletter of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership
On May 4 and 5, The Bayou Beckons took over Houston’s downtown waterfront! As the event expanded to cover two days this year, over 2,000 participants, volunteers and spectators came down to Sesquicentennial Park and Allen’s Landing to take advantage of Buffalo Bayou as a diverse recreational resource. More photos from The Bayou Beckons inside…
From the Editorial Pages of the Houston Chronicle ….
Imagine That IMPROVE HOUSTON BEFORE ADVERTISING ITS QUALITIES H O U S T O N C H R O N I C L E E D I T O R I A L B O A R D | J U LY 2 1 , 2 0 0 2
… “Before the next image campaign, Houston should finish the work on downtown streets and the light-rail projects and commit itself to swift completion of a linear park along Buffalo Bayou to the Port of Houston. Then it will have a seamless, attractive urban landscape pleasing to residents and worth advertising to visitors.”
Make Houston a Magnet for Creative Class RICHARD FLORIDA | JUNE 23, 2002
“ …Focus on quality of life and livability, from the urban core out …Efforts to limit and control billboards, plant trees and restore and revitalize the bayous are exactly what is needed to create the livability and quality of life members of the Creative Class desire… … Invest in active outdoor recreation – the amenities that the Creative Class desires. Keep in mind that Creative Class people enjoy active, participatory forms of creation…They look for urban parks, bike trails and running paths, not just professional sports stadiums…”
Buffalo Bayou Master Plan to be Released After 18 months of extensive community outreach and consensus-building, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership will release its long-awaited Buffalo Bayou master plan, a document that will guide the development of our city’s historic
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waterway over the next 25 years.
Sponsored by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, City of Houston, Harris County and Harris County Flood Control
District, the plan has been coordinated by the Thompson Design Group (Boston), a firm
internationally recognized for reconnecting cities to their waterfronts.
We invite you to join Mayor Lee Brown,
Judge Robert Eckels, and other governmental, business and civic leaders as we unveil the Buffalo Bayou master plan.
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 23, 2002 10:30 AM PRESS CONFERENCE NOON PANEL DISCUSSION THE WORTHAM THEATRE CENTER Invitations will be mailed in the near future.
The Buffalo Bayou Partnership thanks the following businesses, organizations, and individuals for their generous support of The Bayou Beckons 2002.
Reliant Energy/ Entex Regatta Over 130 canoes and kayaks made waves on May 4th in the 31st Annual Buffalo Bayou Regatta, sponsored by Reliant Energy/Entex.
C O - S P O N S O R S A N D PA R T N E R S
Harris County Storm Water Management Joint Task Force Houston Chinese American Lions Club
Reliant Energy/Entex Regatta Corporate Cup winners Tom Helm and Carl Taylor of BHP Billiton celebrate their victory, with Buffalo Bayou Partnership Board of Directors Chair Toni Beauchamp.
ADMIRAL CLASS
Reliant Energy/Entex COMMODORE CLASS
Houston City Council Member Mark Goldberg and Mike Garver of BRHGarver Construction, Inc. took first place in the Contractors’ Cup, an opportunity for engineering and construction firms to compete with each other in a category separate from the other corporate teams.
Budweiser HEB/Central Market Hines Houston Chronicle KHMX-Mix 96.5 CAPTAIN CLASS
ACT Pipe BRH-Garver Claire Caudill City of Houston Convention & Entertainment Facilities Dept. City of Houston Parks & Recreation Dept. Locke Liddell & Sapp Oshman’s Sporting Goods Pappas Restaurants Pate Engineers Turner Collie & Braden United Engineers Vinson & Elkins W.M. Dillard & Associates FIRST MATE
3D/International Bank One Bayou Place BCM Genetics Beyer Construction BHP Billiton Chuck Carlberg & Mack Fowler C.E. Shepherd Co. Clark Condon Associates Cobb Fendley & Associates Rey de la Reza Architects Excalibur Construction Lynne Johnson Pacific Dental Benefits Picnic SLA Studio Land The SWA Group Treebeards ANYTHING THAT FLOATS JUDGES
Houston Dragon Boat Festival The Houston Dragon Boat Festival, a new addition to this year’s Bayou Beckons, featured 12 teams of 25 paddlers competing in 250-meter dragon boat races.
At the Dragon Boat Festival, over 1,500 spectators and race participants spent the day celebrating Asian culture at Allen’s Landing.
Anything That Floats Parade The Children’s Museum of Houston posed before “dining” on the bayou in their prizewinning craft, “Floating World Cuisine.”
Emily Cole, former Principal, Jeff Davis High School Bob Eury, Central Houston VOLUNTEER GROUPS
Reliant Energy/Entex Downtown Houston Association The Bayou Beckons 2002 was made possible through the dedicated efforts of the following committee members: Emily Cole Leigh Cutler Scott Deaner Donna Grimes Guy Hagstette Eugene Lee Shawn McFarland Anne Olson Amy Pruett Caroline Quan Long Bob Scheffler Chad Shaw Terri Thomas
KIDFISH The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s 2,800-gallon KIDFISH tank gave kids the opportunity to learn how to cast a line and catch a fish.
School of Fish Education Pavilion At the School of Fish Education Pavilion, 10 organizations provided environmental and educational activities, all aimed at combining creativity and learning in a bayou setting.
Lighting Up the Bayou The Buffalo Bayou Landscape will benefit from a major lighting and public art master plan being developed by artist Steven Korns of Amherst, MA and L’Observatoire and Halie Light, international lighting design firms based in New York City. Conceived in conjunction with planned recreational trails, parks and cultural and commercial development, the comprehensive lighting and public art plan will establish a distinctive visual identity for the downtown bayou corridor. As part of their work, the lighting consultant team has analyzed Buffalo Bayou according to three levels of experience – perception from within the bayou, perception from nearby, and perception at a distance. In all locations, lighting will create a setting and mood, drawing people’s attention to specific elements and features that comprise the bayou environment. Beginning with fundamental trail lighting and extending through treatments of peripheral space, the bayou will be viewed as a place alive with vegetation, water and its patterns, cycles and movements.
Buffalo Bayou Lighting Concept “To love nature, catch it as it changes.” — JAPANESE SAYING
• Trail lighting (first order lighting) will be provided by a consistent, specially designed Buffalo Bayou fixture. To identify the trail at a distance, additional “point sources” will be placed on the light fixtures.
“Lighting in the Buffalo Bayou domain will draw people’s attention to the movement, rhythms, and patterns of the living bayou. How it changes.
• Environmental lighting (second order lighting) will illuminate key surfaces such as walls, and the undersides of bridge decks and columns. An entire category of lighting invention and innovation will involve the lighting of Buffalo Bayou trees.
Lighting can reveal elements of change in the bayou experience at night, create a stronger perception of the bayou with the senses, and integrate the bayou’s living dynamics into the city’s fabric.”
The bayou changes throughout the day in many ways that are familiar to us, demonstrating momentary, daily, monthly, yearly, and random cycles and patterns. How the bayou changes reveals how it is alive.
— Buffalo Bayou Lighting and Public Art Master Plan
• Public art/special event lighting (third order lighting) will draw visitors’ attention to special bayou features. Treatments may range from completed “rooms” to individual remnant structures to such artistic treatments as lighted photographs, video projections, and sculptural reliefs. With its large geographic area and varied conditions, Buffalo Bayou can benefit from a wide range of lighting and public art treatments, involving both temporary and permanent works.
Buffalo Bayou Partnership received the Houston Business Journal’s inaugural Landmark Quality of Life Award at a spring ceremony held at The Houstonian. In citing the organization, the HBJ awards committee said: “The Buffalo Bayou Partnership has affected the downtown landscape and developed projects geared toward enhancing the quality of life for Houston residents. It has lobbied for beautification of the Bayou and striven to create a waterway where residential, commercial and industrial properties can co-exist successfully.” HBJ’s Landmark Awards recognize commercial real estate deals and developments that make a significant impact on the Houston landscape. This year’s awards were co-sponsored by Stewart Title.
Welcome – Trust for Public Land The Buffalo Bayou Partnership extends a Texas-size “welcome” to the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national non-profit land conservancy organization that recently opened its first office in Houston. We are very pleased that TPL Houston director Linda Shead is sharing office space with the Buffalo Bayou Partnership at its new home at 1113 Vine Street, Suite 200 in Houston’s Warehouse District. Since its founding in 1972, TPL has helped safeguard millions of acres of natural, scenic and historic lands throughout the U.S. Here in Houston, TPL will be busy developing a land acquisition strategy for the Galveston Bay area. This program will assist local governments around Galveston Bay in providing public access to the bay and its tributaries, while conserving wetlands and other special habitats. As the Buffalo Bayou Partnership progresses with its land acquisition efforts, we hope to collaborate with TPL on open space and conservation projects.
O AT I N G B
on the Bayou
Mike Garver (center), immediate past chairman of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, receives the Landmark Quality of Life Award. Pictured with Mike are: (left to right) Ed Lester, Stewart Title; J. Fred Baca, Houston Realty Breakfast Club; Ed Wulfe, Wulfe & Co.; and D’Artagnan Baker, Fox 26 News.
Anne Olson, Buffalo Bayou Partnership president, received The Park People’s 2002 Leadership Award in recognition of her “outstanding commitment to the acquisition and development of park lands and green corridors along Buffalo Bayou.” The Leadership Award was jointly presented to Anne and her husband Tom, who is director of Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s Sheldon Lake Environmental Center and former executive director of the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center. Tom was cited for his”outstanding commitment to preserving the natural world and using it as a classroom for the education of young people.”
The “Downtown Yacht Cruise,” a new addition to this year’s “Best of Buffalo Bayou” tour series schedule, was a huge success on June 1. The sold-out trip aboard a 51-foot yacht took 30 participants from Allen’s Landing down to the Turning Basin at the Port of Houston, and back downtown. Historian Janet Wagner provided an interesting and educational guided tour along the way. St. Arnold’s Brewery donated refreshments for the cruise. June 1 proved to be a day of exciting recreational activity on Buffalo Bayou; nearly 10 large boats were docked at the same time at Allen’s Landing! A fleet of Houston Yacht Club members, who are also power boat owners, switched course for a day, choosing to spend their Saturday on Buffalo Bayou over Galveston Bay. With special permission from the Coast Guard, they motored through the Turning Basin and ended up at Allen’s Landing. They moored there to stretch their sea legs before heading back to the bay.
NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID HOUSTON, TEXAS PERMIT NO. 9469
Buffalo Bayou Partnership 1113 Vine, Suite 200 Houston,TX 77002 713-752-0314
Mission Statement “The Buffalo Bayou Partnership serves as an advisory resource and liaison among groups pursuing development of Bayou amenities and the many privateand public-sector entities with interests in and/or jurisdictions over various Bayou functions. It also coordinates integration of major amenities into the Bayou Greenbelt and seeks ways to increase community involvement in Bayou-related activities.” BUFFALO BAYOU PARTNERSHIP BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Besides being the home of major destinations like Sesquicentennial Park and Allen’s Landing, Buffalo Bayou’s banks are lined with secret trails and small natural gardens far off the beaten path. Beginning with this newsletter issue, we will introduce you to these little known spaces that make Buffalo Bayou such a unique urban oasis.
Officers Toni Beauchamp, Chair Gerald D. Higdon, Vice Chair Susan Keeton, Secretary
Directors
Situated on the north side of Buffalo Bayou, directly across Memorial Drive from the Houston Police Officer’s Memorial, and just steps from the bayou’s hike and bike trails, is a slightly elevated pocket of land shaded by mature oak trees. Neatly groomed paths weave through this quiet park, which boasts new metal benches, trash receptacles, engraved moss rocks, and native perennial shade plants. Unofficially named “Jane’s Garden,” this peaceful outdoor, urban retreat along Buffalo Bayou is a memorial to Jane Howe Gregory, a Houstonian, a master gardener, a nature enthusiast, an active community volunteer, a wife, and a friend, who died of cancer in April 2001. Jane’s family and friends wanted to honor and celebrate her life in a way that would reflect her passions and interests. They realized that creating a small memorial garden in this ideal
location would provide not only a spot for private contemplation, but also would ensure a place for the public to enjoy views of the downtown skyline, the bayou, and the nearby Henry Moore sculpture. This commemorative project was a collaborative effort of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, City of Houston Parks and Recreation Department, Joint Villages Parks and Landscape Committee, Houston Seminar and Jane Gregory’s family and friends. Those involved in the project hope that Jane’s Garden will be an example and an inspiration for the creation of other pocket parks around Houston, with an ultimate goal of enhancing our city’s quality of life.
JANE’S GARDEN
In cooperation with the City of Houston Parks & Recreation Department, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership is re-landscaping flower beds along the Buffalo Bayou greenway with native grasses, wildflowers, and shrubs. If you would like to make a gift to our “Naturally Native Landscaping Fund,” please contact us at 713-752-0314.
Holly Anawaty Alan Atkinson James C. Box Brady Carruth Claire Caudill William M. Coats Kay Crooker Iris Cross Algenita Scott Davis Rey de la Reza Marsha Dodson Leslie Elkins Robert M. Eury D.V. “Sonny” Flores James W. Fonteno, Jr. William R. Franks Pat George Lainie Gordon
Lynne Johnson Willie Jordan Ann Kelsey Truett Latimer Eugene Lee Caroline Quan Long Diana Davila Martinez Anne Mendolsohn Georgianna Nichols Sarah Peterson Jack Rains F. Max Schuette Louis Sklar Robert Smith, III Terri Thomas Dinah Acord Weems Scott C. Wise Anne Olson, President Aaron Tuley, Director of Planning Leigh Cutler, Special Events /PR Assistant Sara Stevens, Planning Assistant
Ex-Officio Board Mayor Lee Brown, City of Houston Max Castillo, University of Houston - Downtown John E. de Bessonet, Harris County Park Planning Judge Robert Eckels, Harris County Commissioner Jim Fonteno, Harris County Precinct Two Guy Hagstette, Downtown District Pat Henry, Texas Department of Transportation Artie Lee Hinds, City of Houston Municipal Arts Commission Thomas Kornegay, Port of Houston Authority Commissioner El Franco Lee, Harris County Precinct One Robert Litke, City of Houston Planning and Development Department Barry Mandel, Theater District Association Mike McClellan, White Oak Bayou Association Roxan Okan-Vick, City of Houston Parks & Recreation Department Commissioner Steve Radack, Harris County Precinct Three John Sedlack, Metropolitan Transit Authority Kevin Shanley, Bayou Preservation Association Scott Slaney, American Society of Landscape Architects/Houston Chapter Art Storey, Harris County Public Infrastructure Department Michael Talbott, Harris County Flood Control District Dawn Ulrich, City of Houston Convention & Entertainment Facilities Department and Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau Jon C. Vanden Bosch, City of Houston Public Works & Engineering Department
