The Houston Transformation Conference and Tours

World-class projects by leading practitioners will be the focus of The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s Houston Transformation Conference.

How is the nation’s 4th largest city reshaping its identity through landscape architecture?

What are the international implications of Houston’s bold planning and development strategy?

What role can public-private partnerships play in urban park stewardship in the 21st-century?

Featuring three consecutive moderated panel discussions, Leading with Landscape II: The Houston Transformation will examine the landscape legacy of Houston, and will explore the national and international implications of the design work currently underway in the city.

The first two panels will examine completed projects and ongoing projects, respectively, and will assess the influences of culture, history, and ecology in the evolving Houston cityscape. The final panel will provide a comprehensive appraisal of the projects and issues presented and will consider their implications for city-shaping.  Key players involved in Memorial Park’s transformation will be among the distinguished individuals chosen to share their thoughts.

The day-long conference will set the stage for What’s Out There Weekend Houston, a series of free, expert-led tours of some 30 sites around the city, including Memorial Park.  A number of these tours will be led by conference presenters.

SPEAKERS.

Confirmed tours include Allen Center, Antioch Park, Bagby Park, Bayou Bend, Broadacres, Buffalo Bayou Park and the Sabine Promenade, Christ Church Cathedral, City Centre, Discovery Green, Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park, Glenwood Cemetery, Gragg Park, Hermann Park and McGovern Centennial Gardens & Cherie Flores Garden Pavilion, Hermann Square, Houston Arboretum and Nature Center, Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, Market Square Park, Memorial Park, Menil Collection Campus, Post Oak Boulevard, Rice University and the Raymond and Susan Brochstein Pavilion, Sam Houston Park, Sesquicentennial Park, University of St. Thomas, and the Woodlands.

Space is limited and these tours will fill up fast. Register Today.

Houston—the country’s fourth largest city—is known for being car-centric and zoning-averse. Now, however, it is undergoing a monumental landscape architecture-led transformation whose scale and impact could fundamentally change the city and influence city-shaping around the globe.

Planners in Houston, like those in Toronto and other major metropolises, are engaging internationally significant practitioners who incorporate ecology, culture, and design excellence to yield exceptional projects built to the highest standards. Areas that were once abandoned or deemed otherwise unusable are now recognized as prized opportunities for creating parks that will become vital connective tissue.

This work builds on a foundation of some 370 parks, parkways, and open spaces comprising more than 23,000 acres managed by the Houston Parks and Recreation Department. These parks benefit from the public-private partnerships that have advanced Houston’s ambitious plans—groups such as Central Houston Civic Improvement, Discovery Green Conservancy, Hermann Park Conservancy, and the Buffalo Bayou Partnership.

The implications of this planning and development strategy, including innovative design and stewardship models, and the resourceful use of urban fabric, will affect how we use landscape as an engine to shape 21st-century cities.