West 8’s Master Plan for Houston Botanic Garden Receives Mayors Approval
The approval of West 8’s Master Plan for the new Houston Botanic Garden is a major milestone toward creating a premier botanic garden for Houston.
Developed and refined with extensive input from the public, West 8’s master plan reflects the top desires of the community: walking trails, experience of the bayou, shady pathways, access to nature, and places to host community events.
The 120 acres on which the Houston Botanic Garden will grow is bordered and bifurcated by Sims Bayou. The site is a fertile location that has provided the design team with a unique opportunity to integrate Houston’s waterways and complement the natural landscape.
West 8’s design gives forethought to the site’s biggest environmental challenges: flooding and intense weather events. Using Sims Bayou and the Bayou Meander as site-organizers, the Master Plan design shapes and sculpts the existing topography to create gardens along the bayou edge that absorb and invite flooding. The design also elevates the heart of the garden above the 100-year flood plain to protect buildings and the Collection Gardens from Houston’s intense floods.
The Garden is divided into two main precincts: the Island and the South Gardens. A scenic driveway called the Botanic Mile leads from the Garden entrance off Park Place Boulevard, leaps over Sims Bayou with an iconic bridge, and brings visitors to the arrival plaza in the South Gardens.
The Island will be dominated by gardens, both naturalistic and cultivated. These gardens provide year-round beauty, delight the senses, and offer educational value. A botanically inspired glass conservatory extends the plant repertoire by providing a setting for exotic plants from tropical climates. Visitor-oriented amenities – like educational facilities, an events pavilion for weddings and community receptions, a café, and a lecture hall – are strategically located to provide destinations and provisions for guests. All of these are linked by an extensive network of pathways, many of which offer shade and are weather-protected by colonnades.
By weaving together shady pathways, a mosaic of ever-changing gardens, the bayou and other water bodies, West 8’s Master Plan for Houston Botanic Garden amplifies the potential of the site’s qualities and unites the site into a coherent, “only-in-Houston,” garden experience.
Construction of the first phase of the 120-acre project, located off Interstate 45 between William P. Hobby Airport and the University of Houston, is slated to begin in 2018.
Project Team
West 8 landscape architecture & urban design p.c (Prime /Lead Design)
Berg Oliver Associates, Inc. (Enviromental Planning)
Clark Condon Associates Inc. (Local Landscape Architect)
Halford Busby Construction Consultants (Cost Estimating)
Lake|Flato Architects (Architectural Programming)
Lord Cultural Resources (Business Planning and Community Engagement)
Pentagram (Graphics and Masterplan Report)
SiteWorks (Operations and Maintenance)
Walter P Moore (Traffic Engineers)
West 8 is an award-winning international office for urban design and landscape architecture founded in 1987. Over the last 28 years West 8 has established itself as a leading practice with an international team of 70 architects, urban designers, landscape architects and industrial engineers. West 8 developed projects all over the world in places such as Copenhagen, London, Moscow, New York, Madrid, Toronto and Amsterdam. The office gained international recognition with projects such as Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam (NL), Borneo-Sporenburg in Amsterdam (NL), Jubilee Gardens in London (UK), Expo \’02 in Yverdon-les-Bains (CH) and Miami Beach SoundScape Park (US). Many of the projects are the result of groundbreaking entries in important international competitions. Recently won competitions include Toronto Waterfront in Toronto (CA), Governors Island in New York (USA) and Yongsan Park in Seoul (KR).
Amongst the numerous awards received by West 8 are the Honor Award of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), Lifetime Achievement Award for Architecture 2011, Mondriaan Fund (formerly BKVB), the International Urban Landscape Gold Award (IULA), the Prix de Rome, the Dutch Maaskant Award, the Bijhouwer Award, the Rosa Barba First European Landscape Prize, the Green Pin and the Veronica Rudge Green Prize for Urban Design.
For more information: Public Relations, Winnie Poon or Lydia Franken, +31 (0)10 – 485 58 01, pr@west8.com, www.west8.com
