Designers Are Creating A Houston Undefined By Cliches

Houston is an impressive, culturally diverse destination city. Developers and designers want more people to see it that way.

Unlike Paris and other cities known for world-famous landmarks, Houston is coming to be defined by modern mixed-use projects like CityCentre, often known as a “city within a city,” and the redeveloped historic post office Post Houston.

But the city is missing an easily digestible elevator pitch to describe it to outsiders as a destination, panelists said Wednesday at Bisnow’s Houston Architecture and Design Summit at Graniti Vicentia.

“Houston is a cultural destination,” said Sebastian Torres, senior associate at design firm Populous. “We really have to lean into that and really understand that it's not about one recognizable landmark, but it's about a series of events.”

When Perkins & Will Managing Principal Marc el-Khouri moved to Houston in 2008, he said the city was only known for three submarkets: The Galleria, Downtown and the Medical Center. It has matured over the years, with developers like Midway creating mixed-use districts with enough critical mass to become a destination on their own.

Midway developed CityCentre, a 50-acre mixed-use destination in West Houston that first opened in 2009. Now Midway’s largest undertaking is East River, a mixed-use development spanning more than 150 acres along Buffalo Bayou. The completed Phase 1 includes a nine-hole golf course, creative office and retail space, and an apartment complex. 

Developments of this size require partnerships with local communities and public entities, said Anna Deans, Midway's executive vice president.

“It’s a mini city. It's one-fifth the size of Downtown,” Deans said. “Those projects don't happen without help from the city.”

Community engagement also brings in voices to help shape the project.

“The history of the area shaped the architecture. The tenancy is informed by what the locals have been asking for,” she said. “The artwork is all by local artists. And because of that, it's a very unique offering that represents the 5th Ward and parts of the 2nd Ward.” 

CityCentre and East River were designed with the same guiding principles, and the difference between their look and feel reflects the communities they are part of, Deans said. As a city without zoning and uniformity, unique mixed-use developments are something Houston has to offer visitors.

“M-K-T is Houston,” el-Khouri said. “The POST is Houston. CityCentre is Houston. East River is Houston.”  

POST, Lovett Commercial’s redevelopment of a historic post office, offers a space where all people are welcome to visit, helping redefine Downtown Houston. Preparing for those visitors takes serious architectural considerations, Lovett Managing Director Kirby Liu said. 

“How to prepare for the people is extremely important to the longevity of your project over time and really understanding how you can harden your building against the biggest natural disasters of all: the people of Houston,” Liu said.

Now the city is investing in Downtown Houston to create comfortable connections between different destinations, and developers are contributing to an enlivened street level with projects like the $50M repositioning of 910 Louisiana and the rethinking of Houston Center, el-Khouri said.

“You have the trifecta of the city, the designers as well as the developers all working hand in hand, trying to coordinate that experience and curating it to a point where it becomes a coherent network of destinations and webs that connect them,” he said.

With the right experience, visitors do see that Houston is an impressive, progressive city, HOK senior principal Roger Soto said, adding that Houstonians overlook what the city has to offer. But places like M-K-T Heights, a retail development being expanded with the redevelopment of historic packing plant buildings, help define what Houston has to offer. 

“None of these places are about space, none of these places are about oil, none of these places are about the Astrodome,” el-Khouri said. “It's those cliches that we need to leave behind.”