Discovery Green

BusinessWeek/Architectural Record Awards Winner

By Clifford A. Pearson

Since opening in April 2008, this 12-acre public park has helped energize Houston’s east side, turning a less fashionable part of town dominated by Minute Maid Ballpark, Toyota Center Arena, and the George R. Brown Convention Center into a family-friendly neighborhood attracting both residential and commercial development. Hargreaves Associates designed the park, while PageSoutherlandPage (PSP) designed a number of small buildings in the park, including a restaurant (The Grove), a café (The Lake House), a park-administration facility, an outdoor stage, and entrance pavilions for a 600-car underground parking garage.

Hargreaves laid out a main north—south promenade and a series of east—west paths leading to outdoor rooms, such as a great lawn, a picnic lawn, a performance space, a fountain, and a waterside garden next to a 1-acre lake. The firm’s design establishes strong connections between the park and its surroundings, including city streets and attractions such as the two sports venues and convention center.

Sustainability drove PSP’s architectural work, informing the placement of buildings (along rows of existing oak trees that provide shade), the selection of materials (glass facing north and east, local Gulf Coast brick facing south and west), and the design of roofs (angled to the north to bring daylight inside and induce air movement under porches). Photovoltaic panels on the porch roofs generate 8 percent of the energy needed for the park, while solar hot-water heating reduces energy use by the restaurant and café, and recycled groundwater from the garage helps supply the lake. PSP designed the buildings to LEED Gold standards.

“This project shows the power of public space,” states Lawrence Speck, FAIA, the lead designer for PSP, who is particularly proud of the broad mix of people coming to the park. While wealthy Houstonians and philanthropic groups such as the Kinder Foundation supplemented public funding for Discovery Green, they made it clear from the start that the park would be for everyone in town, says Speck. In addition to drawing more than 700,000 visitors in its first year, the park has attracted new construction, such as a 37-story residential tower on one side and a 30-story office building on another.

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