PETERSEN STUDIO

Discovery Green has become Houston’s beloved central park, transforming a sea of surface parking adjacent to the George R. Brown Convention Center into one of Houston’s most vibrant urban districts.  Over 400 annual programmed events and activities supplement the park’s fixed amenities to create a regional destination attracting over a million annual visitors.  New residential, office, and hotel towers adjacent to the park represent over a billion dollars of follow-on private redevelopment.  The park’s positive influence is felt throughout the downtown core. 

The park was developed by the Discovery Green Conservancy in ongoing partnership with the City of Houston.  Jacob Petersen was Principal-in-Charge of the extensive Discovery Green Design Team from Schematic Design through Construction Observation, with prime firm Hargreaves Associates.  PageSoutherlandPage led the design of park architecture.  The $53M fast-track park + garage project was completed in 34 months. 

Photo: Katya Horner

A native riparian edge buffers the lake from perimeter traffic, while interior lake edges connect the Lakehouse Café, the stage, and Crawford Promenade.  Built-in infrastructure allows a portion of the lake to be converted into an ice skating rink between Thanksgiving and New Years Day.  Cypress-lined boardwalks, piers, and floating water gardens anchor the lake within the regional gulf coast vernacular.      

Photo: Jacob Petersen 

A native riparian edge buffers the lake from perimeter traffic, while interior lake edges connect the Lakehouse Café, the stage, and Crawford Promenade.  Built-in infrastructure allows a portion of the lake to be converted into an ice skating rink between Thanksgiving and New Years Day.  Cypress-lined boardwalks, piers, and floating water gardens anchor the lake within the regional gulf coast vernacular.      

Photo: Jacob Petersen

The Crawford Promenade is Discovery Green’s circulation spine, linking primary destinations and activities.  Park amenities include two restaurants, a park office building, a great lawn for civic-scale events and active recreation, an outdoor stage and landform amphitheater for daily performances, dog runs, picnic areas, a lake with boardwalks and water gardens, an iconic interactive water feature and adjacent playground for children, several major public art works, and two acres of themed horticultural gardens.

Photo: Jacob Petersen

The Interactive Fountain is the heart of Discovery Green’s Family Area, which includes a Central Flyway-themed play area, picnic tables, dog runs, and artist Doug Hollis’ Mist Tree sculpture.  The Interactive Fountain is programmed to create both a low interwoven web of water, and an iconic display of larger civic-scaled jets visible from surrounding streets and towers.  The Mist Tree creates a cylinder of mist and rain in the abstracted form of a steel tree.  These sculptural water features are often crowded with hundreds of regional children and parents, enjoying the cooling playscape within Houston’s characteristically hot summer and fall climate.

Photo: Jacob Petersen

The Interactive Fountain is the heart of Discovery Green’s Family Area, which includes a Central Flyway-themed play area, picnic tables, dog runs, and artist Doug Hollis’ Mist Tree sculpture.  The Interactive Fountain is programmed to create both a low interwoven web of water, and an iconic display of larger civic-scaled jets visible from surrounding streets and towers.  The Mist Tree creates a cylinder of mist and rain in the abstracted form of a steel tree.  These sculptural water features are often crowded with hundreds of regional children and parents, enjoying the cooling playscape within Houston’s characteristically hot summer and fall climate.

Photo: Richard Petersen

Hundreds of free annual performances and events are hosted at the outdoor stage and landform seating slope.  Performances on the open-sided stage activate the park in all directions, such that visitors eating at the Lakehouse Café, or strolling along the Promenade are able to equally enjoy the entertainment.  The lake, interactive fountain, and downtown skyline provide a dramatic backdrop to the stage.        

Photo: Richard Petersen

The Great Lawn’s large flat expanse accommodates diverse informal recreational needs such as pick-up sports, frisbee, kite flying, and sunbathing, as well as large organized exercise classes, and high profile civic festivals and events including recent performances by Kings of Leon and Lyell Lovett.  Electrical infrastructure, tent sleeves, and turf reinforcement are built into the lawn to facilitate events while minimizing event-related maintenance.  Mast lighting extends use of the lawn into the evening.    

Photo: Jacob Petersen        

The Oak Allee Promenade invites visitors to stroll and relax beneath the majestic canopy of heritage oaks, cherished remnants of a previous era.  The large dining room windows of The Grove restaurant and the Treehouse upstairs are nestled into the overhanging oak branches, giving the restaurant its unparalleled downtown setting. 

Photo: Jacob Petersen

The Oak Allee Promenade invites visitors to stroll and relax beneath the majestic canopy of heritage oaks, cherished remnants of a previous era.  The large dining room windows of The Grove restaurant and the Treehouse upstairs are nestled into the overhanging oak branches, giving the restaurant its unparalleled downtown setting. 

Photo: Jacob Petersen

The Urban Gardens integrate small scale recreation, public art, a garden fountain, and intimate seating spaces within a rich garden context of flowering trees and themed horticultural gardens.  A grove of native loblolly pine trees hosts weekly markets.  The adjacent event lawn provides spill-out space for The Grove restaurant, and has become a popular venue private parties and weddings.

Photo: Jacob Petersen

A 620-car underground garage is seamlessly integrated with surface park amenities to accommodate the parking needs of the adjacent George R. Brown Convention Center, proximate sports venues, and park events.  This exceptional degree of integration resulted from the simultaneous design of park and garage under the leadership of the park design team.  Surface manifestations of the garage were transformed into park amenities: the 3-lane garage entrance ramp creates the landform seating slope for the stage, and garage stairwells were transformed into polychromatic public art works by regional artist Margo Sawyer.  Many park visitors are surprised to realize that a third of the park is actually constructed over the garage.

Photo: City of Houston