NewUrbanStreets

Historic street brick have been reused in the newly re-programed, re-built and opened Market Square Park. The history and art in the previous incarnation was preserved and expanded while adding a lot more to do.

Sidewalk cafes do “activate” the street by providing a reason for people to stay on the sidewalk; to see those driving by and be seen. In a city where smoking is prohibited inside–like Houston–the cafes are a place for the smokers. In small restaurants they provide additional floor space to sell meals. For larger restaurants they provide the same advantage. i.e. a space to increase earnings–all provided by the tax payers, Houston does have a permit fee cover the administrative expense of the permit.

Houston is well known for pickup trucks and I think one of the things that made some decide to drive one was our “Truck Loading Zones”. The zones were conveniently placed to serve the businesses nearby. But, any truck could park for free. So, the zone were often used by non-delivery trucks and hence did not serve the purpose for deliveries. A control scheme had to be found that provided for deliveries to the businesses in the CBD.

In my opinion the key to a long-life concrete or brick unit paver surface–assuming the foundation structure is properly built–is re-sanding. As discussed in other articles at this blog the sand is the “glue” that “locks” the individual pavers together.

During the eight years of street reconstruction in downtown Houston Texas we found many historic street bricks that paved the early streets of Houston in the mid-1800s. The City’s policy was to save the bricks for use in future projects. Two projects have been identified and so there was a need to sort the stored bricks and finally return some of them to service.

The Travis St. Portal to Buffalo Bayou was built by the Cotswold Project as a pedestrian connection from the street down to a future walkway along the bayou. The winding, tree lined and lighted walkway is on the west side of  the Travis St. bridge on the south side of the bayou across the street from the Spaghetti Warehouse restaurant.