NewUrbanStreets

Note – This is a followup article to Trees in the Parking Lane on Dallas St and Leaves Stamped in Concrete.

There is another thing we tried in the Dallas St. project to give it a special urban identity. The traffic engineers–correctly applying the requirements of the traffic control manual–said there had to be a continuous white line between the parking lane (with the trees) and the lane of moving traffic. We have enough of the unappealing look of chipped, ragged thermoplastic stripping and the fading painted stripes. Besides, that is so typical and this street needed to have its own character–like many others in downtown Houston–but with a limited budget.

Banners are a favorite addition to the streetscape as they create a festive feel and a sense of pageantry. But they are not inexpensive to install and maintain and will take more staff time than you may think. One of the big issues in Houston is what is allowable on the banner–the type of content–and the quality of the image. In Houston, we have a very strict sign ordinance that comes into play as soon someone wants to use the banner as a sign depicting a company, service or product. There is a short list of special provisions that allow for deviations from the norm for specific areas and for very large events.

Today is January 1, 2010 and I thought it appropriate to spot-light a history-related amenity on the streets in downtown Houston. The Historic Markers, as they are called, are on Texas Avenue between Smith and Avenida de las Americas (map). Each one is a very heavy cast iron structure made up of several components stacked on top of each other around a street light pole with historical information panels at eye level.

The design of the castings is, at least for me, reminiscent of the train industry. That is appropriate as the center of Texas Avenue hosted a freight rail track in the early days of Houston. In fact the track is still there as we tried to install a water line under it but found the 2-foot think concrete base still held there–with the rails. It was far too much trouble and expense to remove.

In various locations in the newly rebuilt streets in downtown Houston you will find a stone tablet with an engraved, short poetic phrase and the author’s name.  The tablets are surrounded by concrete unit pavers as shown in the photo here.  Look for them on the streets served by the METRO buses.

They were installed at the time the sidewalk was re-built.  You could add similar stone tablets to an existing sidewalk.

One of our Cotswold projects anticipated removing many old street bricks. We found bricks in many streets but the street where they were to be saved for reuse was also where we were removing unused old railroad tracks and placing the new water, waste water and storm water lines. But, we did not find enough bricks to rebuild the planned two blocks of Commerce Street either side of Main Street.

Looking back on that disappointment I now believe that was a blessing. Not that it was a bad idea but that we did not have the contract requirements in place to recreate a pavement equal to what our forefathers built. We also did not have a consistent brick source. We did plan plan to install the old bricks on a concrete slab to support the heavier vehicles of today.

Downtown Houston’s place-making strategy is clearly seen in the use of specialized street name signs.  The specialization is at two levels. First is the dome extension at the top-center that sets the intersection in downtown apart from other locations. Secondly, in that dome part of the sign is the name of the “district” (i.e. Theatre, Retail, Skyline, etc.) of the intersection.