NewUrbanStreets

Biking is becoming a more popular mode of transportation for employees commuting to work. In Houston the bus/LRT agency, METRO, has added bike racks to the front of the “local” buses and opened storage lockers in the bottom of the long-distance buses that serve the Park and Ride lots. At least the racks on the front of the local buses are being used as I often see the bikes perched there. I ride the Park & Ride daily and only twice in the past three years saw someone using the shallow locker accessed from outside. He told me he does not like using the lockers as his bike is regularly scoffed from bouncing and vibrations while lying on its side. But that is another story and this post is about unique bike racks. (more…)

Downtown Houston has added over a 1000 trees in the sidewalks since the mid 1990′s. Various designs were used that were driven by cost concerns and by salesman’s claims. This post will address the locations where the sidewalk was built of concrete unit pavers. Other lessons learned about tree wells in sidewalks will be posted here in hopes they help you minimize maintenance cost.

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Prairie Street was home of the original Cotswold “Test Blocks” and has many amenities. In this post we will look at the “icons”.

The icons are pre-cast concrete structures on each block between Travis St. and Crawford St at Minute Maid Baseball Park. The two Test Blocks–the block either side of Main St.–have one at each end of each block. The other blocks have one each at each intersection. The planter pot on top is watered by the same irrigation system that waters the nearby new trees and planter beds.

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The downtown area of Houston Texas was plagued by the multi-colored boxes offering “news” papers that often only provided free advertisements for used cars, real estate, etc. The common view was many were far from “news” but would contain some thread of news that–in the mind of the legal eagles–qualified them as something protected by the first amendment: i.e. Freedom of Speech. That left us with distribution boxes full of papers few read that quickly became a hazard to the pedestrian and private property when they fell into the main path of the sidewalk or the street; blew into the building’s glass store fronts, contents pull out and set on fire; and created what appeared to be disorder and visual blight. (more…)

During the street reconstruction/reconfiguration era (1998 to 2008) In downtown Houston we added concrete unit paver crosswalks at many intersections. The colors and patterns were selected to support an identity to the location and correlate with the various districts: i.e. the Theater District; the Skyline District, etc. They clearly define the area of the crosswalk but their installation and maintenance is challenging. This article will highlight several of the situations you want to avoid if you install similar crosswalks. (more…)

Part of the theme on Preston Street in downtown Houston celebrates the water underground in an urban setting. There is more about that in the article here about the Cotswold Program.

Underground water in the City is usually seen when looking into a hole at a broken pipe or when a manhole lid is off and you can see inside Traffic cones are typically around the hole to warn traffic away. To symbolize those situations precast concrete cones are placed throughout the Preston St. enhancements. But a cone is not a bollard. In a few places the cones were intended to shield planter beds and keep cars in driveways. We hoped the cars would avoid them. But plants grow and street lights burn out and the cute little concrete cones can not be seen by the drivers–even those that care. (more…)