midtown park tour with design workshop

In March, we had the opportunity to tour Midtown Park with Design Workshop (thanks, Alex!) and wanted to share a few of the photos of this inspiring project! But first, here’s some back story on the project and the Midtown District.

History
In 1999, the Midtown Redevelopment Authority began working with developers to assemble a six-acre tract of land located in the heart of Midtown in Houston. From 2000 to 2013, the land acquisition of the six acres took place. Design for the park commenced in 2014 and construction began in 2015. Midtown Park officially opened late last summer.

Design Elements
Midtown Park is a 3-acre urban park located in the heart of Midtown, on top of a 400 space parking garage, adjacent to McGowen rail station. As part of a larger 6-acre public private partnership that Design Workshop helped to negotiate, the park offers extraordinary views to downtown, and is programmed to include a variety of amenities to reflect the program needs of the greater neighborhood and community.

The park includes a formal lawn, performance pavilion, trails, market place, two restaurants, arts garden, playgrounds, social game courts, and interactive and passive water features, gardens and dog park.

Art works by Sharon Engelstein include two interactive sculptures for the park’s play area, “Tall Ma” and “Little Ricky,” that at first glance may look like large boulders. Engelstein is a longtime resident of Houston and is known for her organic, bubbly sculptural forms.

The wall at the Main Street entrance to Midtown Park features Dixie Friend Gay’s mosaic landscape titled “Wild Wonderland.” The 18-foot-long mural of hand formed and hand glazed mosaic tiles is dedicated completely to Houston flora and fauna. Dixie Friend Gay is a nationally acclaimed artist whose prolific career spans more than three decades.