Houston Chronicle LogoHearst Newspapers Logo

Houston sidewalks aren't improving fast enough

By , for the Houston ChronicleUpdated
The frontage at Milam and Preston of Market Square Tower, across from Market Square Park.
The frontage at Milam and Preston of Market Square Tower, across from Market Square Park.James Llamas

Downtown Houston is seeing a rash of new residential skyscrapers going up. A lot of people are moving downtown, and yet vibrancy doesn't seem to be taking off like it should. Sure, we get a few new restaurants here and there, but unless there is some major event or festival going on, downtown, for the most part, can still be a pretty lonely place at night. We do seem to have the density — why isn't the urban life taking off?

The simple answer is that density is not enough. Not nearly enough, in fact. Density without design is pretty much dead. And I think that's where we are. The design that is needed is in the public realm — the streets and the buildings that face them. The city puts in sidewalks, but it must also control what faces the streets, and here the city is asleep at the wheel.

Consider Market Square Tower. $150 million. 40 stories of luxury apartments. And absolutely no contribution to the public realm in one of the most important locations downtown — adjacent to historic Market Square. The developers put this building in place because they know people want to live close in and be close to everything.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

And yet the developers make absolutely no contribution to exactly what people want to move downtown for: Places where things are happening.

All they offer on the street facing Market Square is a large drop-off and valet parking entrance. This frontage says we are here, but we are not part of you. This frontage is the equivalent of a gated suburban community. There appears to be room for maybe one retail establishment along Preston, but it in no way is a storefront façade.

Contrast the frontage of Market Square Tower with the park frontages along Travis and Congress streets. Here the entire block is lined with a fine-grained storefront pattern, a pattern that says we belong to this neighborhood, and that more importantly makes Market Square into an attractive and desirable "place."

The building frontages on Congress Avenue across from Market Square Park lined with a fine-grained storefront pattern.

The building frontages on Congress Avenue across from Market Square Park lined with a fine-grained storefront pattern.

James Llamas

The builders of Market Square Tower, and by extension the City of Houston, are relying on public-realm infrastructure put in place more than 100 years ago. Without the commercial/public frontage of these two streets, Market Square would not have been the attractive place that it is today, in spite of all the wonderful improvements recently made to the park itself. The park and the commercial frontage make this square a place.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Market Square Tower is clearly not contributing, in this space, to the development of a vibrant public realm.

Aris Market Square, a 32-story tower going up on the south corner of the square, might be following in the path of Market Square Tower. Current plans show some retail along Preston. But Market Square Tower also showed much more retail in early plans. Did these two towers receive the rebates associated with the Downtown Living Initiative that was supposed to spur a lively street scene downtown?

Is the design of Market Square Tower contributing to a vibrant public realm?

Is the design of Market Square Tower contributing to a vibrant public realm?

Hugh Hargrave

Who is minding the store here?

Should we care what developers put on the ground floor along the sidewalks? Isn't it just their property, to do with as they please, as long as they meet construction and safety codes?

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Maybe if these buildings were isolated, off by themselves in a field somewhere, we wouldn't need to care.

But they are not isolated. In fact, no one would build a $150 million tower out in a pasture somewhere. There is a very large value that comes to that tower because it is built in our public realm: The streets, sidewalks, parks, etc., that make up the bones of the city. As citizens we have a very large stake, through the taxes that built this infrastructure, in how this city develops. We expect the market of course to guide exactly what goes where. But we don't, or at least we shouldn't, expect nothing in return from those who benefit from our investment.

We should be expecting so much more than what the likes of Market Square Tower is giving in return for their use of our precious investment. City blocks in the best urban places have retail coverages of at least 75 percent, with no one storefront occupying more than about 15 percent to 25 percent of the block. Density with this kind of pattern results in real urban vibrancy.

Fortunately, not all developers are as indifferent to the public realm as our friends at the Market Square Tower appear to be. Several buildings going up in both downtown and Midtown will provide significant retail store frontage on their ground floors. SkyHouse on Main is one very good example. Post Properties on Bagby is one of our best established examples of walkability. So it can and is being done.

The public realm of SkyHouse on Main.
The public realm of SkyHouse on Main.
Karen Warren/Staff

But I fear SkyHouse and a few others might be the exception and Market Square Tower closer to the rule. Complete streets must include all the public realm — including the public face of each and every building.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

A public realm implies that there is a public trust. The public trust doctrine is a fairly ancient piece of common law that holds that "certain natural and cultural resources are preserved for public use, and that the government owns and must protect and maintain these resources for the public's use."

I cannot reference any case law in terms of public streetscapes that might apply the public trust doctrine, but the idea should be clear. The "bones" of any municipality — streets, sidewalks, parks, etc., are a public investment. The streets, and the buildings or parks that front them, are in a sense public rooms. We own these public rooms, and the city therefore must protect and maintain the quality of this public resource on our behalf.

The City of Houston appears to be afraid to act on our behalf in terms of the public trust of our urban open space. We do have a Walkable Places Committee operating under the Planning Department. But they are loathe to put standards with any teeth into place. They seem to be afraid that they will drive away development if there are any rules that mandate what the public realm should look like.

Granted — not every place is ready to be a walkable place. Downtown and Midtown certainly are. What kind of excuse can there be for allowing Market Square Tower to have squandered such an important urban space? Rules that build community will not drive quality developers away. Rules, and their certainty, will attract quality developers.

It is not just about downtown. We have WalkUPs (Walkable Urban Places) springing up in several places. I fear for the evolution of the East End I live in and have come to love. Here we have made a public investment of more than $300 million in Metro's Green Line. Already we are seeing some development pulling back from the sidewalk and building suburban-style strip centers.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Mayor Turner — do not allow the city to fail us. Encourage your planning department and its committee to come up with real rules that will help us, and other communities, build the community we deserve. The Second Ward, in the heart of the East End, is on your list of Complete Communities. We have the bones for walkability. Help us flesh them out!

John S. Jacob is Professor and Extension Specialist and Director of the Texas Coastal Watershed Program, part of the Texas A&M University System (Dept. of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences, Texas AgriLife Extension Service and Texas Sea Grant). The views expressed here are entirely his own.


Bookmark Gray Matters. It is in a sense a public room.

|Updated
By