No one was clamoring for our own version of Central Park or Navy Pier; no one was holding their breath for a dramatic makeover of the waterway best known for eating cars and flooding.
Rays of Texas sunlight peeked through the riparian forest and reflected off the river current, guarded by sandy banks and high cliffs.
Paddle a canoe down Buffalo Bayou, and you’ll encounter turtles sunning on logs and egrets hunting for minnows, but also sycamore and oak trees dipping low from banks covered in bags of concrete, heaps of rubble, and vegetation.
The Army Corps of Engineers signed off on the permit last Wednesday and Harris County Flood Control officials received approval of the individual permit for the project on Monday.
Most Houstonians are familiar with the spruced-up Buffalo Bayou, namely the serene park that winds through the city offering trails for bikers and joggers.
Houston’s first underground drinking water reservoir had been unused for years and was set for demolition when a nonprofit group reimagined it as something new: a public space.
When Manhattan’s High Line opened on the west side in 2009, locals and visitors alike flocked to the revitalized railroad trestle to marvel at its transformation into a gorgeous and walkable park.
In Istanbul (formerly Constantinople and Byzantium) there is a 1,500-year-old Roman cistern built by the Emperor Justinian to supply water to his palace and city, a purpose it continued to serve into modern times.
