McGowen Green
So, over the years there has been a lot of discussion about what to do with the “superblock” at McGowen and Main. Lots of people have wanted to see a major mixed-use development go in there, and I think that would be an acceptable use of the land.
However, as we’ve recently seen with Discovery Green downtown, investing in appropriate public space can also be a big boost to the area surrounding.
I’m of the opinion that investing in a park with a massive underground parking deck beneath it (to be shared among all the adjacent blocks) would be the best revitalization plan the city could undertake for that under-developed space.
Here’s my illustration of this concept:
The park takes up the northern three blocks in the
Critical features to make this a success include extending Tuam Street as a new east-west connection, and providing underground parking sufficient to serve most of the blocks nearby. I’d recommend the city then waive all parking requirements in those blocks (highlighted in yellow above). The city should also rebuild the surrounding streets with ample on-street parking.
I’d also be strongly in favor of them buying the block on the Northeast corner of McGowen and Main and hiring a fee developer to build a demonstration mixed-use building there, one that exemplifies all they’re looking for with the new urban corridor standards.
Lastly, I think they should anchor the park with a community institution. A reborn YMCA, with equal parts recreational facilities and community meeting space would do nicely. An added bonus: the City could probably build that facility and trade the new location for the YMCA’s current downtown land and building, which are sorely underutilizing (and uglifying) a prime block in the heart of the skyline district. If the city could acquire the YMCA’s current site, they could sell it for redevelopment at a significant profit, and there’s probably no better location for a high-end residential tower than that block, right on the edge of the Allen Center.
I also think that bottom floors of that particular site could be useful for something else… but we’ll get to that another day 
So, those are my thoughts, I’d love to hear yours! Leave them in the comments!
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: development, Downtown, Houston, light-rail, McGowen Green, McGowen Station, METRO, Midtown, parks, real estate, redevelopment, transit, transportation, Urbanism, YMCA
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What software did you use? I honestly think that it would be better if you create a masterplann but let the overall area grow organically instead of making each building look the same.
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Hey Andrew — could you email me your email address? I’d like to send you something I’m working on that I think would interest you. lathyris (at) hotmail (dot) com
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Carlos:
I made the sketch in Illustrator CS3.
I agree about letting the area grow organically. The colors only represent building footprints, or in the case of yellow highlights a completely open-ended redevelopment area.
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Hello it’s me again. I was wondering if there was any way we could talk more about this through e-mail, I have some additional ideas to this park project. Currently, I am working in this project doing a totally different redevelopment for this site, obviously it is a still a park but quite different. I would like to discuss that with you since you really like this subject as much as I do.
Thanks
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First of all, could this space becoming a park actually become reality or is it just fantasy. Two, how can help to make this become a reality?
Also, who would finance the garage? I that’s a great idea, but I’m sure it’s pretty expensive. Maybe all developments in the yellow shaded radius would have to pay a fee (small or large?). Sort of like our stadium deals…city pays a portion and the private sector pays the other, after all, it would be a great amenity for the developers to have, especially considering the added traffic it might bring if they were to have bottom level retail/restaurants etc.
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Jessie,
Thanks for the comment. The garage could be financed by the TIRZ, and they could collect revenue from people who use it. Also, individual developers could purchase parking rights for their projects to provide a certain amount of free valet or resident parking. There are lots of ways it could work, but you’d need a strong local coalition to back it as we had for Discovery Green.
What could we do to make it happen? I’m not sure. Go buy the land from Camden and give it to the city with deed restrictions in place
I think the best thing that an average person can do is just keep the conversation going, and take the time to write your city councilman and let him know you’ve seen this idea and that you support it.
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[...] This is an interesting idea, one that I like a lot. There are certainly areas in Houston where we have this exact situation: in Midtown there are a number of prime locations that are practically begging to be turned into a park, not least of which is the infamous “Super Block“. [...]