The site is an underused mail facility on
the edge of Downtown Houston, perched on a retaining wall above Buffalo Bayou
with the downtown street grid beyond. To the east, separated by freeway ramps
and freight rail, is the elevated campus of the University of Houston Downtown.
The project unfolds in three moves: the
street that currently segregates the bayou from the site is relocated to its
center; the bayou banks are re-contoured to connect bayou level paths to the
street grid; and the university is linked in with an elevated plaza. New public
spaces are created on multiple levels: the sloping banks of the slowly moving
bayou, the urban street and intermodal terminal, and the elevated path
overlooking the skyline.
The rail terminal is seen not as a sealed box but as a porous fabric. Transfers are made to high speed rail, bus, light rail, cabs, bikes, bayou paths, and even kayaks. These connections unfold outside the terminal itself, on streets, pathways, and bayou greenways activated by the presence of students and residents. A fractured fabric is transformed into a hyper-connected node, linked to Dallas and Austin as well as to the surrounding city’s neighborhoods.
