Industrial Retention and Programmatic Integration

Vibrant, livable cities depend upon rich and compelling uses that relate first and foremost to the local residents.  We need to be able to respond dynamically as those needs change over time, but with judicious study and incremental changes.  As seen in the Urban Renewal experiments of the past or the unfettered commercialism of the marketplace, this response to changing needs often takes on totalizing and simply digested solutions that fail to account for those who have continuity with the site.  This proposal contends that many of the answers for what to do with the Central City Industry Park (CCIP) site come from the local conditions.  It looks first to the site itself and analyzing what is important to retain; it then looks to the surround site for opportunity and finally overlays new programs that integrate with those already imbedded within the locality.  It is through the layering and interweaving of programs that we can achieve sustainable and resilient communities. 

The Central City Industry Park’s original siting was rational, being on the edge of developed Houston, but now lies like a scar through the East End Neighborhood.  This scarring is not necessarily a product of industrial use, rather, it is the lack of intensity of land use and the disjuncture between the CCIP’s land use and the surrounding neighborhood.  It is our interest to retain industrial uses on the site but to change what industries are on site and how they use the surrounding land.  Large, open lay-down spaces for materials are replaced with green, landscaped areas; buildings footprints are densified and shared loading and parking are created.  These gestures allow for the re-introduction of the Slaughterpen Bayou and insertion of new programs like retail, residential, office and recreational.  Some of the existing buildings are retained and modified for these new programs.  The Athletic Center is in located in the United Wine Service Building and warehouses to northwest are cut through to create a new retail corridor that allows for a variety of scales and uses to encourage local operators.  The extension from the west of Stonewall Drive helps draw in residential uses that compliment the surrounding neighborhood.  Throughout we have striven to retain what is good, amplify what can be gleaned from the surroundings and lightly add programs from without, all to create a dynamic and responsive addition that will draw in and invigorate the East End.