How successful is the Houston park....do you know?
City parks, bringing urban centers back to life
By JoAnn Greco
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, July 30, 2010; 1:32 PM
I watch as a man lazily makes his way over the steppingstones in a low-slung pool that emerges from a limestone-clad water wall. Nearby, framed by the steel of St. Louis's iconic Gateway Arch, a mother points out a gleaming red Mark di Suvero sculpture to her toddler, and fountains mist two besuited men as they engage in shop talk and scarf down lunchtime hot dogs.
This is St. Louis's Citygarden, a small part of a master plan to redevelop the Gateway Mall, a 1.2-mile ribbon of green space connecting the still-splendid Arch with the once-grand Union Station. The mall's fortunes rose and fell with St. Louis's cycles of growth (in the early 1900s it was among the five most populous American cities) and abandonment (scores of buildings were razed by midcentury) before ending up as a patchwork of empty, littered and overgrown lots.
Citygarden, then, is more than just a pretty face. In the past year, seemingly every city I've landed in has boasted a new park or was in the process of planning one. But whereas parks unveiled in recent years by New York and Chicago - the much-ballyhooed High Line and Millennium Park, respectively - serve as desserts added to the already laden menus of residents and tourists, it seems that new parks in other cities are burdened with a much more challenging mandate.
In cities such as St. Louis, Houston and Detroit - all victims of disinvestment in the 1960s and '70s - new parks are charged with spurring development and creating downtowns that are places to live, not just work. It's a role previously assigned to the '80s-era performing arts center and the '90s-era downtown sports venue. Thanks to parks' across-the-board appeal, wide diversity of uses and heavy programming, though, they may be the piece that ultimately completes the puzzle.
For visitors, these new downtown parks offer more than tantalizing glimmers of hope and welcome rays of sunshine. In St. Louis, world-class sculpture is the standout; in Detroit, a varied slate of live entertainment keeps things hopping; and in Houston, boccie courts and model boat racing offer a perfect afternoon of family fun.
Here's a closer look at this trio.
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