12 summtt I 9 <i V K I T 1' or almost 100 years, Main Street moved to action by Houston's brief flir- but to help torni a public/private coali- Happen s Peter Brown, to ponder age-old was exactly what its name suggcst- tation with zoning, the I Illusion chapter tion that might be able to implement any questions.' What makes a great city? Fed: the place that Houstonians of the American Institute of Architects ideas that were generated. What makes a great street? identified as rhe center of their everyday organized a workshop that brought The result was the Main Street as well as ceremonial lives, From the together the city's schools ot architec- Coalition, winch includes those with pri- The Context wharf at Allen's landing, through the ture, politicians, and professionals CO vate interests along Main as well as the In ihe great cities and streets debate business core of downtown, past the contemplate visions for Main Street's City ot t [ouston, I larris County, and, Houston is like other places. In its quest grand resiliences of local burghers, and future.1 The organizers saw an opportu- most important, Metro. Metro, with its to be "world-class" it sometimes pretends to the cluster of cultural, open space, nity to codify order along the corridor, mandate to improve transit, is an impor- to be something it is not. Houstonians and educational facilities around Rice and their publications are infused with tant source of potential funding for any too often apologize for the city's unique University, Main Street served as gather- optimism about a planning tool that Main Street revitalization, but only if a combination ot humidity, heat, swamp- ing space, home, place of work, and I loustonians had traditionally eschewed. case can be made for transit and its alien like flatness, protective blanket of oak recreational resource for the city. Even I'm I he defeat <il zoning at the polls ren- danl improvements along the corridor. trees, and automobile culture. Hut great with the advent of the automobile, Main dered the spirit, if not the ideas, of this Earlier this year, working closely with the urban places somehow manage ro weave Street, at least in the beginning, was able exercise moot. Mam Street Coalition, Making Main such local factors with location, history, to adapt. I listoric.il photographs show a At about the same time a private Street Happen reached back to its begin- and culture into unique expressions of rich diversity ot approaches to both park- group ot property owners in Midtown nings as a vision group and proposed a urban form. I he Making Maui Street ing and building typologies respectful ol formed a Tax Increment Revitali/.ation design competition for Main Street that Happen Com petition was an opportunity the older 19th-century urban fabric anil Zone for their area of Main. The TTRZ would show what could be done along to examine city-making visions in accommodating of early 20rh century is designed to freeze the tax base, then the corridor, and how transit could be a I louston's quest for greatness. At the locomotion, For perhaps ill \cars. from capture a percentage of the rise m us key aspect of the street's revitalization. same time, an examination of the oppor- 1920 to 1950, the physical scale and payments beyond the base for rcvitaliza- A request tor qualifications was sent tunities and constraints of city-making WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO GIVE HOUSTON A SIGNATURE BOULEVARD? A DESIGN COMPETITION FOR MAIN STREET OFFERS SOME SUGGESTIONS. i BY J O H N K A L I S K I form of Main Street matched well the tion efforts. Thus far, though, the out to 25 national ami international suggests challenges that must be addressed dimensions ot the pedestrians, workers, Midtown T1RZ has resulted in little VIM architectural firms, and in February of if the organizers and the selected design residents, shoppers, and motorists who ble public improvement along the corri- this year five finalists were chosen to team are to succeed in realizing their used the street. dor. Instead, there has been construction develop a master plan for the 7,5 miles of vision of Main Street greatness. The building ot the interstates did not of mostly banal apartment complexes Main running from Buffalo Bayou to rhe so much kill Main Street as slowly stran- that have done little to improve Main Astrodome. The competition culminated I lie I earns gle it, making obsolete much, though not Street's situation. in an early summer exhibition of rhe With one exception, each of the competi- all, of the thoroughfare's uses. By the Meanwhile, a third group of private finalists' proposals at the l.awndale Art tion teams was led by a well-established h'.Sils Luge blocks of land lav vacant in indn iJu.iU arost n nil the idea ol com- Center and, in June, a juried selection ot firm with strong urban design credentials. Midtown, while Mam Street downtown bining the visionary approach of rhe AIA a scheme ami M\ architect by representa- Among the entrants was the Chicago was a fume-filled transfer point for buses. workshop and the practical considera- tives from the Main Street I oahrion and office of Skidmore, Owings, is: Merrill I veil well-maintained destinations such as tions of those who pushed for the a group of outside professionals. The (SOM), known since the 1950s for their the Museum ol line Arts and the Texas Midtown TIRZ. Ultimately, they formed challenge presented the five finalists was high-rise office towers and business Medical Center increasingly turned their Making Main Street 1 tappen. Inc., a not- a difficult one: Provide a vision "so pow- parks. At a more modest scale, the) devel- backs to Mam. The street became for-profit volunteer organization dedicat- erful and compelling that a public-private oped renown for their reconstruction of unfriendly to pedestrians, more of a traf- ed to realizing a comprehensive vision, partnership is mandated to provide a State Street in Chicago and the crafting ot fic conduit than a place, and its urban as opposed to a series of uncoordinated framework for making the vision a neighborhood guidelines in Orlando. reality."- Choosing a winner surely purpose in the framework of the city was plans, for this kev I loUSCOtl street. As Alloihei eunanl was the Portland oltic< prompted the jurors, who ranged from ambiguous. part of their ctlorts they sought the of Zimmer Gunsul Frasca (ZCF), which Metro H l > Shu lev A. Del ibero to During the 1990s there have been a attention of Mayor l.ee Brown, who is known for the design of their city's Governing Magazine's executive editor series of efforts to deal with the deterio- encouraged Making Main Street I lappen successful light-rail system, the model tor 1 1 Alan Fhrenhalt to Making Main Street rating situation along Main. In I-* '.!, to not |us( continue with their planning. virtually every light-rail transit system in i u m m e i J? I T I n the U.S. The selection of Atlanta-based move the hearts and actions of the deci- ration platform and "dining experience." downtown to the rodeo culture ol the Cooper Carry Associates, who partnered sion-makers who will need to commit Eckstut also proposed clearing approxi- Astrodome, Cooper Carry relied upon a with Stull it l e e of Boston, must have public dollars to Main Street improve- mately ten blocks of land on either side of carnivalesque scenario that would inspire been based on their work on successful ments. In any case, the power of the Main between Webster and Elgin streets, people and organizations to gather neo-traditional communities such as urban landscape ro poetically and prag- Eckstut suggested that this plaza's length together under the big tent of redevelop- Mizner Place in Florida and Harbor matically shape city-making in advance of was in parr predicated on the distance it ment. The specifics of what their project Town in Memphis. Ehrcnkrantz, Eckstut development was not the primary interest takes to stop a herd of running cows; entailed seemed at times less important & Kuhn Architects of New York and l.os of most of the architectural teams pursu- they aptly named this space Stampede than the feel-good narrative that would Angeles (F.ckstut) is well known for the ing the competition's mandate for big Square. They also suggested combining convince everyone that the big something urban design of New York's Battery Park picture architectural visiotiing. Hermann Park, the Texas Medical Center, was okay. t ity. More recently, the firm has special- and Rice University into one vast campus The scheme that focused the least on ized in the design of super-scale urban The Big Ideas by closing Main from Mecom Fountain establishing a script ol big ideas was retail/entertainment centers. One could argue that the Rome imagined to North MacGrcgor and rerouting traf- Zdl's proposal, faking to heart the com- All four of these firms were clearly by Sixtus the Fifth and the Chicago of fic to Fannin, which in this area would be petition organizers' desire to understand qualified to present urban design visions Daniel Burnham are the hookends of a renamed Main. Eckstut explained that how light-rail could be implemented, utilizing normative standards of profes- shelf of big design concepts that continue this would expand Rice University's cam- /dl proposed a disciplined fixed-rail sionalism.