papercitymag.com | By Shelby Hodge
Reshaping the Park to Provide Vital Pedestrian and Ecological Benefits
For the runners overheard cursing the workmen bulldozing trees in Memorial Park, for the woman seen crying as she watched the towering oaks and pines leveled, and for all others decrying the changing landscape, Memorial Park Conservancy assures that the $70 million Land Bridge and Prairie, necessitating removal of so many trees, will put the 1,500 acre park at the forefront of park design while addressing numerous critical needs.
“For generations Houston’s largest urban wilderness has been cut in half by Memorial Drive and subdivided by other roads, compromising recreational areas, public safety, habitats and storm water flow,” Memorial Park Conservancy president and CEO Shellye Arnold tells PaperCity. “In our public input process to develop the Master Plan for Memorial Park, Houstonians asked for access and safe crossings across Memorial Drive, and to help heal the Park’s ailing ecologies.”
The same landscape architecture firm—Nelson Byrd Woltz—that designed the lyrical, highly-praised Eastern Glades developed plans for the pair of land bridges and coastal prairie that will join the north and south segments of the park that have been separated for decades by the six-lane, tree-lined Memorial Drive.
“A restored network of native gulf coastal prairie habitat will improve regional biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and stormwater management,” Arnold says. “It may be hard to picture now, but the end result of this project will produce an iconic landmark and will ensure a resilient future for Memorial Park.”