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By January 2015, that longheld vision became a reality when the Houston City Council unanimously approved a long-term lease agreement and partnership with the Houston Botanic Garden to transform the former Glenbrook Golf Course into a worldclass garden. “They had a desire that Houston join in the growing interest in botanic gardens and add to the city’s ecosystem of cultural institutions by creating a world-class garden in Houston,” says Claudia Gee Vassar, president and general counsel at the Houston Botanic Garden. Located near Hobby Airport, the site for the Houston Botanic Garden offered easy accessibility to the greater Houston region and the opportunity to develop the garden around the Sims Bayou in an area with little investment in green spaces or cultural amenities.
“The influence and integration of the bayou in the garden allows visitors to understand these beautiful waterways that are integral to the resiliency of the ‘Bayou City’....” “The influence and integration of the bayou in the garden allows visitors to understand these beautiful waterways that are integral to the resiliency of the ‘Bayou City,’” Vassar says. The 132-acre Houston Botanic Garden is also a long-term investment in Houston tourism and another jewel in the city’s revitalization of its green spaces. “It is a fantastic addition to the Houston area and one that will bring joy and serenity to future 42 Parks & Recreation
generations,” says Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. The Houston Botanic Garden includes eight different facets, each of which serves an educational component: Global Collection Garden, Susan Garver Family Discovery Garden, Culinary Garden, Pine Grove, Community Garden, Woodland Glade, Stormwater Wetlands and Coastal Prairie. The garden also features twoand-a-half miles of walking and hiking trails, a lagoon and a nature play area for children.
Addressing Design Challenges The Sims Bayou channel runs through the middle of the Houston Botanic Garden, dividing it into two separate areas — the Island and the South Gardens. Because the site was a former golf course on an island off Sims Bayou, many of the project’s challenges involved balancing the desire to maintain the existing tree canopy while constructing the landscape and structures of a botanic garden. “We strategically designed the layout and systems to avoid as many existing obstacles as possible,” says Donna Bridgeman, senior landscape architect at West 8. Engineering firm Walter P Moore was involved in the initial site review and served on the building team that created the more than $100 million master plan for the Houston Botanic Garden. Construction on Phase I of that master plan — which incorporated existing natural features and elements to mitigate potential flooding — commenced in spring 2019 and was substantially completed in fall 2020. “Walter P Moore was instrumental in spearheading the chal-
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lenges of permitting a multiphase project while leading the design of challenging structural, grading and drainage systems,” Bridgeman says.
Detention and Drainage To develop the property, which encompasses an area of Sims Bayou and includes the floodway as well as 100- and 500-year floodplains, permitting required coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Harris County Flood Control District and the City of Houston. During the design phase, in response to Hurricane Harvey, the city changed the detention and floodplain mitigation criteria for any development within city limits, which required additional coordination with the Houston Public Works Department on the project. The Houston region is susceptible to flooding, and the city and Harris County reviewed the development criteria within the floodplain to address the flooding issues in this region. “The permitting process of this project was at the time when Houston was about to update [its] detention and floodplain requirement,” says Chong Ooi, senior associate at Walter P Moore. As a result, the new detention and floodplain volume mitigation were incorporated into the project’s master plan. The floodplain mitigation on the site was designed as the Coastal Prairie, which is a major ecosystem of the Houston region, to handle the inundation of stormwater during major rain events. Additionally, a detention pond serves as a Stormwater Wetlands exhibit, using the permanent body of water to allow planting of aquatic plants. Typically, addressing floodplain mitigation requirements is done
