Willow Waterhole Awakened! Charrette Entries Online
Dozens of designers came out on Saturday for an intensive, all-day challenge to revitalize Willow Waterhole Park in Southwest Houston. RDA’s young professionals group, rdAgents, hosted the competition that sought to maximize the 279-acre greenspace of Willow Waterhole, making the park a more sophisticated nature preserve.
Like last year’s charrette that focused on Galveston’s Seawall, the day’s program was divided into three tracks. The 12 participating teams of architects, graphic designers, and those passionate about the park chose between a Master Plan Track, which considered the park as a whole, an Architecture Track, and a Graphic Design Track. Participants were charged with taking the mostly vacant greenspace and designing measures to promote nature, unify the six detention sites of the park, increase public outreach and awareness, create opportunity for revenue, and showcase creativity and ingenuity.
The entries were blindly judged Monday afternoon by Art Storey, Executive Director of the Harris County Public Infrastructure Department; Ben Crawford, Senior Associate, Senior Project Designer HOK; Howard Sacks, President of Willow Waterhole Greenspace Conservancy; Matt Baumgarten, Associate with SWA; and Roksan Okan-Vick, Executive Director of the Houston Parks Board. Winners were announced Monday night at a festive reception at Rice School of Architecture.
The team from TBG Partners (Team 11) won “Best Overall” prize for their strong representation of park connectivity. Team member Pete Simpson says, “Our main goal for the project was to make connections. We wanted to connect the park through contiguous greenspace for park users and wildlife internally, as well as connect to the community externally.” The team accomplished this by considering the ecosystems in the broader Houston region, with an iconic nature center, amphitheater, and viewing tower for the park.
Clark Condon Associates (Team 4) won “Best Master Plan” for their well-rounded, straightforward, nature-first vision. The team’s ability to unify the six disparate parts of the park were striking to the judges. The “Best Architecture” award went to Team 6 (Genevieve Buentello, Antonio Flamenco, Mike Garcia, Camilo Parra, and David Robinson). The team’s visual articulation of innovative elements like the multi-level viewing tower partly submerged in water were architecturally appealing. SHW Group’s team (Team 1) took home the prize for “Best Graphic Design Solution.” Judges responded to the team’s elegant response to the existing park plans, and their nod to the natural surrounding environments.
Below are galleries of all of the entries:
Team 1
Luis Ayala
Eddie Blanco
Ramy Hanna
Frank Kelly
Jorge Tiscareño
Team 2
Marcos Cabrera
Marquez Colby
John Luna
Robert Morris
Arnika Shroff
Team 3
Linh Dan Do
Megan Schneider
Sarah Simpson
Team 4
Riley Anderson
Jamie Hendrixson
Mary Keilers
Lindsay Landers
Paul Weathers
Team 5
Scott Dooley
Brad Ewing
Angel Rivera
Will Wilkinson
Shane Wilson
Team 6
Genevieve Buentello
Antonio Flamenco
Mike Garcia
Camilo Parra
David Robinson
Team 7
Ernesto Maldonado
Kristin Schuster
Team 8
Matthew Easterly
Katy Emde
Flo Hannah
Andi Ritchie
Don Verser
Team 9
Terrence Newton
Roselynn Newton
Team 10
Yogesh Arote
Theodora Batchvarova
Brian Janhsen
Chris McBride
Daniel Ortiz
Team 11
Kyle Grist
Meade Mitchell
Kinoto Miyakoda
Pete Simpson
Team 12
Aaron Beasley
Kenneth Beasley
Ray Mora
Evan Vargas
(NOTE: It looks like the thumbnails aren’t working quite right, but if you click on the absent thumbnail, you can see the real thing!)
Special thanks to Karen Rose for spending the day helping all the teams with Civil Engineering questions, and for Lonnie Hoogeboom, who provided all the beverages throughout the day.
