Yesterday, I noticed a clever intervention at the site of the West Ave development. On the temporary wall along the construction perimeter of this soon-to-be "vibrant urban village" is a series of silhouetted images. Slim women in skirts drink wine, pick out party dresses, walk dogs, and dangle shopping bags from their arms. Men in suits read newspapers or gaze at the women across their drinks. The images have been there for months. They are only one set of many such graphic overlays showing the bourgeois life that new high-rise and mid-rise developments promise.
Some person or group has playfully inserted images of male construction workers using color-matched cutouts stapled to the wall. It's well executed. Perhaps too subtle. I only noticed the intervention at the last minute and had to make a full circle around the block to get a good look.
The recession has only temporarily slowed down development inside Beltway 8. With the demolishing of Wilshire Village and other apartment complexes designed for lower income people to make space for luxury living, Houston may lose one of its best attributes. People of an astonishing mix of incomes live in close proximity to one another. This funny bit of design activism subverts a standard piece of marketing into a provocative juxtaposition of pursuits---leisure and physical labor.
