In Cite 77, Max Page reviews the new Houston Pavilions in an article entitled "Downtown's Downtown: Houston Pavilions and an Urban Dilemma." Click here to download a pdf copy. Below Christof Spieler responds.
Max Page looks at the design decisions that turned the Houston Pavilions into something akin to an urban mall. Those decisions might be the project’s undoing. But the Pavilions suffers from another problem as well, and one that is a familiar problem in Downtown Houston: connectivity.
Downtown is not really one place, it’s several: the highrise offices, the Theatre District, Market Square, the courts, the ballpark, the convention center. Each of these places draws a different group of people at different times of day. Together, they have the potential to make a real downtown.
The most successful pieces of Downtown tend to be the ones that bring together the different downtowns, drawing different crowds at different times of day. Bayou Place and the Rice Lofts are where the office buildings meet the theaters. Discovery Green connects the offices and the convention center. This not only makes for a more interesting place; it makes for a more economically viable one. Restaurants that have to rely on lunch or dinner alone will not do as well as those that can serve both.
But Houston’s problem is that the different uses often don’t connect. And that is the Pavilion’s problem as well. The tenant mix – music, books, food – is suited to creating a 24-hour place. But for that to work Pavilions must pull in people from the other parts of Downtown. And there, its surroundings aren’t always helping.
Pavilions borders three of Downtown’s pieces: the (small) retail district at Main Street Square, the “T” shaped highrise district, and the sports/convention area around Discovery Green.
The place where Pavilions gels most with its neighbors is on Main Street. Here, the project opens into a plaza facing the light rail tracks, opening Books-a-Million and Forever XXI to the street. Across the street is the Marriott, with a gallery and a Starbucks on the ground floor. Diagonally across the intersection, next to the light rail station is Macy’s. And next door is the old Sakowitz building, which was slated to house an American Apparel store (though, given the economy, that seems unlikely now). This is the remnant of Houston’s old retail Main Street, and it’s a great bit of urban synergy: Pavilions strengthens its neighbors and they strengthen Pavilions.
The office district wraps around Pavilions on two sides. It ought to be delivering swarms of office workers to restaurants and the book store. But at lunchtime on weekdays, Pavilions seems empty compared to the streets a few blocks away. What’s wrong? Well, obviously, the empty storefronts (Pavilions is less than a quarter occupied) don’t help. Beyond that, though, there’s a gap. The big office buildings are a block north and a block west of Pavilions, and the blocks in between have little activity. One dead block can turn off a pedestrian easily. The problem is compounded by the Pavilions’ north side, which, unlike the plaza on Main, is closed off and unwelcoming, especially from a distance. And then there’s the inconvenient truth of Downtown: much of the lunchtime activity is underground. With a tunnel connection, Pavilions could easily draw lunchtime crowds, like the food court in Park Shops (another urban mall) does. But the tunnel connection was deleted, along with Pavilions’ residential and underground parking, before construction began.
There’s another gap at the east end of Pavilions. Here, there’s another nice street level plaza. The Italian restaurant across the street, long stranded by itself, now has a neighbor. But beyond that restaurant are asphalt parking lots. From here, Toyota Center and Discovery Green are only three blocks away. They seem like natural complements: teenagers in from the suburbs for a concert at House of Blues could picnic in the park beforehand, or basketball fans could get food. But those parking lots are a big moat; they actively discourage pedestrians. If you don’t know there’s a destination at the other end, you won’t walk there. So the synergy is elusive.
Three years ago, Houston Pavilions was three vacant blocks, a black hole drawing life from its surroundings. Filling those blocks with restaurants, stores, and a concert venue is clearly a step forward. But the ultimate success of Pavilions – and its neighbors – depends on bridging the gaps between the pieces of Downtown.
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