Downtown Playground: Houston's Discovery Green

By June Naylor

Houston has made irresistible the formerly unthinkable. The city wants you to come outside and play. Yes, Houston – especially in summer. With the development of Discover Green on downtown’s east side, the Bayou City has joined the ranks of New York and San Francisco – each renowned for their appealing urban green spaces.

Visitors see a side of Houston that's

dramatically different from

what they see when driving through on the freeeway.

When it opened in April 2008, the $125 million Discovery Green added to the new energy fueling downtown Houston’s current buzz. The megacity’s longtime love affair with growth has turned inward to the heart of town, with recent development focusing on the region formed within the crossing of Interstate 45, US 59, and Interstate 10. Coinciding with a boom in fresh dining, shopping and lodging downtown, Discovery Green replaced a string of ugly parking lots to give you dozens of ways to celebrate being outdoors, week in and week out. The park’s 12 acres lie within easy walking distance of some of Houston’s most cosmopolitan and citified attractions. Yet within Discovery Green’s tree-lined borders, visitors can relax and let nature set the pace.

But first, you’ll want to get your bearings: The heart of the park, a grassy lawn named for Houston philanthropist Jesse Jones, stretches from the city’s convention center to a tree-lined promenade named for Houston Mayor Bill White and his wife, Andrea, who helped spearhead Discovery Green’s development.

Perpendicular to this north-south promenade, a second pedestrian walkway, the Brown Foundation Promenade, follows the Jones Lawn. Here, mature live oaks cast shade over a series of wooden benches—ideal vantage points from which to watch the park’s parade of walkers and rollerbladers. And throughout the bell-shaped park, you’ll find a jogging trail, amphitheaters, fountains, playgrounds, dog runs, restaurants, and gardens.

But you shouldn’t dismiss Discovery Green as simply another park. Yes, you can drink in the fresh air and relax here, but it’s also a destination created to entertain, educate, and exercise you. You’d be hard-pressed, in fact, to encounter a dull moment. Public art, modern architecture, and subtle tributes to southeast Texas’ natural history lend imaginative touches throughout.

On the park’s east end, framed by two rows of cypress trees along Avenida de Las Americas, French artist Jean Dubuffet’s Monument au Fantome—an abstract seven-piece sculpture—juts 33 feet skyward. On the west end, near the Sarofim Picnic Lawn and a bird-themed playground designed to recall elements of Houston’s migra-tory flyway, you’ll find sculptor Doug Hollis’ Mist Tree, a 15-foot-tall, 22-foot-wide stainless-steel structure that invites visitors to cool off within its rain curtain.

If you want to sail model boats, you’ll find a dedicated area on Kinder Lake, which covers more than an acre on the park’s northeast corner. If you’re ready to play croquet, you’ll find equipment available most weekends on the Grace Event Lawn. If you’d like to take in an arts performance or a film, you’ll find dozens on the schedule most months of the year. Searching for a Pilates or tai chi class? It’s here. A farmer’s market or writing workshop? Check the calendar for the right day. Throughout the year, you can count on readings and other art performances at the park’s numerous amphitheaters, stages, lawns, and meeting spaces. Oh, and just about everything is free.

See the full article in the July 2009 issue.

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