Why is this area at Dunlavy and Allen Parkway called “Lost Lake?”
In the 1970s, a pond was lost in the western end of the park. Buffalo Bayou Partnership is restoring this body of water to include a cascading water feature and adding landscaping including a robust variety of trees, shrubbery and wetland plants thanks to a generous donation from The Garden Club of Houston.
As you explore Buffalo Bayou Park this summer, you will see construction progressing nicely.
Clark Cooper Concepts and Buffalo Bayou Partnership Plan Private Event Space and Grab and Go Service
Clark Cooper Concepts and Buffalo Bayou Partnership have announced plans to develop a multi-purpose private event space in Houston. The Dunlavy, overlooking the banks of Buffalo Bayou and Lost Lake, will be a private event and dining space, showcasing the different cuisines of the Clark Cooper restaurants – including Ibiza Food & Wine Bar, Brasserie 19, Coppa Ristorante, Coppa Osteria and Punk’s Simple Southern Food.
Slated to open Summer 2015, The Dunlavy will offer full-service event space and coordination. The venue is ideally suited to its location at the western end of Buffalo Bayou Park. The 160-acre, 2.3 mile park located between Shepherd Drive and Sabine Street, is currently undergoing a $58 million renovation by Buffalo Bayou Partnership.
Grab and Go @ The Dunlavy will provide counter service breakfast and lunch seven days a week. Patio chairs and complimentary Wi-Fi will be available. Additionally, the building will house a park visitor center and a canoe and kayak rental facility, operated by Buffalo Bayou Partnership.
Designed by Page, the sleek aesthetic of The Dunlavy will offer lakeside, bayou and downtown skyline views. The clean, modern 3,800 square foot indoor space will feature floor-to-ceiling windows, crisp gallery-like interiors and a large wraparound 850 square foot outdoor patio, and will serve as a blank slate with stunning views and lush green outdoor vegetation serving as the backdrop likened to a jewel box suspended over the bayou.
“Buffalo Bayou Partnership was fortunate to secure Clark Cooper Concepts to represent us to execute the vision for the Lost Lake event concept,” said Sis Johnson, board chair of Buffalo Bayou Partnership. “As one of the main gateways into Buffalo Bayou Park, this area overall will offer something for every park user, whether a picnicker getting a quick bite to eat, a cyclist picking up a park map, an adventure-seeker renting a kayak, or an event planner looking for an idyllic venue to host a gathering.”
With a restaurant-grade kitchen on site, patrons booking The Dunlavy can choose menus from any of the Clark Cooper Concept restaurants or have the culinary team create custom menus and wine pairings. The Dunlavy is also expected to become the setting for high-profile events, such as product launches, art installations, pop-up retail, weddings, gallery show and filmmaking.
“The Dunlavy will be a space that defines our city: bold, innovative and unique,” said Grant Cooper, principal of Clark Cooper Concepts. “The fact you can go from fine dining to BBQ is what will set The Dunlavy apart. It can serve as the location for a national retail product launch, wedding or film shoot. It will be a really cool, functional space where people can get creative.”
After the busy summer festival season, Buffalo Bayou Partnership is beginning construction in Eleanor Tinsley Park that will improve the overall visitor experience.
Left: Eleanor Tinsley Park during a special event. Right: The park during every day use.
The changes in the area between Taft Street and Sabine Street will include upgraded infrastructure for special events at the park, trails and stairs for easier pedestrian access, as well as upgraded landscaping.
BBP has received a generous gift of $2 million from Silver Eagle Distributors, a Houston-based company with a longtime commitment as a community partner and generous supporter of citywide festivals along Buffalo Bayou. With this funding, changes such as a Skyline Overlook, redesigned parking spaces and an improved garden area will be added. In honor of this gift, the Skyline Overlook will be named the Nau Family Pavilion and the event meadow will be named the Bud Light Amphitheater. Read or listen to this KUHF story.
Update (2018):
This post was originally published on July 11, 2013. Some information may be out of date.
As the Buffalo Bayou Park – Shepherd to Sabine project began in 2010, an amazing structure was rediscovered below the lawn that is to become the signature Sky Lawn at The Water Works (north of the existing Lee & Joe Jamail Skatepark). The “Cistern,” as it has been dubbed, was the City of Houston’s first underground drinking-water reservoir. Built in 1927, it provided decades of service until it was drained when it sprang a leak that couldn’t be located or contained.
photo by Katya Horner/SlightClutter Photography
Unused for years, the 87,500-square-foot expanse includes 25-foot tall, slender concrete columns set row upon row, hovering over two inches of water on the reservoir’s floor. Buffalo Bayou Park designers recognized immediately that this highly unusual space brimmed with potential for new life as a public space with light flooding in from the entrance hatches – a dramatic, almost artful expanse is created. Read this Houston Chronicle article.
The space is only accessible via small hatches that open to 14-foot ladders creating enormous logistical difficulties in viewing and navigating the area.
Inspired by the space and challenge was Douglas Smith with SmartGeoMetrics, a Houston-based company with more than 30 years of combined experience providing 3D high definition laser services to industries such as petrochemical, civil engineering and architecture. Smith was so excited about the space that he and his team volunteered to acquire 3D imaging data of the cavernous space to document its as-is condition. This data can be used in software like AutoCAD and Revit as well as to create 3D fly-throughs and even autosteroscopic holograms. See a 3D fly-through.
Laser scan point cloud showing the inside of The Cistern, photo by SmartGeometrics
Houston-based digital marketing company FuelFX also donated a specialized mobile and tablet APP to the project. The APP creates an interactive 3D augmented reality model of the “Cistern” that enables developers to better visualize the space in the palm of their hand. The APP debuted on August 29th at the “An Update on the Cistern Project” presentation at AIA Houston.
Buffalo Bayou Partnership received a $1.2 million grant from The Brown Foundation to make the necessary enhancements to bring the site up to code and will eventually turn it into a temporary art space.
Buffalo Bayou Partnership and Katy Prairie Conservancy (KPC) are collaborating to increase Houston’s prairies. Twice monthly, KPC and its volunteers comb through some of the most pristine prairies left in the area including College Park Prairie, Nash Prairie and, of course, Katy Prairie for the best wildflower and native grass seeds that will be planted in a dozen acres of “pocket prairies” in Buffalo Bayou Park.
Once completed, these prairies will be a magnet for wildlife, a boon for photographers, and a reminder of Houston’s rich ecological and cultural history. Collectively, they will be one of the largest and most publicly accessible urban grasslands in the country.
Did you know you can connect with Buffalo Bayou Partnership at virtually every corner of the internet? Post your favorite photos of the bayou on our Facebook page, chat with us on Twitter, or visit our website for the latest information on events and to learn more about what we do.
On the go? We are launching a Buffalo Bayou Partnership mobile app in late summer. You’ll be able to access the new trail map, find information on major destinations, view photo galleries, make a donation to Buffalo Bayou Partnership and more! Many thanks to all who participated in our app development survey shared in the March/April In the Works.
While encouraging people to take transit, ride their bikes or walk to Buffalo Bayou Park, Buffalo Bayou Partnership worked very hard to accommodate more parking spaces while not jeopardizing the park’s green spaces. Our plan for Buffalo Bayou Park includes increased parking at the following major destinations:
The Water Works area: 50 new spaces
Eleanor Tinsley Park: 20 redesigned spaces
Dog Park: 17 new parallel parking spaces
Lost Lake: 81 new parking spaces
Additionally, over 400 parking spaces are located at Lot H, off Memorial and Houston Avenue, which the City intends to convert to public parking on weekends. Buffalo Bayou Partnership is seeking other opportunities for shared parking with adjacent properties.
Of course, the two new pedestrian bridges will greatly improve access to the park, and due to the strong development taking place in neighborhoods north and south of the bayou, we anticipate many park visitors will walk and ride their bikes along our improved trails and footpaths.
The Rosemont Bridge with its related access trails to adjacent neighborhoods on the north side of Memorial is a major enhancement to the park’s accessibility, but access must also be improved to the neighborhoods south of Allen Parkway. In chapter 3, page 41 of the Buffalo Bayou Park – Shepherd to Sabine master plan, Buffalo Bayou Partnership recommends access improvements like signalized intersections and crosswalks (at Taft and at Dunlavy) and an extension of the Rosemont Bridge across Allen Parkway, though these improvements are outside the scope of our project. Currently, recommendations are being considered by the City of Houston.
The intersection of Taft Street at Allen Parkwary.
Good news kayakers, canoeists and water enthusiasts! Buffalo Bayou near Montrose is open for park users, just in time for Spring. In mid-March, Harris County Flood Control District contractors completed channel realignment work in this area, allowing users to take uninterrupted trips down the bayou. Check our website for a list of upcoming boat tours.
First to get their feet wet? A record-breaking 800 participants in the 41st Annual Buffalo Bayou Regatta on Saturday, March 16. Congratulations to winner Mark Addison, who completed the 15-mile race in 1:34:19!
Photos by Katya Horner/Slight Clutter Photography.
Clockwise from top left: Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT)’s trail widening work at Taft and Allen Parkway; Harris County Flood Control District channel realignment work at Jane Gregory Garden; TxDOT and City of Houston’s Shepherd Drive Bridge; Buffalo Bayou Partnership work at Police Memorial for new pedestrian bridge.