Our Work
OUR WORK
Getting people outside is important work, and the spaces that we shape go on to shape us.
We believe that in Buffalo Bayou, we should see an authentic reflection of the people and potential along its banks. Our commitment is to create places we can take pleasure and pride in, feel welcome and safe, and embody the ideas and interests of all those they serve. Our work aims to affect positive social, economic, and environmental change.
WE Believe public spaces are essential to the vitality and resiliency of cities.
WE Believe Buffalo Bayou and its surrounding landscapes, which are ecologically important and vulnerable, should be protected and maintained.
WE Believe all people should have equitable access to vibrant, safe, and inclusive spaces.
WE Believe people’s lives are enriched when they have individual and shared experiences outdoors.
For more than 30 years, Buffalo Bayou Partnership has been leading the transformation, activation, and ongoing stewardship of Buffalo Bayou.
Buffalo Bayou and Beyond, the organization’s visionary master plan issued in 2002, has been our guide in creating and stewarding projects that serve multiple purposes — recreation, flood management, and ecosystem restoration. With our most recent planning effort, the Buffalo Bayou East Master Plan, we will continue delivering spaces that are not just used but informed by the public.
View 2019 Buffalo Bayou East Master Plan
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
Thompson Design Group-Boston
Ongoing Programs
BBP’s Waterway Maintenance Program is critical to protecting Buffalo Bayou and its surrounding landscapes, which are ecologically important and vulnerable. Each year, our team removes thousands of cubic yards of trash and debris from the waterway.
Providing exceptional care of the parks and trails developed by our organization, including Buffalo Bayou Park, is one of BBP’s most important responsibilities. Our conservation work is focused on maintaining native landscaping and healthy habitats for the wildlife that calls Buffalo Bayou home.
Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s public art program includes iconic, permanent works as well as temporary, site-specific projects that respond to the bayou’s unique features. Many of these are part of the City of Houston’s Civic Art Collection and others are special commissions made possible by BBP and collaborators. All of these artworks aim to highlight Houston’s history and culture, celebrate nature, and engage our many communities. Each work has a story and is an integral part of life along the bayou.
Our organization is committed to working together with the communities we serve. From the multiple years of meetings to receive input on the Buffalo Bayou East Master Plan to the ongoing programs that reflect and engage diverse populations along the bayou, community is at the heart of what we do. Our full-time Community Engagement Manager demonstrates daily our organization’s dedication to listening, learning, and applying our lessons to the spaces we shape.