When dry, the banks of Houston’s Buffalo Bayou offer open air, green meadows and winding waters for crowds of people to enjoy along with gorgeous skyline views of downtown. While primarily designed to accommodate floodwaters, the large meadows that are formed between the lower and upper bayou banks also host thousands of people during festivals and holiday celebrations.
Buffalo Bayou has the distinction of being Houston’s main geographical reference point. Upon Houston’s founding, the city grid was formed to respond to Buffalo Bayou’s circuitous route as the shipping corridor in and out of Houston. While cargo boats no longer travel up Buffalo Bayou and into the city, it remains a major corridor for vehicles and a connection between downtown and urban neighborhoods west of Downtown.
As a major urban park space, Buffalo Bayou attracts residents and visitors every day as they jog, walk dogs, sit by the water or picnic along the water’s upper banks. The bayou’s flood water path sits untouched by development, leaving a long linear park within Houston’s core urban fabric.
As SWA creates the park’s second phase from Sabine Street to Shepherd Drive, frequent flood events are a major consideration. However, they are not a deterrent. Despite the normal rise and fall of the bayou’s waters, the park will go on.
Water will always be an attractive feature for city dwellers, whether it’s a muddy winding bayou, a brackish harbor, or a roaring ocean. With this in mind it seems only natural that Buffalo Bayou acts as a key gathering place for Houston. When dry, the banks of the bayou offer open air, green meadows and winding waters for crowds of people to enjoy along with gorgeous skyline views of downtown. The setting is a unique combination of natural and city features within Houston’s sprawling suburban landscape.
The large meadows that are formed between the lower and upper bayou banks host thousands of people during festivals and holiday celebrations. During the first weekend of June one such festival took place on Eleanor Tinsley meadow. Attendance at the Free Press Festival was estimated at 92,000 people over the course of the weekend. Part of the reason this site was chosen is because the upper banks of the bayou form a natural amphitheater for the festival’s three main stages. Luckily, rain stayed away that weekend and the bayou did not wash the music away. Thousands of festival-goers got to enjoy Houston and relish the diversity of people and musical taste resident here.
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