At the heart one of the largest parks in the United States and Houston’s largest urban wilderness area, the 100-acre Land Bridge & Prairie in Memorial Park is one of the largest and most ambitious projects of its type in Houston, the state of Texas, and the country. The Land Bridge and Prairie is an ecologically and culturally significant project, rehabilitating native regional ecologies and successfully mending the long-divided park. Through the rebuilding of ecological infrastructure and the creation of varied immersive visitor experiences, the design promotes conservation initiatives and invites locals and visitors to understand and participate in the landscape around them.

The Landscape Architect’s design of the Land Bridge and Prairie is rooted in resiliency and rehabilitation, with a focus on stitching the park back together — finally mending the scar left behind when Memorial Drive, a six-lane roadway, sliced the park in half in 1955. As the bustling road continues to be heavily used, the Landscape Architect and team needed to allow for safe passage for wildlife and people while also adding to the green space of the park in a way that strengthened its overall resiliency.

As it happens, the Coastal Prairie is one of the most endangered ecosystems in North America, with less than 1% of its historic range remaining today. Through The Land Bridge & Prairie, the Landscape Architect creates over 45 acres of native Coastal Prairie in the center of Memorial Park, helping to strengthen the surrounding ecologies and bring Houstonians an immersive opportunity to experience and appreciate this critical ecology. As the Prairie continues to establish, it will become home to numerous significant and endangered species of flora and fauna and provide essential food and shelter for migratory birds and insects. It will provide cumulative benefits for generations. Soils and over 200 native species of trees, shrubs, and deep-rooted Coastal Prairie plants have been selected for resiliency and their ability to slow and store stormwater in carefully calibrated channels and wetlands.

The Land Bridge itself creates two expansive and dynamic connections over Memorial Drive that reunite the north and south sides of Memorial Park while growing the existing network of trail systems and providing increased connectivity throughout. Two massive tunnels have been built side by side over the Memorial Drive roadway. In early 2022, Memorial Drive shifted into a new alignment, and traffic now flows through the tunnels. Portions of the re-routed Memorial Drive roadway were preserved and utilized to construct a scramble that ascends the north side of the east mound — a design choice that diverts additional waste from local landfills and repurposes material to create an innovative recreational feature. Over half a million cubic yards of soil were harvested and reserved from other park sites and within the project boundary and were used to cover the tunnels and create the mounds of the Land Bridge. This new parkland symbolizes the triumph of landscape architecture healing the divides created by the construction.

Project Typology:
Public Park and Infrastructure

• Other landscape architecture offices involved in the design of the landscape:
White Oak

• Architecture offices involved in the design:
METALAB

• Other credits:
Houston Parks and Recreation Department
The Kinder Foundation
Uptown Development Authority
Walter P Moore
Gandy² Lighting Design
Olsson
Tellepsen Builders
Berg Oliver
Hunt and Hunt Engineering Corp
Minor Design
Texas Project Administration Service
James Pole Irrigation Consultants
Gunda
Freese and Nichols

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