Houston Bridges

PrizeWinner in Landscape Architecture / Installations & structures
Firm LocationHouston, United States
CompanySWA Group
Design TeamNatalia Beard, Lei Zhang, Patrick Sunbury
ClientHouston First

As a city dominated by freeway infrastructure, Houston will be reconstructing portions of its iconic freeways in the near future. This created an opportunity to reclaim the Houston Interstate experience with a temporary installation that provides a bold pop of color celebrating Houston’s diversity at eight key threshold bridges along the I-59/69 interstate corridor. Resulting from a design competition funded by Houston First, a cost effective and easily implementable ribbon of color was printed on coroplast strips braided through the existing TxDOT chain link fence. The pixelated mosaics were derived from photographs taken by Houston school children in a project by a local artist. This urban infrastructure installation epitomizes the uniquely Houston experience through freeway infrastructure, the diversity of Houstonians, and the future of Houston.