/ Award of Excellence
BSLA
From D isas t er to R e s t a r t : H o u s ton A rb oret u m
Reed Hilderbrand
project name.
location.
Houston Arboretum
Houston, Texas
In the wake of two environmental disasters—
Hurricane Ike in 2008 and the extended
drought of the last decade—the Houston
Arboretum & Nature Center’s landscape has
undergone drastic change, including the loss
of 48 percent of its canopy cover. Recognizing
the unprecedented scale of this ecological
disturbance and the uncertainty of future
climatic conditions, the design team moved
away from the traditional concept of master
planning a landscape toward a set ideal.
Instead they framed a series of management
strategies for the short and long term that
engage the dynamic processes of ecological
change and aim for a more diverse, robust,
and resilient landscape of native prairies,
wooded ravines and riparian corridors
endemic to southeast Texas. The result is a
responsive, flexible plan, uniquely suited to
the site and expressive of the Arboretum’s
mission: to engage the public in a collection of
diverse ecologies, educating people of all ages
about the variety and resilience of today’s
natural world.
82
BSLA