The first phase of Hermann Park’s restoration has won a national design award:
The Heart of the Park, 18.5 sparkling acres that welcome visitors to Houston’s 445-acre Hermann Park, has gained national recognition as a recipient of the American Society of Landscape Architects’general design award of excellence.
The SWA Group’s award-winning plan for the $10 million restoration project, completed last summer, has restored a swath of public space from the Sam Houston Monument Circle to McGovern Lake. Along this north-south axis, the once-muddy, incomplete Mary Gibbs and Jesse H. Jones Reflection Pool is now a work of art. Interactive fountains at Molly Ann Smith Plaza have kids jumping for joy, and elegant promenades through an allee of mature oaks are an antidote for our too-busy lives. Architect William Neuhaus’ enchanting Arbor in the Pines features a curved green wall of Venetian plaster, limestone columns topped with stainless steel capitals and a wisteria arbor. The meditative O. Jack Mitchell Garden has a small fountain.
