Shear Capacity
with Lara Hansmann & Hannah Wang
Meyerland has experienced repeated 100- or 500-year floods year after year, most recently with the devastating Hurricane Harvey. This project seeks to create a system through which a controlled retreat from the bayou can occur to preserve the existing neighborhood fabric while orienting the city to the bayou as an amenity and orchestrating a new urban frontage.
The Northwest quadrant of Meyerland is bordered by the bayou and Chimney Rock Road to the east.
The Northwest quadrant of Meyerland is bordered by the bayou and Chimney Rock Road to the east.
Chimney Rock incorporates a major drainage channel running down this street. This drainage channel defines a key element of water management infrastructure and is the instigator of this scheme which proposes an organizational system of perpendicular orientation to the bayou in the form of bands framed by channels. The NW quadrant already used a language of perpendicular orientation to the bayou, with neighborhoods grouped in long, narrow strips. This also informed the approach with its ability to readily accommodate the insertion of new perpendicular channels.
In tandem with the insertion of more drainage channels—which alone are not enough—the scheme also proposes a system of retreat from the bayou, giving space back to the floodplain and inviting densification by decreased footprint allocated to housing. Retreat permits the introduction of a new public realm in the form of a continuous greenspace following the bayou, creating a new figure in the city fabric in the form of an expanded bayou void.
Fall 2017
Fall 2017