Sprawl exhibition at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft

Pretty interesting exhibit and speaker series at houston center of contemporary craft going on.

With its soaring expressways and seemingly endless geography, little defines Houston in the public consciousness more than urban sprawl. This fall, Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) takes on the implications of this development pattern in the national exhibition, SPRAWL. Co-curated by former HCCC Curatorial Fellow, Susie J. Silbert and former HCCC Curator, Anna Walker, SPRAWL features 16 emerging and mid-career artists whose works deal with the urban landscape.

Arranged in three sections, “Infrastructure of Expansion,” “Survey, Plan, Build,” and “Aftereffects,” which loosely define the phases of urban growth, the exhibition is intended to present a non-polemical view. As Silbert and Walker commented, “The topic of sprawl can be a lightening rod—depending on who you talk to, it can evoke visions of cookie-cutter houses and inefficient city planning or it can inspire discussions on freedom of choice and affordable housing. We wanted to harness that complexity to create an exhibition that looks at the totality of sprawl—the good, bad, and the ugly.”

Speaker series

Infrastructure of Expansion
•October 18, 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Ed Emmett, Harris County Judge
•October 24, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Thomas Colbert, Associate Professor at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, University of Houston
Susan Rogers, Director of the Community Design Resource Center and Assistant Professor at the University of Houston’s College of Architecture
Survey, Plan, Build
•November 6, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Brian Crimmins, City of Houston Planning & Development Chief of Staff
•November 7, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Houston Urban Development & Improvement Panel
David Crossley, President of Houston Tomorrow
Peter Brown, Director of Better Houston
Diane Schenke, President of Greater East End District
Aftereffects
•December 17, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Sara Zewde, M. L. A. Candidate, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
•January 9, 7:00 – 8:00 PM
Carrie Schneider, Houston Artist
The SPRAWL Speaker Series was made possible in part through the City’s Initiative Grant Program of the Houston Arts Alliance.

http://www.crafthouston.org/exhibition/sprawl/

 

There is a street in the east end that will be reduced from 4 lanes to 2, with two bike lanes and on street parking instead.

 

Richmond will be made into a transit corridor in preparation for bus rapid transit or rail.

The new parking changes allows shared parking between businesses, and will allow any area in the city of houston to apply to eliminate parking requirements.

Also businesses in historic neighborhoods can reduce parking 40%, and transit oriented development can reduce by 20%. Also these reductions can traded for bike parking.

Also basically the city of Houston's planning departments will be focusing on the portion inside 610 for the most part going forwaed.