(HOUSTON) August 24, 2009 – The Architecture of Discovery Green is a winner in Business Week and Architectural Record's 12th annual "Good Design is Good Business" Awards, announced August 13.  PageSoutherlandPage designed the Architecture of Discovery Green, one of eight national projects to receive this year's Award of Excellence.  The awards program recognizes projects with innovative architectural strategies that help businesses achieve specific goals.  This year's winners will be published in Business Week and in the November issue of Architectural Record.

Discovery Green is an urban park that has converted 12 acres of land--mostly open parking lots--to an active civic amenity and green space in the heart of downtown Houston. The highly programmed park, located across from the George R. Brown Convention Center, has become a core of outdoor activity as well as a stimulus for residential and commercial development in downtown Houston.

PageSoutherlandPage designed all the park's architectural elements as a model of sustainability.  The architecture encompasses two restaurants, a park administration building, underground parking for more than 650 vehicles, and site features including a bandstand, a children’s performance space, and various shade structures.  The buildings parallel two preexisting rows of live oaks, reinforcing their linear character and drawing activity deep into the park.  The buildings integrate seamlessly with the outdoor environment; porches, decks, terraces and outdoor rooms dominate every built element. 

The site's three primary buildings feature deep porches and roofs that pitch to the north, providing shade and balanced daylight and drawing out warm air.  Optimal solar orientation, green roofs, photovoltaic arrays and the use of local, renewable and low volatile organic compound (VOC) materials further contribute to the project's pending LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.  

Park highlights include a branch of the Houston Public Library, public art at the entryways to below-grade parking designed in collaboration with Austin artist Margo Sawyer, an iconic interactive fountain, pond and water gardens, a custom designed playground and two acres of lake and botanical gardens. An amphitheater landform with an outdoor stage frames the three-acre Great Lawn and provides expansive views of the Houston skyline. Hargreaves Associates of San Francisco were the park's prime landscape architects and planners, with Houston landscape architect Lauren Griffith.  

The entire park is designed to receive LEED Gold certification, with sustainable benefits including:

·         Groundwater from the underground garage sent to the pond to mitigate the effects of evaporation, eliminating the need for city efforts to remove groundwater from site.

·         Eight percent of the park's total energy is provided by 256 photovoltaic collectors.

·         26 percent energy optimization over ASHRAE 90.1-2004 (the park was completed prior to the adoption of the code by the City of Houston)

·         Solar hot water heating reduces the costs of intensive hot water use in the restaurant and café

·         A landscape irrigation system reduces the volume of required potable water by 50 percent.

For more information about the "Good Design is Good Business" Awards, go to http://archrecord.construction.com/news/daily/archives/090813bwar.asp

Media Contact:    Nancy Acker Fleshman - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it