Promenade Office and Retail MERIT
Promenade is a mixed-use office and retail center in Houston. Each tenant is provided both indoor and outdoor areas, with exteriors that are also green spaces. The planted gardens, which also include outdoor seating, connect people to their surroundings and extend the indoor activities of working and shopping outdoors. The green spaces are set at an angle to the street, increasing visibility to attract visitors and improve well-being.
Promenade reduces the effects of Houston’s hot climate, using self-cooling facades, tall shading “fins,” and trellises to improve outdoor comfort. These architectural elements create micro-climate areas while establishing an identity for the center. The self-cooling concrete walls are cast with patterns that, when passed over by wind, dissipate solar heat more quickly. More patterning is used for walls in direct sunlight to increase self-cooling. Around each entrance are numerous tall “fins”, some with mesh material for climbing plants, that provide shade as they rise from the gardens.
People stroll along gardens planted from different local ecologies: a Texas rock garden, a tall grass garden, a garden for pollinators, and a desert garden. Promenade connects the indoors to multi-sensorial outdoor environments, like the scent of jasmine climbers or the shade from bamboo groves.
