An effort that encompassed three years, three studios and countless student field trips to a floodplain near Spring, Texas has resulted in recognition for the Texas A&M landscape architecture program and a new recreation spot for the area’s residents.
The Timber Lane Utility District Master Park Plan, a 160-acre design project undertaken by Texas A&M graduate and undergraduate landscape architecture students in professor Jon Rodiek’s studios, will be recognized this Tuesday, Feb. 19 by at the Houston-Galveston Area, with a “2007 Parks and Natural Areas Best of the Best Award.” The honor for outstanding contributions to the region will be presented at the H-GAC Board of Directors meeting, at 10 a.m. in H-GAC Conference Room A, at 3555 Timmons Lane in Houston, Texas.
The master plan, which includes four parks, is located along the northern bank of Cypress Creek adjacent to the Timber Lane subdivision in North Harris County, about 25 miles from downtown Houston. The site, contained primarily on public land within the Cypress Creek floodplain, was designed over three years by several student teams.
The effort began in 2005, when student’s in landscape architecture professor Jon Rodiek’s LAND 620 graduate studio developed plans the 21-acre Sandpiper Park and nine-acre Highland Glen Park, as well as the 4.5-mile Cypress Creek Hike and Bike Trail that connects the two. The plan was then presented to the project clients, the Timber Lane Muncipal Utility District.
This procedure was repeated in fall 2006 semester when Rodiek’s LAND 620 students designed another park proposal on 90 acres of land that the Union Pacific Railroad wanted to sell to the utility district. And again, in spring of 2007, undergraduate LAND 421 students worked on a 36-acre design for the North Hills Park and Highland Glen portion of the master plan.
Over the years, the utility district funded students efforts, which included trips to the area, a site inventory, soil testing, water quality analysis, plant identification and soil examination.
“We did all that in studio just like a real office,” said Rodiek. “We rented vans and drove down there and back countless times.”
The students’ plans moved from proposal to reality when, on Nov. 10, 2007, approximately 200 neighborhood volunteers gathered for a training session then proceeded to build the student-designed Cypress Creek Hike and Bike Trail and a portion of one of the two connecting parks.
The utility district is pursing funding options for the remaining areas of the students’ master plan.
Rodiek lauded Bud Gessel, a Timber Lane Utility District board member, for his leadership in the project. Rodiek said Gessel and the board “actually got out in front of the area’s development to secure a recreational facility and land for the people of the Timberlane Utility District.”
