SWA and Downtown Houston+ unveil student-led exhibition that showcases visionary strategies to address extreme heat in Downtown Houston. In “Houston is So Hot Right Now,” now on view at POST Houston, students from across the U.S. propose a transformative approach to cooling one of America’s hottest cities.
Starting on September 26 at POST Houston, SWA and Downtown Houston+ present “Houston is So Hot Right Now”, a student-led exhibition and summer-long research program studying landscape-based strategies to address extreme heat in Downtown Houston. Coinciding with the Texas Society of Architects 85th Annual Conference & Design Expo at the George R. Brown Convention Center, the exhibition offers a unique opportunity for architects, planners, and community members to explore student-proposed approaches to passive cooling strategies to combat heat and enhance the connectivity and vitality of Houston’s urban environment.
Originally opened in late July at Jones on Main, “Houston is So Hot Right Now,” is the culmination of SWA’s summer-long research program, which enabled eight landscape architecture, planning, and urban design students from across the U.S. to work alongside professional designers and community leaders to study extreme heat in Houston’s urban core, investigating strategies to weave cooling infrastructure into public realm enhancements. The resulting vision — a “Cool Loop” through the city’s center — leverages a full guide of cooling strategies to strengthen the environmental, economic, and social resilience of downtown.
“Extreme heat is a central challenge of the next century,” said Natalia Beard, Principal at SWA. “This summer, we asked students to study surgical interventions to help make Downtown Houston cooler, but they came back with an even more expansive and energizing vision: what if all our efforts were knit together in support of a more livable and vibrant public realm?”
After in-depth analyses of Downtown Houston’s history, urban heat island effect, and global case studies in extreme heat adaptation, students developed a comprehensive toolkit (“Cool Tools”) of strategies to lower ambient temperatures in the public realm. Combining spatial and social interventions — shade structures, cooling stations, educational wayfinding, evening programming, contiguous tree canopy, improved multimodal infrastructure, and more — the exhibition organizes these interventions in a proposed “Cool Loop” across downtown, drawing inspiration from similar citywide initiatives in Medellin, Vienna, Mexico City and Munich.
“SWA brought talented students from around the world to envision innovative ways Downtown Houston could use design strategies to develop as a cooler, more connected neighborhood,” says Kris Larson, President and CEO of Downtown Houston+. “We appreciate the boundless creativity these students offered us, helping us to see familiar places through fresh eyes. We hope the many great architects attending the TSA Annual Conference this fall will have the chance to visit the exhibition and be as inspired by the students’ dedication as we are.”
Find more information and exhibit visuals in the digital press kit here. To stay informed about Downtown Houston+ and other public realm projects, visit downtownhouston.org.
Downtown Houston+ stewards the vision of Downtown as a center of global commerce and local culture and Houston’s heart for opportunity, excitement, and joy. Its family of aligned entities — Central Houston Inc., Houston Downtown Management District and Downtown Redevelopment Authority — collectively advance a shared mission to champion and enhance Downtown Houston as a connected and thriving place for everyone.