I noticed that the Texan society was not only unique, but
also one that is also rather diverse. Texas has a colourful history filled with
oil money and powerful leaders. The automobile has been extremely influential
in the form of Texan cities and regions. As we saw in Portland, the City
government has the majority of the power in planning and does not necessarily
need to cooperate with the rest of the state. Texas’ initial growth was a
result of developers who had incredible amounts of money and more land than
they knew what to do with. It is easy to see the effects of this period on the
outer zones of any city. Texas’ lack of mandatory zoning is also a contributing
factor to the haphazard development but can also serve as an opportunity to
experimentation and innovation.
The bold and extravagant
Texan culture is reflected in the architecture, land use, roads and planning of
Texan cities. At first glance planning as we know it seems to be few and far
between with only building codes, community action and health and safety
precautions in place to prevent planning disasters. Yet I found urban centres
were mostly logical and accessible and had facilities for numerous transit
options. Texan cities had very distinctive districts which were identifiable by
features as small as the width of the footpath.
Many of the newer development
projects such as the 2nd street district in Houston were extremely
successful in creating a destination and a sense of place. Even though public
spaces exist and work in Texas, there was an absence of this sense of place in
parks. Yet as we saw, Discovery Green in Houston and Memorial Park in Houston
seek to rectify this. This may be true for sprawling highway commercial strips
on the fringe of cities
Tess Coates
