Houston is in many ways the ultimate industrial landscape. This is important because Houston is often cited as the poster child of sprawl at the expense of its awesome industrial landscape. It is the landscape of the billboard and the refinery that have a disconcerting visual and economic impact. It has been described as “a loose confederation of industrial profit centers…”. If the compositional element of sprawl in Houston is the single family ranch-style house, the increment of organization binding them together is the industrial/office park. This becomes the DNA for Westchase.
This urban design is for a 4.2 square mile district located in West Houston. Composed of office towers from the 70’s and 80’s, strip centers and aging apartment complexes, Westchase lacks distinguishing features with the exception of the management district.