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Chapter Nine: The Olin Plan
- Texas A&M University Press
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more lawn, and more water . . . a magical place alive with wonder and mystery,”4 a vision projected in his watercolor drawings. In summarizing his concepts, Olin emphasized that the renewed park should serve as a catalyst and model for changing the landscape of Houston. “The vision for Hermann Park aligns with [the effort to promote the quality of life in Houston to a higher standard], driven by a desire for equity and justice, for beauty, and for delight both in the place and in each other’s company. These should be the joys of urban life, this is the role for the urban park.”5 Olin began his first presentation by showing a series of sketches that illustrated then-current uses of parkland and highlighted what little land was left over. Of the 445 acres in the park, only 90 provided contiguous , usable open space. His early studies looked at the amount of water in the park and how the lake could be enlarged and connected to Brays Bayou along natural gullies, existing but generally covered over and ignored. Other studies focused on parking and transportation. Too much of the interior of the park was taken up with parking lots, an appalling 30 acres. Olin outlined master planning principles and related them to what was needed in Hermann Park. The highest priority was access. Congested vehicular circulation and intrusive parking made it obvious that extensive spatial reorganization was needed. The second principle was restoration. Many elements of the park that are integral to its history had been overused and neglected. The live oak allées, for example, needed to be revived, enhanced, and nurtured. One goal of the Hermann Park Conservancy was readily understood by the Olin team: the new master plan needed to recapture the character of the original park plans, “where the intention was to provide the public L aurie Olin presented Hermann Park’s new master plan on March 17, 1994, after eight months of research, field study, and meetings. Olin and his associates analyzed an immense compilation of data about the park and the region—reports, maps, traffic counts, and site information. They also met with representatives of institutions, agencies, community organizations, municipal and county officials, and park users seeking insight, consensus, and support. Response from numerous groups informed the direction of the park plan. Olin’s curiosity about history led him to an extensive study of the history of Hermann Park. This in turn led to a plan firmly and obviously based on the initial Kessler Plan and its subsequent revisions by Hare & Hare. Jane Anderson Curtis, a recent graduate of the University of Virginia’s landscape architecture program and new employee of Hanna/Olin, was sent to Houston in 1994 with the Hanna/ Olin team to conduct a detailed analysis of park conditions. Drawings , maps, and sketches were prepared in Olin’s Philadelphia offices. The extensive groundwork, planning, and local responses led to the publication in 1995 of Renewing Hermann Park: A Comprehensive Master Plan.2 In the plan’s preface, “A New Leaf,” Mayor Bob Lanier, Parks Director William R. Smith II, conservancy chairman William M. “Bill” Coats, and executive director Mary Anne Piacentini wrote that the plan “will enhance and preserve the best of the park, restore areas that are old and worn-out, and develop under-utilized areas to provide new recreational opportunities for park visitors.”3 In the first section of the report, “A Vision for Hermann Park,” Olin wrote that the plan seeks a park that is “both greener and bluer . . . a sanctuary with more shade, CHAPTER NINE The Olin Plan Its goals are to preserve, protect, and nurture what is special and worthy, to mend what is broken or has begun to unravel, and to remove or relocate what has come to harm the park or impede public access.1 —Laurie Olin, 1995 126 Chapter Nine vision, cooperation, flexibility, and continual commitment to examine each small detail in light of the whole.”9 In a second series of comparative images, Olin showed how much of the park’s tree canopy had been lost. A canopy drawing by Hare & Hare in 1930, when compared to the canopy in 1995, showed a dramatic loss of trees. Olin’s plan for reforestation did not mimic Hare & Hare’s plan. For one thing, there was less land (notably the lost Hogg Tract, where the Texas Medical Center was built), and new road and path configurations as well as more buildings (the Museum of Natural...