Uptown Houston District Boosts Transit Efficiency, Walkability and Quality of Place

About Uptown Houston District, Houston, TX 

Uptown (more commonly called The Galleria Area) is a business district in Houston, located 6.2 miles (10.0 km) west of Downtown and is centered along Post Oak Boulevard and Westheimer Road. At 23.6 million square feet (2.19 million square meters) of office space, the Uptown District is the 17th-largest business district in the United States, comparable in size to the downtowns of Denver and Pittsburgh.

The Uptown Houston District is the center for Houston's high-fashion retail. Various trendy shopping centers, eateries, and other sorts of entertainment venues exist in the district. Uptown is home to many upscale boutiques, as well as many Houston-based and local high-fashion designers and stores. Uptown is also host to Houston's largest hotels, which host about 20 million visitors a year. A major feature of Uptown Houston is The Galleria, the largest shopping mall in the state of Texas and the seventh-largest in America. The Galleria hosts many of the upscale shops of the area as well as citywide chain stores that appear in many Houston-area malls. It also includes several well-regarded restaurants and a large indoor ice skating rink.

Challenge:

The Uptown Houston District was in need of a mode of data analysis that could evaluate the impact of the District's Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system and streetscape improvement project. Uptown was without a tool that could measure the baseline quality of place and walkability, as well as the effects of the planned project on the surrounding blocks of the main retail corridor.

Solution:

The Uptown Houston District, using State of Place, collected urban design data for nearly 300+ aspects of urban design before the construction of the project to establish a baseline of the quality of place and walkability of the Uptown District's main retail corridor. Urban design data was also collected for a buffer around the project area to be able to understand the impact of the planned project on the surrounding blocks. In collaboration with State of Place, Uptown analyzed a total of 26 blocks, along a 1.7mi/2.7km stretch.

Results:

The State of Place software was used to quantify how the proposed project would increase the area's:

• Quality of place and walkability

• Before and After design models

• Before and After economic models

• Real Estate Value

• ROI

• Data-driven marketability