More Space: Main Street 2.0

Houston, Texas

Transforming a historic, once auto-centric street into a space for all people

Since its inception, More Space: Main Street has been a collaborative effort between the City of Houston and Downtown Houston+. It helped downtown businesses survive during COVID and taught the public that streets can provide so much more value than just moving cars. The program allowed restaurants to convert 50% of their off-street parking spaces into space to serve customers. This expanded outdoor dining space has provided much-needed relief to restaurants while activating Main Street as a place to visit. With the March 2023 permanent closure of Main Street, the Downtown Houston+ team initiated a stakeholder-led process to develop a concept plan for its 11 blocks (between Commerce and Rusk) that would transform a makeshift outdoor dining experience into a permanently revitalized pedestrian promenade.

Downtown Houston+ brought on Design Workshop in 2023 to lead an initial planning and design study for the future design of Main Street. Over the course of the year, a basis of design was developed in response to community and agency engagement and goals. Through auditing the existing More Space program, forging partnerships with stakeholders and engaging the community, the Design Workshop team has developed a set of guidelines that set a cohesive vision in motion—a vision of Main Street as the everyday gathering place for Downtown residents and visitors alike. The plan has been used to move forward with engineering and implementation currently in place.

Services Provided: Project Management, Public Facilitation & Outreach, Discovery & Recommendations, Design Development & Alternatives, Refinement & Documentation

Client

Downtown Houston+ and City of Houston