Inwood Forest: Equity Reimagined in the face of Suburban Decline

Speakers: Peter Caldwell, Senior Designer – Asakura Robinson

Credits: 1.0 PDH-HSW

Register Here SEPT 16 | 2 PM EST

How an abandoned golf course in Houston, TX is leading to new opportunities for community renewal through unique flood mitigation approaches.

At a glance, the Inwood Forest neighborhood is idyllic. Designed as a suburban paradise with golf course winding throughout, this neighborhood is nestled along the bayou and boasts large stands of pre-existing Post Oaks. The failure of the golf course only seemed to highlight the natural beauty of this community just minutes from downtown Houston. As the daily routine of the course fell to quarterly mowing and maintenance of water features and low spots disappeared, the pristine links were replaced with wetland edges and scruffy scrub lines. Now as part of massive flood mitigation strategies this now distressed suburb is facing the replacement of their natural backyard with maximum volume detention basins. We’ll explore how this neighborhood came to be in this position and the strategies we’re using to create opportunities for a new vision of neighborhood based, flood detention design.

Learning Objectives:

Explore methods for contextualizing a community scaled project through unique stakeholder and government engagement strategies | Review methods for working within Intergovernmental Partnerships to develop new approaches for flood mitigation infrastructure projects | Discuss alternative processes for implementing ecological systems in traditional suburban environments