A park that takes stormwater personally.

At Conrad Sauer Detention Basin, a working piece of Houston’s drainage infrastructure becomes a landscape for everyday life. The project transforms a concrete basin into a planted park, pairing increased stormwater storage with places to walk, gather, and watch the landscape change with the weather.

At OJB, Rachel served as Designer from concept design through construction documents, then as Project Manager during construction administration. Working alongside civil engineer RPS Klotz and Associates, the landscape team helped integrate public space into an active detention facility through a collaboration involving MetroNational and TIRZ 17.

A 900-foot elevated walkway and planted concrete decks introduce new ways to move through and experience the basin. The design works with the existing structure, retaining substantial portions wherever possible while adding planting and connections to the surrounding streetscape.

The technical challenge was making a garden work in a place designed to flood. Plant selections respond to wet and dry conditions, while a cellular soil-containment system brings vegetation onto the concrete basin slopes. Drainage performance, structural constraints, and the details of planting all shape the experience.

The ambition: infrastructure that earns its keep in a storm and offers something back on an ordinary afternoon.