Public substructure is known for being utilitarian , uninspiring , and downright ugly . But not always . At first coup d’oeil , this elephantine water system storage system of rules under Houston looks more like the pillared nave of an ancient cathedral . Now the turn a loss infinite that ’s larger than a football game field is assailable for visits .
TheBuffalo Bayou Park Cisternwas build in 1926 to add drinking water to the grow Texas city . Over 15 million gallons of water were store here until the seventies , when a mysterious news leak was discovered that eventually put the reservoir out of mission . In 2010 , as the demesne above the cistern was being transmute into a car park , designer pried unfold a crosshatch and were stupefy at the cave - like room fill with 221 pillar .
The return process included install walkways and railings so the world can now have the beauty of the subterraneous treasure . At first , all water was drained out so the room could be cleaned . “ But then we put the water back in , ” Anne Olson , Chief Executive of the partnership that manage the park , told Next City . “ Because one of the looker of the site is that it has these incredible rumination . ”
Like London’sThames Tunnelor DC’sDupont Undergroundsubway station , these long - abandoned effort of engineering are being re - opened and re - appreciated by new audiences who are transforming relics of a metropolis ’s past times into a new kind of civic space . Like those spaces , the cistern was once slate for wipeout — and at one detail , project to be a parking service department ( ? ? ? ) — until the metropolis saw the value of keeping it around .
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The cisterna officially opened last weekend , andtickets can now be purchasedfor visits , although it looks like they ’re sell out for quite some sentence . For those who do n’t have tickets , aperiscope at the surfacegives a peek at what dwell beneath . you may even “ view ” it through afairly convincing web experiencethat recreates the feeling of discovering the cistern for the first sentence .
[ Next City ]
ArchitectureHoustonInfrastructureWater
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