AECOM was selected to provide master planning and design for BLVD Place: a 21-acre mixed-use development in the prestigious Galleria area of Houston, Texas, U.S.A. AECOM developed the masterplan of the overall site to accommodate the client’s desire to self-develop the retail and office components while selling other parcels and development rights to others for the hotel and condominium projects. This new high-density, mixed-use development project is being implemented using a multiphase approach, and, when completed, will link the adjacent upscale residential neighborhoods with the city’s premier commercial real estate thoroughfare, Post Oak Boulevard.
BLVD Place contains 750,000 square feet of retail and office lease space distributed across the site in six four-story buildings and one ten-story high-rise tower. The 400,000 square feet of retail space includes a 48,500-square-foot Whole Foods grocery store, 80,000 square feet of restaurants, 150,000 square feet of high-end shops and a 35,000-square-foot seven-screen cinema. The project has 350,000 square feet of office space. The loft-style office space has 10-foot ceilings and floor-to-ceiling glass screened with a custom frit pattern. The site accommodates parking for 2,800 cars, including a 300-car single-level underground garage, 2,300 cars in above-grade structured parking, and 200 surface parking spaces.
The development’s site planning and design employs several creative concepts including densifying the city along a major thoroughfare with a mixture of complementary uses. The design team extended the city roadway grid through the project to improve vehicular circulation around the site while providing pedestrian connections to neighboring projects to give it a more urban feel. The architecture is characterized by a double cornice — two continuous projecting eaves, with 10-to-20-foot cantilevers. These roof lines provide a consistent architectural vocabulary spanning a wide variety of tenants and uses, while also providing sunshading and rain protection.
BLVD Place Phase 1 (“Building 6”) was completed in April 2009 and consists of a single four-story mixed-use commercial building with retail and restaurants tenants at the ground level, the main dining rooms of the two restaurants on the second level, and loft-style office space on the upper two floors. This first phase of the multiphase BLVD Place project accounts for approximately one-tenth of the final proposed build-out of the 21-acre site.