Urban Development Impacts Future Designs

As part of our ongoing commitment to shaping the future of urban planning, Walter P Moore highlights a series of projects that exemplify sustainable, forward-thinking design. Inspired by the 2025 Engineers Week theme “Design Your Future,” these projects—ranging from parks to corporate campuses to critical infrastructure—demonstrate our expertise in creating resilient, future-ready spaces.

Our work continues to influence the built environment through innovative engineering and a commitment to sustainable design practices, leaving a lasting impact on communities and the engineering industry.

Memorial Park Conservancy Clay Family Eastern Glades

The sustainable design of the Clay Family Eastern Glades, located within the Memorial Park Conservancy, is a natural oasis within the Houston city limits.?The project revitalized 100 undeveloped acres, which included reevaluating stormwater detention requirements and resizing a lake.

A water balance study confirmed the lake’s capacity to store water for monthly irrigation. The outflow structure was designed to provide detention and stormwater quality treatment. This included sediment forebays to minimize particulates, improve lake water quality, and reduce maintenance dredging.

All infrastructure was hidden to address the owner’s aesthetic concerns for the natural environment, and the lake was maintained at a three-foot depth. From this level, the park reuses one foot for irrigation instead of buying potable city water. The project?achieved both LEED and SITES Certifications, exemplifying the dedication to preserving the natural environment and promoting sustainable site development.

Houston Botanic Garden

A crown jewel of the city’s revitalization of its green spaces, the 132‐acre Houston Botanic Garden was constructed around Sims Bayou, a key feature of the landscape that makes up the garden. The garden’s stormwater management design was coordinated with the overall design to utilize appropriate botanical zones of the garden for stormwater detention. The natural functions of coastal prairie and wetlands provide quality stormwater detention while compensating for displaced floodplain storage to meet the no net fill requirement in the floodplain.

An innovative drainage structure in the wetland is partially hidden in the bank of the detention pond. When water level rises within the wetland during a rain event, a weir wall controls detention volume allowing water to be released within 48 hours. Additional functions were included for outflow restriction, filtration for debris, and pond level control.

The Coastal Prairie, which serves as a floodplain mitigation site, is a sustainable habitat of prairie grasses and other native species to promote the conservation of soil, water, and wildlife. This was done to provide a suitable ecosystem to manage flood and stormwater while concurrently providing visitors with a living, operating exhibit that teaches the benefits of a coastal prairie in water management. A unique design was developed for the lagoon in the Family Discovery Garden where a portion of the stormwater detention is provided. The outfall of the lagoon posed a challenge because the aesthetic design required it to be concealed from public view. This was accomplished by designing the weir wall inside a storm vault located beneath an adjacent path.

ExxonMobil Corporate Campus

Located in Spring, Texas, the ExxonMobil campus was designed to enhance employee collaboration, innovation, and well-being for 10,000 employees. The campus includes 14 low-rise office buildings, parking garages, laboratory, wellness center, childcare center, and other employee amenities, all connected by utility tunnels to provide campus energy and communications.

Sustainability was a top priority in the campus design which obtained LEED Gold certification. Measures to conserve natural resources included the preservation of mature trees on site and planting of native species in place of invasive species. Water use was reduced by more than 80% compared to a similar size development through a water reuse system that includes water capture in two lakes connected to a non-potable water supply system. The water reuse system balances the lake levels and pressurizes the non-potable system to provide water for the cooling tower, campus irrigation, fountains, wash down of service areas, and fire protection. The lakes serve as a site amenity and offer other benefits, such as stormwater detention and floodplain mitigation.

Sandy Springs City Center

The?pedestrian-friendly?Sandy Springs (Georgia) City Center seamlessly melded the aspirations of residents and employees with a commitment to flexibility, collaboration, and security. The project was a?comprehensive public-private partnership to create a?mixed-use development that employs urbanist principles with a solid civic emphasis as a true center for Sandy Springs. The 14-acre development includes a central park, an administrative building, City Hall, a 1,000+-seat performing arts center, a studio theater, 100,000 SF of office space, 55,000 SF of meeting and retail space, a 1,600-car parking deck, and apartments.

Most buildings in the City Center were constructed on a concrete structural frame,?while structural steel was used for complex long-span roofs and?canopy structures. The performing arts?center structure was designed to be acoustically isolated from the surrounding buildings, mechanical rooms,?and restrooms to provide the most soundproof facility possible.

The rigorous schedule required several early packages, including mass excavation/shoring, early foundations, and structural framing. The two-level basement perimeter?covers a massive area of over 150,000 SF per level, with a half-mile-long shoring?wall perimeter.

Bagby Streetscape Improvements

Prompted by a drainage study, the Midtown Redevelopment Authority wanted?a comprehensive redesign of the aging infrastructure along 10 city blocks of Bagby Street in Houston’s Midtown. The project?addressed flooding issues and aided in the sustainable revitalization?of Midtown, achieving LEED Silver, and becoming the first Greenroads Project in Texas.

To rejuvenate the infrastructure along the vibrant business and pedestrian areas of Bagby Street, a unique challenge emerged: enhance the area without disrupting the continuous flow of traffic along the one-way collector connecting downtown to the Museum District and Southwest Freeway.?A meticulous block-by-block analysis guided the implementation of context-sensitive solutions, allowing for the installation of a 28-foot deep, 60-inch storm sewer beneath the street while keeping Bagby Street open.?

Collaborating with an urban planning and design firm, the project introduced the city’s first Low Impact Development plan, resulting in a sustainable, walkable community with widened sidewalks and pedestrian-friendly amenities. The redevelopment, showcasing a 15% increase of on-street parking and 33% stormwater filtration by rain gardens, set a new standard for sustainable street design in Texas and attracted over $25 million in new private development.

Midtown Superblock Park and Garage To meet the increased demands of pedestrian, parking, and traffic issues in Houston, the Midtown Redevelopment Authority developed the Midtown Superblock Park and Garage. Several innovative design methods were utilized to seamlessly blend the distinct program elements into one integrated development, which includes a 2.5-acre park with an underground parking garage, a 3,000-SF entertainment pavilion, water features, and a future 7,500-SF restaurant. An eight-story residential tower was incorporated into the site.

A special stormwater management system was designed that also serves as detention for the site and a 70,000-gallon vault that collects rainwater from the park and garage drainage system. A traffic impact study estimated and mitigated traffic flow to and from the site and coordinated with METRO on bus stop locations.

One of the biggest challenges was having a living, sustainable park above a below-grade parking garage. Structural and diagnostics engineers worked closely with parking consultants to design an operationally efficient garage while allowing the park’s trees to grow and thrive, modeling sustainable redevelopment in Midtown.

The Houston Zoo

For almost two decades, the Houston Zoo staff collaborated with engineers on a master plan to repair and create new infrastructure to improve the facility’s resiliency. One challenge was working within the zoo while portions were left open for visitors and employees as well as preserving landmark aspects such as the cypress tree in the center of the café.

A key feature of the Houston Zoo was the Galápagos Islands exhibit, which includes a wide range of unique animal species in a display to highlight their commitment to conservation and education. As the largest component of the zoo’s “Keeping Our World Wild” centennial capital campaign, the Galápagos Islands exhibit was the culmination of years of planning and construction.

The structural design of the Galápagos Islands exhibit included all animal exhibit elements, exhibit pools, enrichment items, sculpture and signage bases, support structures, and portions of the artificial rock formations. Structural engineers offered guidance and coordination for the remaining artificial rock formations, acrylic panels, and animal caging. Civil engineers provided grading, drainage, and utility design, as well as infrastructure planning and rerouting to support the plaza, back-of-house drives, and entrance ticketing booths.

Because the Houston Zoo falls within the 500-year floodplain, additional considerations had to be considered during the design process. Engineers worked closely with the zoo to ensure that finished floor elevations for the buildings, flood protection systems, grading considerations, sanitary sewer maintenance hole elevations, and lift station venting parameters were all carefully planned to mitigate potential flood risks.

Designing Your Future Today

This is just a small example of Walter P Moore’s projects related to urban planning. The firm is committed to designing and engineering smarter, sustainable cities through low impact development to ensure we continue to reshape how we live, work, and connect in our cities so the next generation of engineers can continue the progression toward an energy efficient global environment.

Our future engineers can carve their own path, continuously designing, innovating, and anticipating solutions that shape the ever-changing engineering landscape. By committing to sustainability and environmental responsibility for the built environment, it is possible to “Design Your Future” beginning today.

To learn more, visit walterpmoore.com.