Neat Fleet

Extreme makeover: Garbage recycling trucks are transformed into unique works of art

Mobile artworks on wheels are hitting Houston streets as several recycling trucks have gotten an extreme makeover as part of a partnership celebrating the city's artists and its commitment to going green.

Officials with Houston Art Alliance, the Solid Waste Management Department and the city of Houston unveiled the first six trucks in the Art Recycling Truck fleet Wednesday in Hermann Park.

"How about we turn something that most people don't see as beautiful into a piece of art that drives through the streets every day?"

When first discussing the project with Harry Hayes, director of the city's solid waste management department, Orange Show Center for the Visionary Arts board member Michael Moore, said,"How about we turn something that most people don't see as beautiful into a piece of art that drives through the streets every day?"

"That's when we both decided to set this in motion," Moore recalled.

The Orange Show produces the popular annual Art Car Parade, which in its 27th year is now the largest art car extravaganza in the country.

Hayes, also on hand for the unveiling, thinks the finished trucks covered in bold, graphic designs are beautiful. "Art is found everywhere around us to help inspire us," he said.

The six new Art Recycling Trucks, which will travel their regular routes, are designed by local artists selected by a panel of professional Houston artists from an open call of applicants. The trucks, wrapped in printed vinyl panels, display the chosen artists' visions of a city that repurposes.

Green Dream by Pablo Gimenez-Zapiola is overgrown with fig ivy — all photographs taken by the artist in the Museum District. It debuted at Mayor Annise Parker's Earth Day Breakfast in April and then participated in the Art Car Parade, along with the second Art Recycling Truck, Patterns of Consumption, in which CORE Design Studio artists covered the truck in X-ray blueprints of recyclable bottles, cups and utensils.

Aaron Munoz imagines the recycling of the Astrodome with post-apocalyptic flare with Mad Tax Beyond the Astrodome, including fiery creatures scattered across the truck, while Kia Neill's Recycled City depicts digitally manipulated photographs of steel I-beams mangled by Hurricane Ike.

Troy Stanley's Forest for the Trees reflects a wood grain design taken from his photographs of scrap wood and resembles a wooden toy truck. I Have a Positive Impact by Arianne Roesch is a patchwork quilt of photos of materials left over from her soft sculpture works.

"This is a very unique collaboration," Matthew Lennon, director of Civic Art + Design, said at the unveiling. "We'll be rolling out two more trucks soon, with hopefully more to come."

Green Dream by Pablo Gimenez-Zapiola features larger-than-life images of fig ivy photographed by the artist in Houston's Museum District.

Photo by Barbara Kuntz

Green Dream by Pablo Gimenez-Zapiola features larger-than-life images of fig ivy photographed by the artist in Houston's Museum District.

unspecified

MFAH expands

Houston museum acquires historic Masonic lodge property for new greenspace

Holland Lodge No. 1, A.F. & A.M./Facebook

The building at 4911 will be torn down for the new greenspace.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has acquired a prime parcel to expand its campus in the Museum District. On Tuesday, December 23, the museum announced it has purchased a two-acre parcel of land at 4911 Montrose Blvd that will bring its total footprint to 16 acres.

Located just north of the Glassel School of Art, the property will be developed as a greenspace that will serve as a community lawn as well as be utilized for future museum events and parking. MFAH has retained landscape architects Nelson Byrd Woltz — the firm responsible for work at Memorial Park and the recently-opened Ismaili Center — to create the design for the new greenspace.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston greenspace rendering A rendering offers a bird's-eye preview of the new greenspace.Image by by Cong Nie/Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

At this time, the museum does not have plans to build anything on the property, according to a press release.

To make way for the greenspace, the property’s existing building, Holland Lodge No. 1, will be torn down. Built in 1954 as a home for the oldest Masonic lodge chapter in Texas, the building features a sandstone mural facade. It has been for sale since at least 2005, according to a report in the Houston Chronicle.

Demolition on the site is expected to begin in spring 2026 with the greenspace opening in approximately two years, according to press materials. In addition to the Glassell School, the museum’s campus includes the Audrey Jones Beck Building, the Caroline Wiess Law Building, the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, and the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building.

“We are delighted to contribute to Houston’s greenspace access with this new initiative, which will expand the museum’s 14-acre campus to a thoroughly walkable 16 acres,” Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH, said in a statement. “While the primary objective for the purchase of this property is to secure land for any potential future expansion of the museum, our priority now is to create a welcoming community lawn. Thoughtfully designed by Nelson Byrd Woltz, one of the leading firms in sustainable landscape practice, the site will serve as public greenspace and provide additional parking for museum visitors.”

museums museum of fine arts houston openings