Devised by area think tank Center for Houston's Future, the Houston 2040 project tells the tale of two cities.

The first touts the city as one of the nation's most desirable places to live and work — a thriving, comfortable urban environment hard won after decades of sluggish growth. The second has benefitted from years of economic success to become a massive city-state that competes commercially and culturally with the world's biggest cities.

A research affiliate of the Greater Houston Partnership, the non-profit Center for Houston's Future (or simply, "the Center") has worked with local political, economic and cultural leaders since 2009 to create a well-calibrated speculative portrait of Houston in three decades.

At a Thursday morning press conference in the Galleria area, the organization unveiled two rough sketches of the city's future in a pair of seven-minute films titled Learning to Live and Playing to Win, which the Center will screen in a series public sessions taking place throughout the area in 2012.

"We want you to look at these as neutrally as possible," Center president Catherine Mosbacher told a crowd of more than 75. "We're not promoting one scenario over the other. You'll find things you like in each and things that might make you uncomfortable or anxious. . . The future's often good for some folks and for others it's not."

Each short film offers a future Houston with a strong global presence thanks to energy, shipping and healthcare. But how each hypothetical city got to this level of success has led to two strikingly different places.

 Learning to Live is the sort of Xanadu version. After decades of political and economic instability, Houston has decided to invest in education and infrastructure, the outcome of which is a livable seven-million-person city that draws companies and workers from other U.S. cities and around the world.

 Playing to Win presents a global player that has swelled to 12 million in population after 30 years of steady economic growth. While this dynamic, inventive and diverse city continues to expand with talented newcomers, socio-economic inequality has become the norm.

Reading the Houston's tea leaves has been a highly collaborative project for the Center, a process involving all sections of the population. Mosbacher said in an interview before the presentation the organization reached out to all sections of the population to create the scenarios. "We've worked with so many types of groups. . . students, educators, professionals, even members of the homeless community."

"One of our core objectives is to get the city to think about its future," Center chairman James Calaway told CultureMap. "It seems to go against human nature to look into the future. We want citizens and civic leaders to look the horizon. Now is the time we can makes changes."

 To get in on the 2040 conversation, visit the Center for Houston's Future website for details on upcoming public events.