born on the bayou

Buffalo Bayou Park booms with colossal $100 million donation from Houston's biggest benefactors

Houston's East End is in the midst of a renaissance, as evidenced by booming residential development, new restaurants and retail, and quality-of-life initiatives like hiking and bike trials near the East Downtown Trail.

This East End renaissance, to that end, goes hand in hand with Buffalo Bayou. Now, an ambitious master plan is closer to being realized, thanks to a game-changing new gift from Houston's biggest benefactors, Rich and Nancy Kinder, who've just donated $100 million to its completion.

Just days off a $50 million donation to their eponymous Rice University Kinder Institute, the Kinders have gifted a colossal $100 million to help expand Buffalo Bayou Park eastward, as part of the Buffalo Bayou East Master Plan.

A historic gift

The Kinders' $100 million will help Buffalo Bayou Partnership leverage the additional $210 million of public and private investments it will require to realize the first 10 years of the Buffalo Bayou East Master Plan, per the organization.

Plans call for new bayou parks, trails, housing, cultural destinations, and infrastructure improvements into the Greater East End and Fifth Ward neighborhoods. The plan moves to consideration at Harris County Commissioners Court and Houston City Council on Tuesday, September 27 and Wednesday, September 28, respectively, according to a Buffalo Bayou Park Partnership (BBP) press release.

By the numbers, the Kinder Foundation’s $100 million gift is the largest single donation in Houston parks history. The gift, combined with approximately $37 million already raised by BBP, helped secure $83.5 million of public funds from the City of Houston; $24 million from Harris County; and $14 million in federal housing tax credits. Civic leaders such as Mayor Sylvester Turner, Commissioner Adrian Garcia, and Commissioner Rodney Ellis have been vocal in their support.

BBP adds in press materials that it will continue to raise the remaining $46 million in private funds needed to complete the 10-Year Plan by 2031.

Parks, waterfront fun, and more

With a push for green spaces for all residents, the Buffalo Bayou East Master Plan envisions new and improved waterfront trails, expanded and enhanced parks and open spaces, new bridges and boat landings, the transformation of existing industrial relics into community event spaces, a mixed-income housing project, and infrastructure enhancements.

Visitors can expect trails and bridges, community waterfront gathering spaces, a sweeping gateway, and more.

Tony Marron Park, a 19-acre City of Houston park on the south bank of Buffalo Bayou, will be expanded into nearly 40 acres and will include improved sports fields, a boat launch, an expansive nature play area, wildflower meadows, bayou lawns, a barbecue plaza, and spaces for community events.

Japhet Creek, a tributary stretching into the Fifth Ward, will see improved trails, interpretive signage, site furnishings, and wildflower and native grass plantings. Two new pedestrian bridges will link Fifth Ward to the trail system.

In an adaptive reuse initiative, a former barge terminal on a historic oxbow known as Turkey Bend, will become a waterfront recreational and cultural hub. Its large wharf, large, covered warehouse, and 50,000-square-foot building will host performances, public art, and boating activities.

Linking the city

Civically, the plan will reunite the Greater East End and Fifth Ward neighborhoods, which have been long separated from the bayou and each other. More connections to Houston’s regional trail network are also in store.

“Buffalo Bayou Partnership is honored that the Kinder Foundation is entrusting our organization to steward this extraordinary gift,” said Anne Olson, Buffalo Bayou Partnership president. “This plan is not only about parks and trails — it is a comprehensive community development plan for a part of town that has not seen this level of investment before. The cultural destinations, infrastructure improvements, and connectivity in Buffalo Bayou East came directly from the input we received from the East End and Fifth Ward communities. We are grateful to the Kinder Foundation as well as the City and County for joining together with us to make the communities’ vision a reality.”

Rich Kinder, Kinder Foundation chairman, responded in a statement: “There is a rich history and a valued culture along Buffalo Bayou east of downtown, and Buffalo Bayou Partnership is to be commended on the decades spent in the community laying the groundwork for this plan. The 10-Year Plan is in good hands under the direction of Buffalo Bayou Partnership.”

For those keeping score: The Kinders have broken their own record with this new gift. In 2018, as CultureMap reported, the Kinders gifted the largest amount ever to a Houston Park (at the time) with the $70 million infusion to the Memorial Park Master Plan.

Downtown Gateway Buffalo Bayou East Master Plan

Rendering courtesy of MVVA

The sweeping downtown gateway in the new plan.

bowled over

Houston artist dishes on Food Bank fundraiser happening this weekend

Picture of several artists at a table with a bunch of handmade ceramic bowls.

Photo courtesy Paula Murphy

Ceramics professor Cori Cryer and her students from Lone Star College Kingwood and the bowls they donated to the 20th Empty Bowls fundraiser

On Saturday, May 16, shoppers have an opportunity to feed those in need by purchasing unique, handcrafted items. The 20th Empty Bowls event takes place at Silver Street Studios at Sawyer Yards from 10 am to 3 pm. A preview party takes place on Friday, May 15 from 6-8 pm (buy tickets here).

The fundraiser is a collaboration between Houston-area ceramists, woodturners, and artists working in all media and Silver Street Studios.

Shoppers can purchase one-of-a-kind bowls for $25 each (larger bowls are priced accordingly). A simple lunch from Salata, a sweet treat from Ben & Jerry’s, and iced coffee from Katz Coffee is served until it runs out. Every dollar of the purchases goes to the Houston Food Bank, which estimates that for every dollar donated, it’s able to provide three meals to Houstonians in need. Since its inception, Empty Bowls Houston has raised $1,208,959 for the Houston Food Bank, which equates to more than 3.6 million meals.

The event also includes live music and art demos. More than 2,000 bowls will be available for purchase, donated by area artists.

Empty Bowls began as a grassroots effort started many years ago at a high school in Michigan and is now held all over the world. Nearly everything for Empty Bowls events, from the food served to the venues hosting events and the bowls for sale are donated.

Cori Cryer, a professor of ceramics at Lone Star College Kingwood, is one of those who, along with her students, donated bowls for the fundraiser. She’s been involved with the effort for all of its 20 years in Houston, and before that in other cities.

“When I started donating, I didn't have a whole lot of money,” Cryer tells CultureMap. “I was a graduate student, and so this was a way for me to give back to the local community. And I think my students today kind of recognize that same feel. You know, they may not have money to send a check off to someone, [but this is] an easy way for them to be able to contribute to the community.”

Cryer teaches Ceramics I and Ceramics II to a variety of dual-credit high school students, college students, and continuing education students. Those in her Ceramics II classes are required to create five bowls to donate to Empty Bowls. But her students in her introductory class often end up donating as well. This year, she and her students provided approximately 150 bowls for the event.

Cryer said that the style of bowls for sale range from something as small as a condiment bowl to much larger serving bowls As each bowl is an individual work, they represent a variety of styles and themes. One of her students this year designed a glazed, ceramic leaf-shaped bowl with ceramic insects on it.

“There's a ladybug and a caterpillar and a spider,” she says, each created out of clay and positioned around the bowl.

Cryer loves seeing how the artists use their imaginations and abilities.

“Most of my students do throw their bowls on the pottery wheel, but that's not required,” she says. “They can hand-build them. It’s completely up to them what kind of construction technique they use.”

Cryer loves knowing that this event is a way for students to see that their artistic efforts can have lasting impact on the community around them. In addition to being able to support the Houston Food Bank, the bowls her class donates, she knows, take on special meaning for those who purchase them.

“I tell my students there is a pot for every person and a person for every pot,” she says.

In fact, one of her personal favorite bowls is one she purchased from an Empty Bowls sale.

“It's a very small bowl, maybe like three inches in diameter, and two inches tall, and it's a little pink pig that I think an elementary student made,” she said. “He has no tail, and he has no ears, but he has a snout, and it is definitely a pig. And I love that little bowl. I have it sitting on my desk at home.”

Cryer knows shoppers attending the Empty Bowls sale will find similar, soon-to-be-beloved items.

The Saturday event is free. Those wishing to attend the preview party on Friday, May 15 from 6-8 pm, which offers light bites, beer and wine, and the first chance to purchase bowls, can purchase a $50 ticket online. In addition, Archway Gallery is hosting an exhibition of 30 one-of-a-kind bowls that can be purchased as part of the Empty Bowls fundraiser. The exhibit runs through May 30.