The design addresses Houston’s habit of starting with a clean slate. An investor with an unoccupied lot in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood approached our office a property they own. The client hopes to build a boutique hotel on the site…someday. In the meantime, they want the site to serve as a source of income. They proposed constructing a series of temporary bars around a swimming pool. In response, our design seeks to negotiate between elements that are permanent and items that are temporary.
While Houston famously lacks zoning, it is stringent about enforcing parking requirements. In response, a concrete podium elevates programmatic elements above the ground plane, creating a space for shaded parking underneath and making the experience of the pool feel more private and removed from the busy streets below. The podium anticipates the potential arrival of the hotel in the future, while also addressing the need for parking (and hopefully farmer’s markets, festivals, celebrations, and other things that don’t involve cars) in the present.
While the pool exists as a fixed element at the center of the podium, the items that surround the pool possess a sense of lightness and mobility that gives them a flexibility now and in the future. A light scaffolding loosely defines the space above. This frame possesses the capacity to be disassembled and relocated if/when the hotel takes its place on the podium. The fabric veils draped from the frame offers protection from the sun and their movement in the wind along the with tree canopies convey the presence of the breeze.
On the surface of the podium, tree planters and cabanas constructed from CLT panels provide another layer of shade and shelter. Each of these items rest on casters, allowing them to be rolled into new locations as conditions change around the pool. Visitors can gather in friendly clusters or seek seclusion and read a book quietly. The stage and screen hide the locker rooms and enable the pool to host musicians and movie nights.