Barbara Jordan Rising

Civic art from the soil and spirit of Texas

Studio Zewde's proposal to honor Barbara Jordan's legacy at the African American Library at the Gregory School site called for an approach to spatial storytelling that vividly reflects multiple dimensions of Houston’s history. The city’s Fourth and Fifth Wards were founded by free people traveling east along Buffalo Bayou, who ultimately cleared and settled land along its banks. Their incredible faith in post-bellum life powered the work of building these historic communities, and the cornerstone of that faith was in education. Studio Zewde’s translated these themes into a design that incoporates water, representing Buffalo Bayou, vegetation, representing the banks of the bayou, and “the Foundation,” representing Barbara Jordan’s view of education as “the key to political and economic empowerment.”

A ribbon of water, understory planting, and tree canopy wrap a concrete plinth rising above the water, offering a welcoming place to learn the story of Barbara Jordan as rising from this history. The plinth integrates seating in a cool and shaded space with a series of informative inscriptions. The plinth can also be used as a place to gather, have lunch, connect with community, read, host outdoor educational programming, or as a stage or theatre for larger community events hosted on the lawn. The layering of educational programming, everyday gathering, play, and larger community events offered by this design is a reflection, then, of the communities and institutions from which Barbara Jordan rose, and from where the future Barbara Jordans will rise.

TEAM

• Studio Zewde, Landscape Design & Public Art