gc
12-22-2003, 10:07 PM
Are we having Fun City yet ?
By Helen Bryant - Special to the Star-Telegram
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/living/travel/7520252.htm
HOUSTON - When this city learned in late 2000 that it would be hosting Super Bowl XXXVIII, downtown was looking like an archaeological dig. Several years earlier, the city had embarked on an effort to solve what tourism and convention leaders had identified as Houston's big problem: "Houston was not fun," says Jodie Sinclair, public relations director for the Houston Downtown Management District.
Dirt began turning, with the vision of a bustling, pedestrian-friendly, tree-shaded Houston that would be oodles of fun.
Then, city leaders got the word that in 2004, it would be hosting its second Super Bowl.
Houston had just slightly more than three years to become fun.
"Super Bowl slaps down a deadline that can't be missed," Sinclair says.
The machinery of Houston kicked into high gear. The digging intensified. In December 2003, it's still intense. In fact, the pace is now officially frantic.
But officials promise that two weeks before the Feb. 1 bowl, the construction will nearly vanish, new attractions will be in place, and Houston will be a greenery-filled, gleaming bastion of fun.
That's good news, not only for those going to the Super Bowl, but also for those of us who plan to visit Houston anytime.
"We really are at an unusual time right now in that the results of years and years of effort are coming to fruition, and we have this big event happening at the same time," says Bob Eury, executive director of the Downtown Management District. "To me, it's just sort of magical."
'Party town'
It's not that Houston didn't already have a lot to offer.
The Theater District, one of the country's largest, has long been its crown jewel. But, officials say, people -- including suburban Houstonians -- have been coming into the city just to see a play, then immediately departing.
Houston leaders would like them to stick around. They would also like to lure more conventions.
So the most recent Downtown District newsletter touts Houston as "party town."
Part of the "Make Houston Fun" imperative involved establishing a restaurant-and-club zone that so many cities offer but Houston has lacked.
"San Antonio has the River Walk. Austin has Sixth Street," Sinclair says. "Now Houston is going to have Main Street."
Using its soon-to-open light-rail line as a centerpiece, downtown officials designated Main Street as the new fun zone.
On Halloween night, the city staged "The Main Event," closing Main Street to vehicular traffic. Restaurants brought tables out on the sidewalks. Musicians, magicians, street vendors and pedicabs appeared. Fun was had.
This event is now happening every Friday and Saturday night, and city leaders say they'll add nights if it's as successful as they hope.
On or about Jan. 1, the city will turn on its new Main Street Square fountain, which will squirt huge jets of water through which the new train will run.
"Now, Houston is fun," Sinclair says.
Super Bowl visitors looking for additional fun might head to a few other spots: Bayou Place, opened in 1997 in the Theater District, includes the Angelika Film Center and restaurants with offerings ranging from sushi to burgers. Nearby is the Downtown Aquarium (www.downtownaquarium.com) that opened last spring, where you can see the fish, ride a train through a shark tank and consume sea creatures at the Aquarium Restaurant. The aquarium will be the site of sports agent Leigh Steinberg's Super Bowl party.
Houston's theaters, including the historic Alley, continue to offer high-quality shows. Barry Mandel, president of the Houston Downtown Alliance, says Super Bowl planners tried to work some football players into productions during game week, but the plan didn't work. The shows in town that week will be Flower Drum Song (almost an all-Asian cast) and Proof (only a few people onstage).
Mandel says officials also are planning downtown Super Bowl weekend events for the public, such as free concerts at Minute Maid Park.
The biggest public event, the NFL Experience -- a huge collection of interactive games, displays, entertainment and autograph sessions -- will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center on Super Bowl weekend and the preceding weekend.
Private Super Bowl parties, of course, will abound, offering some star-spotting opportunities for those who might like to hang around the Corinthian party venue (the Playboy party); City Hall (the Sports Illustrated party) or Hotel Icon (such an exclusive party they won't say whose it is).
Even Houston's Museum District is signing on to the Super Bowl effort. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (www.mfah.org) is hosting "First Down Houston," a photographic exhibition of the Houston Texans' first season.
Beds, bars and beyond
Houston's $4 million revitalization effort, in the works since 1995, goes far beyond creating a party district; it's about creating a city that's a joy to traverse.
City workers have been planting trees, building wide brick sidewalks, adding lighting and creating diagonal, head-in parking spaces. They've constructed fountains, pools and water walls, and they've reconfigured Preston Street so that it curves, breaking up the city's rigid grid.
Downtown signage has been improved, pointing the way to the city's attractions. The city has drawn corporate sponsors in recent years to help build Minute Maid Park (formerly Enron Field) and Toyota Center, where the Houston Rockets play. The convention center has expanded, and in 2001, Hobby Center opened as a large performance venue. New office towers have been built, and more people are living downtown in such buildings as the historic Rice Hotel.
In short, downtown has come to life.
"Before, downtown was so 9-to-5," Eury said. "Now what you see is life at other times of the day."
Ten years ago, there were only a handful of downtown Houston hotels. By Super Bowl day, there will be 14 with a total of 4,542 rooms.
During the past year, the city added two that became instant hits: the Magnolia (314 rooms, www.magnolia hotels.com) and the Sam Houston (102 rooms, www.samhoustonhotel.com), which will open a new restaurant, 17, in time for the big bowl.
Currently under construction are two high-end boutique hotels, Inn at the Ballpark (201 rooms, www.innattheballpark.com), scheduled to open Jan. 1, and Hotel Icon (135 rooms, www.hotelicon.com), scheduled to open Jan. 15. The 1,200-room Hilton Americas (www.hilton.com), next to the convention center, opened this month.
That said, if you're planning to go to Houston on Super Bowl weekend and don't already have a room, you won't find one downtown.
A check on deadline showed some rooms still available in outlying hotels, such as the Airport Quality Inn (www.qualityinns.com, $150). Rates, of course, are higher during Super Bowl week.
Downtown Houston's restaurant and club scene is beginning to rebound from the beating it has taken in the past few years from construction and the economic downturn.
There's much to choose from in the Main Street area, including trendy Bossa for Cuban fare (610 Main St., (713) 223-2622) and Cava Bistro for steaks, seafood and salads (301 Main St., (713) 223-4068).
Next to Minute Maid Park, the new Vic and Anthony's (1510 Texas St., (713) 228-1111) is drawing droves of steak lovers. Also near the ballpark, longtime local favorite Irma's (22 N. Chenevert St., (713) 222-0767) still has great Mexican food.
Getting around
The light rail is scheduled to launch -- no, has to launch, say city leaders -- on Jan. 1 ($1 fare), linking downtown to Reliant Stadium, where the Super Bowl will be played, with many stops in between where you can park your car and ride to either downtown or the stadium.
This is important, because some city officials have projected as many as 250,000 people in town on the eve of Super Bowl, and the city doesn't have that many parking spaces. (It does have more than 100,000, so on the average weekend, parking's not a problem.)
The rail runs north-south. As of January, the city's free downtown trolleys will run east-west.
"All of a sudden," Eury says, "it's a city you can begin to function in without a car."
Are we having fun yet?
"It's happening gradually," Eury says. "There is a relationship between fun and construction."
Ah, the construction? The dig has a deadline of Jan. 15, and it must be met.
"Any construction that is not started will not be started until after the Super Bowl," Sinclair vows.
Eury conceded that there will be just an eensy bit of digging on Main Street during the bowl, and after the bowl the pace will pick up -- "but it'll never feel like it has felt the past few years." From here on, the plan is for construction to happen only a few blocks at a time, and another deadline looms next summer: Houston will host Major League Baseball's All-Star Game on July 14, 2004.
When all the digging and planting and laying of rails is complete, Eury says, "Houston will be seen in a different light. It's a city that's gone through a remarkable transformation."
By Helen Bryant - Special to the Star-Telegram
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/living/travel/7520252.htm
HOUSTON - When this city learned in late 2000 that it would be hosting Super Bowl XXXVIII, downtown was looking like an archaeological dig. Several years earlier, the city had embarked on an effort to solve what tourism and convention leaders had identified as Houston's big problem: "Houston was not fun," says Jodie Sinclair, public relations director for the Houston Downtown Management District.
Dirt began turning, with the vision of a bustling, pedestrian-friendly, tree-shaded Houston that would be oodles of fun.
Then, city leaders got the word that in 2004, it would be hosting its second Super Bowl.
Houston had just slightly more than three years to become fun.
"Super Bowl slaps down a deadline that can't be missed," Sinclair says.
The machinery of Houston kicked into high gear. The digging intensified. In December 2003, it's still intense. In fact, the pace is now officially frantic.
But officials promise that two weeks before the Feb. 1 bowl, the construction will nearly vanish, new attractions will be in place, and Houston will be a greenery-filled, gleaming bastion of fun.
That's good news, not only for those going to the Super Bowl, but also for those of us who plan to visit Houston anytime.
"We really are at an unusual time right now in that the results of years and years of effort are coming to fruition, and we have this big event happening at the same time," says Bob Eury, executive director of the Downtown Management District. "To me, it's just sort of magical."
'Party town'
It's not that Houston didn't already have a lot to offer.
The Theater District, one of the country's largest, has long been its crown jewel. But, officials say, people -- including suburban Houstonians -- have been coming into the city just to see a play, then immediately departing.
Houston leaders would like them to stick around. They would also like to lure more conventions.
So the most recent Downtown District newsletter touts Houston as "party town."
Part of the "Make Houston Fun" imperative involved establishing a restaurant-and-club zone that so many cities offer but Houston has lacked.
"San Antonio has the River Walk. Austin has Sixth Street," Sinclair says. "Now Houston is going to have Main Street."
Using its soon-to-open light-rail line as a centerpiece, downtown officials designated Main Street as the new fun zone.
On Halloween night, the city staged "The Main Event," closing Main Street to vehicular traffic. Restaurants brought tables out on the sidewalks. Musicians, magicians, street vendors and pedicabs appeared. Fun was had.
This event is now happening every Friday and Saturday night, and city leaders say they'll add nights if it's as successful as they hope.
On or about Jan. 1, the city will turn on its new Main Street Square fountain, which will squirt huge jets of water through which the new train will run.
"Now, Houston is fun," Sinclair says.
Super Bowl visitors looking for additional fun might head to a few other spots: Bayou Place, opened in 1997 in the Theater District, includes the Angelika Film Center and restaurants with offerings ranging from sushi to burgers. Nearby is the Downtown Aquarium (www.downtownaquarium.com) that opened last spring, where you can see the fish, ride a train through a shark tank and consume sea creatures at the Aquarium Restaurant. The aquarium will be the site of sports agent Leigh Steinberg's Super Bowl party.
Houston's theaters, including the historic Alley, continue to offer high-quality shows. Barry Mandel, president of the Houston Downtown Alliance, says Super Bowl planners tried to work some football players into productions during game week, but the plan didn't work. The shows in town that week will be Flower Drum Song (almost an all-Asian cast) and Proof (only a few people onstage).
Mandel says officials also are planning downtown Super Bowl weekend events for the public, such as free concerts at Minute Maid Park.
The biggest public event, the NFL Experience -- a huge collection of interactive games, displays, entertainment and autograph sessions -- will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center on Super Bowl weekend and the preceding weekend.
Private Super Bowl parties, of course, will abound, offering some star-spotting opportunities for those who might like to hang around the Corinthian party venue (the Playboy party); City Hall (the Sports Illustrated party) or Hotel Icon (such an exclusive party they won't say whose it is).
Even Houston's Museum District is signing on to the Super Bowl effort. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (www.mfah.org) is hosting "First Down Houston," a photographic exhibition of the Houston Texans' first season.
Beds, bars and beyond
Houston's $4 million revitalization effort, in the works since 1995, goes far beyond creating a party district; it's about creating a city that's a joy to traverse.
City workers have been planting trees, building wide brick sidewalks, adding lighting and creating diagonal, head-in parking spaces. They've constructed fountains, pools and water walls, and they've reconfigured Preston Street so that it curves, breaking up the city's rigid grid.
Downtown signage has been improved, pointing the way to the city's attractions. The city has drawn corporate sponsors in recent years to help build Minute Maid Park (formerly Enron Field) and Toyota Center, where the Houston Rockets play. The convention center has expanded, and in 2001, Hobby Center opened as a large performance venue. New office towers have been built, and more people are living downtown in such buildings as the historic Rice Hotel.
In short, downtown has come to life.
"Before, downtown was so 9-to-5," Eury said. "Now what you see is life at other times of the day."
Ten years ago, there were only a handful of downtown Houston hotels. By Super Bowl day, there will be 14 with a total of 4,542 rooms.
During the past year, the city added two that became instant hits: the Magnolia (314 rooms, www.magnolia hotels.com) and the Sam Houston (102 rooms, www.samhoustonhotel.com), which will open a new restaurant, 17, in time for the big bowl.
Currently under construction are two high-end boutique hotels, Inn at the Ballpark (201 rooms, www.innattheballpark.com), scheduled to open Jan. 1, and Hotel Icon (135 rooms, www.hotelicon.com), scheduled to open Jan. 15. The 1,200-room Hilton Americas (www.hilton.com), next to the convention center, opened this month.
That said, if you're planning to go to Houston on Super Bowl weekend and don't already have a room, you won't find one downtown.
A check on deadline showed some rooms still available in outlying hotels, such as the Airport Quality Inn (www.qualityinns.com, $150). Rates, of course, are higher during Super Bowl week.
Downtown Houston's restaurant and club scene is beginning to rebound from the beating it has taken in the past few years from construction and the economic downturn.
There's much to choose from in the Main Street area, including trendy Bossa for Cuban fare (610 Main St., (713) 223-2622) and Cava Bistro for steaks, seafood and salads (301 Main St., (713) 223-4068).
Next to Minute Maid Park, the new Vic and Anthony's (1510 Texas St., (713) 228-1111) is drawing droves of steak lovers. Also near the ballpark, longtime local favorite Irma's (22 N. Chenevert St., (713) 222-0767) still has great Mexican food.
Getting around
The light rail is scheduled to launch -- no, has to launch, say city leaders -- on Jan. 1 ($1 fare), linking downtown to Reliant Stadium, where the Super Bowl will be played, with many stops in between where you can park your car and ride to either downtown or the stadium.
This is important, because some city officials have projected as many as 250,000 people in town on the eve of Super Bowl, and the city doesn't have that many parking spaces. (It does have more than 100,000, so on the average weekend, parking's not a problem.)
The rail runs north-south. As of January, the city's free downtown trolleys will run east-west.
"All of a sudden," Eury says, "it's a city you can begin to function in without a car."
Are we having fun yet?
"It's happening gradually," Eury says. "There is a relationship between fun and construction."
Ah, the construction? The dig has a deadline of Jan. 15, and it must be met.
"Any construction that is not started will not be started until after the Super Bowl," Sinclair vows.
Eury conceded that there will be just an eensy bit of digging on Main Street during the bowl, and after the bowl the pace will pick up -- "but it'll never feel like it has felt the past few years." From here on, the plan is for construction to happen only a few blocks at a time, and another deadline looms next summer: Houston will host Major League Baseball's All-Star Game on July 14, 2004.
When all the digging and planting and laying of rails is complete, Eury says, "Houston will be seen in a different light. It's a city that's gone through a remarkable transformation."