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Discovery Green is a public urban park in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. Opened in 2008, Discovery Green is located on Avenida de las Americas across from the George R. Brown Convention Center and the Hilton Americas Hotel, adjacent to Toyota Center. The park includes a lake, bandstands and venues for public performances, two dog runs, a children's area and multiple recreational areas.〔(Discovery Green Park Features - Discovery Green Conservancy )〕 The park was principally designed by the landscape architecture firm Hargreaves Associates. The first event held at the park was Houston Mayor Bill White's 2008 inauguration.〔()〕 The park officially opened to the public on April 13, 2008. It is estimated that almost a quarter-million people visited the park between opening day and June 30, 2008. The estimates were made by comparing the size of crowds with the Houston Police Department's estimate of 30,000 people who went to the park on opening day. ==History== The City of Houston acquired a portion of the land in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center in 2002. When the rest of the property went up for sale, a group of philanthropists led by Maconda Brown O’Connor of the Brown Foundation, and Nancy G. Kinder of the Kinder Foundation approached then-Mayor Bill White with their idea of turning the space into an urban park. The Mayor agreed〔http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/great-white-hope/page/0/6〕and became a strong advocate of a public-private partnership was developed for the $125 million project. Several other philanthropic foundations joined the effort, including the Wortham Foundation and the Houston Endowment, Inc. The City of Houston purchased the remainder of the land in 2004 and created the framework for the park’s construction and operations, including the role of the new organization, Discovery Green Conservancy, incorporated in 2004. When the Houston City Council approved the contracts to provide partial funding and support to the park, it also mandated that the “public at large” be engaged in the design and development of the park. With the guidance of Project for Public Spaces, the Conservancy mounted the large public meetings and smaller focus groups to solicit public feedback. This feedback became the basis for the park’s programming. Hargreaves Associates, an internationally renowned landscape architecture firm based in San Francisco, oversaw the design effort. Page (PageSoutherlandPage ) designed the park's architecture and Larry Speck was their lead architect. Lauren Griffith Associates. provided landscape and horticultural design services. Artists Margo Sawyer and Doug Hollis were integral members of the design team and produced three works of art for the park. A large team of local and international engineers and specialists supported the core design team. Elmore Public Relations was contracted for marketing and public relations. The park earned LEED certification in October 2009.〔"(Discovery Green earns LEED Gold certification )." ''Houston Business Journal''. Tuesday October 13, 2009. Retrieved on October 19, 2009.〕 The Kinder Foundation provided $10 million to help fund the $125 million project. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Discovery Green」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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