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The Woodlands is a master-planned community and census-designated place (CDP) in the U.S. state of Texas in the metropolitan area. According to The Woodlands Development Company, the population was 107,769 , an increase of 93.7% over its population of 55,649 at the 2000 census.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=US Census Bureau Population Finder: The Woodlands CDP, Texas )〕 It is north of Houston along Interstate 45. Though it began as a suburban development and a bedroom community, it has also attracted corporations and has several corporate campuses, most notably Chevron Phillips, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Huntsman Corporation, Woodforest National Bank, Baker Hughes, CB&I, McKesson Corporation, Hewitt Associates, Maersk Line, Safmarine, GeoSouthern Energy, and ExxonMobil. It won a Special Award for Excellence in 1994 from the Urban Land Institute.〔ULI Awards for Excellence Winners, 1979–2006. Urban Land Institute. ((Link from Google Cache) )〕 ==History== The Woodlands was conceived after the oil industry investor George P. Mitchell attended a symposium by the Rouse Company subsidiary American City Corporation on how to develop HUD financed Title VII towns like Columbia, Maryland. It was dedicated by George P. Mitchell in 1974 and managed by The Woodlands Corporation as an extension of Mitchell Energy & Development. Mitchell, an oil businessman, planned to establish a conference center, hotels, office parks, retail malls, schools, large distribution centers, and golf courses. Houses would range from affordable to expensive and large. Bill Schadewald of the ''Houston Business Journal'' said that Mitchell wanted the development to "entice city slickers looking for far-flung suburban quality of life."〔Schadewald, Bill. "Looking back ‘Then and Now’ at 40 years of Houston business." ''Houston Business Journal''. Friday December 24, 2010. (3 ). Retrieved on September 13, 2011.〕 Schadewald said that local sources stated that the HUD New Town program, a federally funded program, had a "low survival rate" and questioned whether The Woodlands would succeed.〔 The Woodlands Corporation was acquired on July 31, 1997, by a partnership between Morgan Stanley and Crescent Real Estate Equities.〔SECinfo.com. (http://www.secinfo.com/dsvrp.88U1.htm#Dates )〕 In December 2003, The Rouse Company acquired Crescent's interest,〔 SEC Edgar document through SECinfo.com. ((Link from Google Cache) )〕 and Rouse was bought by General Growth Properties on November 12, 2004. In 2011 The Woodlands was sold to the Howard Hughes Development Corporation.〔Washington Post 2005 Top 200, General Growth Properties. Washingtonpost.com. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/post200/2005/RSE.html )〕 The land was previously occupied by the Grogan-Cochran Lumber Mill,〔''With Grogan at Bivins and Magnolia (Gulf Coast Lumberman, 1939)''. Texas Transportation Archive. (http://www.ttarchive.com/Library/Companies/GroganAtBivins-Magnolia.html )〕 hence Grogan's Mill and Cochran's Crossing neighborhoods, called "villages". The original planning utilized many of the planning concepts and design consultants employed in other well-regarded new communities of that era such as Columbia, Maryland, Irvine Ranch, California and Reston, Virginia. The original development plan included environmental design principles espoused by Ian McHarg, a distinguished landscape architect, teacher and author of the seminal work ''Design With Nature''. It continues to grow residentially and commercially as many companies are moving there. In addition to Chevron Phillips, Huntsman, Anadarko, Hewitt Associates, Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Mærsk Sealand, Chicago Bridge & Iron, M&S Engineering and Woodforest National Bank have set up operations. The Town Center includes shopping and eating facilities, a waterway resembling the San Antonio River Walk, and water taxis known as "Waterway Cruisers" that are enclosed and cooled for added comfort. On September 13, 2008, it sustained extensive damage from Hurricane Ike. Sustained winds of brought down thousands of trees, powerlines, and billboards in the area and severely damaged the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. Ike was the first hurricane to directly affect the area since Hurricane Alicia in 1983. The summer of 2011 brought an unprecedented drought throughout Texas, which caused thousands of trees to die and requiring they be taken down, a process that continued into 2012. In 2011, Schadewald said "Now: Obviously, The Woodlands had quite a future. Somewhere between First Colony and The Woodlands, I realized why visionary real estate developers strike it rich more often than skeptical real estate reporters."〔 In 2012, the U.S. Census Bureau designated the area around The Woodlands and Conroe as a "large urbanized transit area," defined as having over 200,000 residents, making it eligible to receive federal transportation funds.〔Lee, Renée C. "(Growth transforms rural areas north of Houston to urban centers )." ''Houston Chronicle''. Saturday October 6, 2012. Retrieved on October 7, 2012.〕 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「The Woodlands, Texas」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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