Runner Up

Sustainability Award

Core77 Design Awards 2024

TMC Helix Park

TMC Helix Park celebrates human and ecological resilience. At 14.5 acres in downtown Houston, TMC Helix Park addresses urgent environmental needs, weaving together stormwater management with biodiverse planting at the center of world's largest medical campus. The park redefines ecological resilience on the urban scale, transforming a series of hardscaped asphalt parking lots into a strategically vegetated neighbourhood park.

To plan for the 500-year storm, the park was conceived of as a living sponge that stores, filters, and repurposes rainwater for the entire watershed. The park's permeable open space is designed for rainfall interception, with over 650 new trees, allowing the site's living infrastructure to retain up to 3.2-million-gallons of stormwater.

Building in a Bayou City: Refuge and Resilience The site inventory and analysis began with a careful assessment of the region's ever-present flood risk. The results of this assessment heavily informed the design team's decisions to raise the site by five feet, creating a resilient campus resistant to flood risk. Mikyoung Kim Design

Building in a Bayou City: An Ecological Landscape The TMC Helix Parks design included a holistic strategy for implementing the latest in sustainable practices and green technology. What resulted was a connected network of green infrastructure and multi-modal transportation opportunities woven throughout the park design. Mikyoung Kim Design

TMC Helix Parks - Masterplan The TMC Helix Parks masterplan laid out a unique double helix shape, creating a series of interconnected parks, each with its own identity and feel. The linear helix design unites key neighborhood assets and creates a vibrant green corridor, while unique design interventions at the site scale provide a diversity of experiences within each park. Mikyoung Kim Design

TMC Helix Parks - Innovation Eco-Regions The planting design for the TMC Helix Parks was informed by local ecologies of the region. Each park represents a historic Houston area eco-region, creating unique biological experiences within each park and helping to restore native ecosystems and function to the neighborhood. Mikyoung Kim Design

Aerial of Central Helix Garden (Helix CD Garden) The Helix CD Garden design includes a linear water feature and canopy structure framing one side of the park site. These design elements are intended to provide shade and cooling while activating the eastern edge of the site and encouraging connection with the Collaborative Building adjacent. The west side of the garden is home to lawn and generous tree canopy, intended to invite visitors in to sit, play, and relax.
Rob Benson

The Helix CD Garden Experience The linear water feature of the Helix CD Garden provided a variety of experience offerings. From dipping your toes in the water, relaxing alongside the steam, or simply sitting and enjoying the view. A series of bridges connect both sides of the site while providing yet another unique vantage point to enjoy.
Rob Benson

Children Playing in Helix AB Garden Water Feature The water feature of the Helix AB Garden was designed for interaction and intimacy. The shallow scrim feature invites visitors to play and engage their senses while escaping the Houston heat. Rob Benson

A Diversity of Water Offerings at the Helix CD Garden
The expansive water feature series of the Helix CD Garden invites visitors to experience the magic of water in a variety of ways. Lush planting flanking the water feature and deck walk provide a sense of intimacy and scale to the experience. Rob Benson

An Aquatic Ecosystem at the Helix CD Garden The natural water feature of the Helix CD Garden is designed to accommodate a functional aquatic ecosystem. This unique intervention offers visitors the opportunity to engage with plant life in a new and unexpected way. Rob Benson

Active Play Zone in the Helix AB Garden In contrast to the passive spaces on site, the active play areas provide opportunity for activity and interaction within the Helix AB Garden. The design team used a unique combination of site furnishings, patterning, and color to further diversify the experiential offerings of the parks.
Rob Benson

Aerial View of the Helix AB Garden Water Feature This unique two-stage water feature combines a water cascade with a gentle scrim element to create an immersive sensory experience. This water movement will serve to lower temperatures and provide a gentle misting effect in this secluded corner of the park. A sinuous exploration path winds around the cascade feature allowing visitors to experience the water flow from above. Rob Benson

Helix CD Garden at Night The TMC Helix Parks were designed to be comfortable and engaging at all hours. The comprehensive lighting strategy ensures safety for visitors while providing a new and unique perspective on the water movement and adjacent site elements.
Rob Benson

As part of a larger 42-acre masterplan for the Texas Medical Center, this first phase of TMC Helix Park redefines resiliency at the urban scale in this majority minority city, transforming a series of hardscaped asphalt parking lots into a strategically vegetated neighbourhood park. To plan for the 500 year storm, the project was conceived of as a living sponge that stores, filters, and repurposes rainwater as a public amenity for the entire watershed.

At TMC Helix Park, a focus on human health defines the gardens and the theme of water and light bring these parks together in creating thermal comfort zones for the community. Active mobility pathways intertwine with water and biodiverse planting to create an oasis of play and restoration. A human-centered approach defines this large urban park with district wide mobility infrastructure, green amenities, programmed spaces for gathering, and water gardens for sustained health and well-being.

Refuge, Resilience, and Climate Conscious Public Spaces

Investing in a district wide climate resiliency plan along Brays Bayou and into the Texas Medical Center, the 42-acre site was elevated by and average of six feet, increasing it's ability to absorb water and create planting scheme that protects the campus from flash flooding in this 500-year floodplain. In this first phase, the 14.5 acres of open space will absorb approximately 3.2M gallons of rainwater, storing and filtering it for release in a highly controlled protocol.

Houston's rainfall will likely decrease, with climate change and events such as flash flooding and droughts are predicted to become more frequent. Houston has a subtropical climate with relative humidity typically ranges from 60 – 90%, with heat index higher than the actual temperature. Houston's average temperature is 92°F, shaded surfaces can be up to 40°F lower than unshaded ones. Throughout the site, 69,4000sf of shade canopies with 380,000sf of cool pavement and water features provide climate-conscious comfort in hot weather.

Designing Green Amenities & Community Space for Neurodiversity and Inclusion

TMC Helix Park is designed with Mikyoung Kim Design's neurodiversity toolkit of play, discovery, and care; creating places for multi-sensory experiences and flexible and customizable spaces that offer both refuge and communal spaces. Biophilia shapes the design with texture, natural materials, and immersive experiences.

TMC Helix Park is built around five Texas eco-regions that integrate over 300 biodiverse plant species and 650 new trees (that will intercept 25-50% of rainwater) on the site that brings a range of color, texture and sound throughout the year. Water play brings health and wellness through noise mitigation and cooling experiences in a park welcoming to visitors of all ages and abilities. Rain Gardens and permeable buffer strips will slow, filter, and store stormwater in this new resilient district.

Streetscapes and mobility routes are designed to be shared, safe and active, providing greater access to the park. Sloped walkways, extensive shade canopies, and multi-faceted cycle pathways are layered within furnishings, and low impact designs. Reaching beyond the core gardens a network of pedestrian and cycle facilities encourage active mobility and connect to the Houston's complete street plan. The district's streets offer healthy, enjoyable alternatives to a car-centric commute, connecting adjacent to Texas Medical Center campuses and the broader Houston community.