• strategic enhancement;
• airport corridor assessment and improvement plans; and
• stronger Sign Code regulations

Scenic Houston’s work over the past decade has enhanced the visual appeal of our city. Scenic Houston’s efforts have improved our streets and neighborhoods, important for quality of life and especially necessary in a competitive economic environment.

Join Scenic Houston and our event Chairs Dee Dee and Steve Robinson and Honorary Chairs Annie and Bob Graham, on October 23 for our Annual Dinner honoring 2013 Scenic Visionary:

John W. Johnson 

A Scenic Initiative Award will also be presented to H-E-B.

The 2013 Annual Dinner and presentation of Scenic Houston’s 2013 Scenic Visionary and Scenic Initiative Award will be held Wednesday, October 23rd 2013 from 6:30 p.m. till 9:00 p.m., at the Houston Country Club,            1 Potomac Drive, Houston, TX  77057.

To purchase tickets ($250 each), please call Scenic Houston at: 713-629-0481, or you can purchase online here:

 

The following sponsorship opportunities are still available for the 2012 Annual Dinner and presentation of Scenic Houston’s 2012 Scenic Visionary and Scenic Initiative Award:

$15,000 UNDERWRITER · Table for 10                                    $10,000 PATRON · Table for 10

$ 5,000 BENEFACTOR · Table for 10                                       $ 2,500 ADVOCATE · Table for 10

$ 1,000 ENTHUSIAST · Four seats

If you would like to be a sponsor of this year’s dinner, please call Scenic Houston at: 713-629-0481 or you can purchase your sponsorship online here:

Sponsorship Levels

Enthusiast (Four Seats) $1,000.00 USD   Advocate (Table for 10) $2,500.00 USD Benefactor (Table for 10) $5,000.00 USD Patron (Table for 10) $10,000.00 USD

 

Read more at Chron.com

http://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/If-buses-become-rolling-billboards-city-s-image-4206841.php

Because this will effectively turn METRO buses into rolling billboards, Scenic Houston has asked the Downtown Super Neighborhood as well as other neighborhood groups and area management districts to join Scenic Houston in expressing opposition to METRO.

Scenic Houston is collecting information and coordinating opposition to the proposal to turn METRO buses into rolling billboards. Organizations interested in learning more, or adding their voice to this effort, can email Scenic Houston at:  info@scenichouston.org

Scenic Houston, our predecessors and our partners have worked since 1980, with great success, to improve the visual aspects of Houston’s streets and public spaces. Our efforts have moved Houston from “billboard capital of the world” in 1980, with over 10,000 billboards to fewer than 1500 today, and we will not accept a proposal that adds 2400 new billboards to the streets of Houston.

Also in July, Culver met with the board of directors of the Alliance of North Houston Chambers of Commerce (ANHOC). ANHOC is developing its legislative agenda to include support for scenic issues, including opposition to any legislation that would mandate digital changing-message billboards without local control or decision-making.

Scenic Houston is partnering with the Houston Northwest Chamber of Commerce to encourage Harris County to bring its sign regulations for on-premise changing message signs in line with City of Houston standards.

The site provides a new way to share your ideas, support your neighbors’ insights and ideas, and connect with people who share your issues. No issue is too big or too small to bring up on Neighborland. If it matters to you, then it matters.

Houston Section of Neighborland.com

There are already several hundred ideas in the Houston section, with the Washington Ave area a center of a tremendous amount of activity.

The site is very simple to use.  After signing in to Neighborland, you can find your neighborhood and post your idea. The posts all start with “I want,” and you fill in the rest.  Describe your idea, add pictures or video, suggest a location, and share it. What would make your block better? What businesses do you think could thrive in your neighborhood? What issue do you care about?

For more information, and to get started go to www.neighborland.com

Kay B. Crooker, 1933 - 2012

Throughout her extraordinary volunteer career, Kay Crooker was a driving force for preserving and enhancing the visual character of Houston.  Appointed to the City of Houston’s Planning Commission by five consecutive mayors, and the longest-serving member of the city’s planning commission, Kay ensured that Houston’s development rules and the application of those rules support sustainable development and a greener Houston.

As chairman of the Neighborhood Preservation Committee, she made it easier for established neighborhoods to preserve existing lot sizes. As chairman of the Task Force that created the City of Houston’s Tree and Shrub Ordinance, Kay employed grit, charm, intelligence and a laser focus to successfully bring a committee of divergent interests together to enhance Houston’s urban forest.

Beyond the Planning Commission, Kay devoted her valuable time to Scenic Houston, the Houston Botanical Garden, The Park People, Trees for Houston, and Katy Prairie Conservancy.

You can read more about Kay and her remarkable life of service in the Houston Chronicle.

Through her words and deeds, Kay B. Crooker created a better Houston for all and demonstrated that she was a true hero in this community.  We will miss her.

John M. Kirksey

John Kirksey founded Kirksey Architecture in 1971 just one year after graduating from the University of Texas. As President, John created the firm with a clear mission – to design high-performing, healthy buildings that positively impact the people, environment, and communities they serve.

John has made it his personal and professional mission to shape a better Houston. He has accomplished this through his firm’s commitment to sustainable design, and through his stunning success in tree planting. Rarely can a specific environmental achievement of this breadth be traced back to a single individual, but there is no argument that John Kirksey is directly responsible for initiating and fostering programs that have planted more than one million trees in Houston since 1990.

Tellepsen Family Downtown YMCA designed by Kirksey Architecture.

John Kirksey has been recognized by the Texas Forest Service, Texas Urban Forestry Council, Trees for Houston, Houston Arboretum, The Park People (now Houston Parks Board), the Mayor of Houston and now, Scenic Houston for enhancing the visual character of Houston.

In addition, having long been at the forefront of sustainable design and business practices, John has built a firm culture focused on community and the environment.  To date, Kirksey has completed more than 50 LEED certified building representing over 22 million square feet and was ranked as the number one green firm in Houston by the Houston Business Journal in 2010.

A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA),  John has held leadership roles with Scenic Houston, Trees for Houston, Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Memorial Herman Healthcare System, and many more professional and civic organizations.

Scenic Houston will also be presenting its Scenic Initiative Award:

Central Houston, Inc.

The Scenic Initiative Award is given in recognition of Central Houston’s leading role in the redevelopment and revitalization of downtown Houston over the past 30 years, and in particular its leadership in keeping the visual focus on the city’s stunning downtown architecture.

The 2012 Annual Dinner and presentation of Scenic Houston’s 2012 Scenic Visionary and Scenic Initiative Award will be held Wednesday, October 17th 2012 from 6:30 p.m. till 9:00 p.m., at the Houston Country Club, 1 Potomac Drive, Houston, TX  77057.

To purchase tickets ($250 each), please call Scenic Houston at: 713-629-0481, or you can purchase online here:

The following sponsorship opportunities are still available for the 2012 Annual Dinner and presentation of Scenic Houston’s 2012 Scenic Visionary and Scenic Initiative Award:

$15,000 UNDERWRITER · Table for 10                                    $10,000 PATRON · Table for 10

$ 5,000 BENEFACTOR · Table for 10                                       $ 2,500 ADVOCATE · Table for 10

$ 1,000 ENTHUSIAST · Four seats

If you would like to be a sponsor of this year’s dinner, please call Scenic Houston at: 713-629-0481 or you can purchase your sponsorship online here:

Sponsorship Levels

Enthusiast (Four Seats) $1,000.00 USD Advocate (Table for 10) $2,500.00 USD Benefactor (Table for 10) $5,000.00 USD Patron (Table for 10) $10,000.00 USD

This review of funding formulas is occurring at the same time METRO is studying the revenue potential of selling ad space on its vehicles and properties.  Scenic Houston Executive Director Anne Culver made a statement at the meeting, which also represented the position of the Uptown Houston, Energy Corridor and Greenspoint Management Districts.

The position of these organizations, all vested in enhancing the visual appeal and economic vitality of the Houston region, is that METRO funding decisions should not change the agency’s long-standing policy of not selling advertising on the exteriors of its vehicles.  Otherwise, METRO could be responsible for turning its bus fleet into rolling billboards in a city that has banned new billboards for more than 30 years.

Here is the complete text of Scenic Houston’s statement:

“Good Morning, my name is Anne Culver, I am the Executive Director of Scenic Houston.  We are proud of our 40 year history or working to improve Houston’s quality of place, including particularly our successful support of a ban on all new billboards. 

In the statement we make today, Scenic Houston also represents the Uptown Houston, Energy Corridor and Greenspoint Management Districts.

Scenic Houston, and our predecessors, have been working since 1980 on the visual aspects of Houston’s streets and public spaces.  From “the billboard capital of the world” in 1980, with over 10,000 billboards, to fewer than 1500 today, the City of Houston, and surrounding areas, have made real progress across a broad agenda of scenic initiatives including freeway landscaping, scenic district development, more effective on-premise sign regulation and enhanced design standards for public projects.

Our commitment to the visual character of our city includes a concern with signage on METRO buses that roll through the neighborhoods every day.  METRO maintains an attractive bus fleet that reflects well on this agency and our region, and we strongly support the agency’s more than 30 year ban on bus advertising. 

Our individual members are also committed to mobility for our region, which is only becoming more critically important as the region is growing.  Every mobility solution has to be part of the mix.

We appreciate the tight economic climate and the difficulty METRO has in funding high capacity transit solutions.   We support METRO’s fiscal responsibility in exploring every angle to finance high capacity transit.  But we believe that one of the worst outcomes of this would be to change the long-held policy of not selling advertising on its vehicles and properties, particularly on the exteriors of buses.

Scenic Houston is in favor of measures to help alleviate METRO’s funding issues, including the freeing up of general mobility funding.   Better to alter that formula than to turn the METRO fleet into rolling billboards in a city that has banned billboards for more than 30 years.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment. ”

Scenic Houston continues to closely monitor the ongoing discussion at METRO around selling advertising on METRO buses and trains. We would also like your opinion on the possibility METRO will adopt a policy that could turn buses and trains into rolling billboards..

Please take a few moments to send us your thoughts on this issue by going to our METRO Advertising Policy Opinion Page