Memorial Park Conservancy

Memorial Park bridges iconic design and sustainability

AutoCAD and Civil 3D Success Story

Aerial image of Kinder Land Bridge with Houston skyline
Kinder Land Bridge with view of Houston skyline. Image: Nick Hubbard courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.

Creating a space for everyone

The transformation of Memorial Park is a testament to the power of creating a space that is not only beautiful, functional, and sustainable, but also deeply important to the community it serves. Using technology solutions such as AutoCAD and Civil 3D, a variety of teams collaborated, designed, and constructed the now iconic Kinder Land Bridge and Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Prairie that also doubles as an impressive stormwater management system. Perhaps, most importantly, it’s a destination that has become a meaningful part of the social fabric of Houston, Texas.

Uniting a divided park

View of top of Kinder Land Bridge with traffic going through tunnels
Aerial view of Kinder Land Bridge and two tunnels for a six-lane road. Image: Nick Hubbard courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

Located just outside downtown Houston, Texas, Memorial Park is nearly twice the size of New York’s Central Park. However, a six-lane road and 55,000 cars ran through the heart of the park each day, dividing it in two and limiting access to most of the park for residents and visitors.

Since its opening in 2023, Kinder Land Bridge has united the park and delivers a new cultural and natural touchpoint for the entire city. The iconic land bridge design, open accessibility, and the new, unrivaled views of the Houston skyline are one thing. But there’s more to it. The plan involved two sets of tunnels and the creation of the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Prairie, which serves as an important role in stormwater management to help mitigate the heavy rains that can easily flood the flat terrain of Houston.

“Our goal has always been to protect, restore, and preserve Memorial Park for future generations,” says Shellye Arnold, president and CEO, Memorial Park Conservancy. “The addition of the Kinder Land Bridge and Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Prairie is a significant step towards achieving that goal. These enhancements not only reconnect the north and south sides of the park, but also provide a natural habitat for local wildlife and a serene space for the community to enjoy. Together, they embody our commitment to creating a sustainable and inclusive environment where everyone can experience and appreciate the beauty of Memorial Park.”

Planning an epic transformation

Overlook of prairie with natural grasses and flowers
Functioning as a stormwater management system, the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Prairie reduces flood risks while supporting diverse, indigenous plant and animal life. Image: Nick Hubbard courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects and Memorial Park Conservancy.

The idea for the project emerged in 2013 when the team—including key stakeholders from the City of Houston, Memorial Park Conservancy, and a variety of firms—came together to reimagine Memorial Park in response to the record drought of 2011.

Headed up by Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (NBW), the master planning phase was meticulous and involved extensive site surveys and historical research. “One of the first things we asked for was a survey. We like to spend a lot of time on site, doing a lot of research in terms of history, old maps, interviewing people, and even trying to find books relevant to a particular era,” says Jeffrey Aten, Principal, NBW.

Groundwork with more than 75 consultants and input from more than 3,000 Houstonians laid the foundation for a master plan that was approved by the city council in 2015. To accelerate implementation of the visionary master plan, the Kinder Foundation offered a grant of $70 million to Memorial Park Conservancy in April 2018. This grant became the catalyst for a public-private partnership with the City of Houston. The resulting “Ten-Year Plan” provides capital funds for many of the Master Plan signature projects and critical connections over the next 10 years along with committed resources for their long-term care.

Since 2020, this public-private partnership with Memorial Park Conservancy, Houston Parks and Recreation Department, Uptown Houston, and Kinder Foundation has delivered five major projects worth a combined estimated cost of more than $130 million of capital investment: Clay Family Eastern Glades (opened August 2020); Sports Complex (opened October 2020); Seymour Lieberman Trail Ravine Bridges (opened October 2022); Kinder Land Bridge and Cyvia & Melvyn Wolff Prairie (opened February 2023); Running Complex with Roy H. Cullen Timing Track (opened November 2023). Autodesk AutoCAD and Autodesk Civil 3D were instrumental in the design and execution of each of these major projects.

The impetus for the now iconic Kinder Land Bridge came out of trying to address what Nelson Byrd Woltz called the “park divided” challenge. It delivers a breathtaking natural experience without disruption to the six-lane transit corridor that serves as a major arterial road to downtown Houston.

The land bridge reconnects the park for visitors and features a wildlife tunnel underneath the road where even armadillos, turtles, and bobcats can move with ease and safety. And, functioning as a stormwater management system, the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Prairie reduces flood risks while supporting diverse, indigenous plant and animal life.

Digital tools bring plans to reality

Kinder Land Bridge and tunnels under construction
Kinder Land Bridge and tunnels under construction. Image: Nick Hubbard courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

Throughout the project, technology played a critical role in its success. The use of AutoCAD and Civil 3D facilitated precise planning and execution, ensuring the ambitious designs were feasible and sustainable.

The design of the land bridge and prairie involved complex engineering and coordination among many consultants and contractors. The precision and flexibility of AutoCAD allowed the NBW team to efficiently model and implement the earthworks, ensuring the project stayed on track and within budget. NBW also used AutoCAD extensively for designing the contours of the basin for the prairie and managing the soil cut and fill balance.

"AutoCAD was essential for drawing contours, path layout, planting plans, and custom features like benches and signage," Aten says.

Gunda Corporation (now Ardurra Group) was the primary project manager and design engineer on the land bridge and prairie projects. Civil 3D played a crucial role in the design process. The team used Civil 3D extensively for grading, layout, and to create a 3D model of the underground soil. This modeling was vital due to the unique design of the land bridge, which required significant backfill.

The team aimed for a balanced design, utilizing excavated material for backfill to avoid the costs and environmental impact of importing or exporting dirt. This was especially important for the actual soil on the land bridge.

“The precision of Civil 3D allowed the team to create an accurate representation of the underground soil, ensuring enough material was available on-site. The software also facilitated conflict resolution by providing a clear 3D visualization of the utilities and ensuring proper clearances, which is often challenging in 2D designs.”

—Raj Tanwani, Practice Director, Ardurra Group

Placing resilience and sustainability at the core of the design

People running up large rectangular concrete block pathway
Pavement from the old roadway provided the opportunity to upcycle into giant “steps” for the Emily Clay Family Scramble. It leads to the top of the land bridge mound, providing expansive views of the park and downtown Houston. Image: Nick Hubbard courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.

The integration of a functioning prairie ecosystem within the park served dual purposes: ecological restoration of an important endangered landscape and stormwater management. The Gulf Coast Prairie once dominated Texas, providing habitat for native flora and fauna. Today, the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Prairie helps increase biodiversity and sequester more carbon. The native prairie plants selected have deep roots that stabilize the soil, prevent erosion, and improve water filtration. The entire prairie acts as a flood detention basin, mitigating the impact of heavy rainfall on the surrounding urban areas and improving the park’s overall resiliency.

For the construction of the Kinder Land Bridge, 500,000 cubic yards of soil were needed. Finding a sustainable way to provide this material was an important part of the planning and design of the project. By creating the Cyvia and Melvin Wolff Prairie directly adjacent to the land bridge, all the fill material could be moved and reused on site. This reduced the need for importing soil and eliminated the environmental impact of 61,500 dump truck trips across Houston.

NBW found another creative and sustainable opportunity when it became necessary to realign a portion of the six-lane road to facilitate construction. The abandoned section of pavement from the old roadway provided the opportunity to extract large blocks of concrete to construct the giant “steps” of the Emily Clay Family Scramble. The upcycled concrete of the Scramble provides direct access to the top of the mound, with expansive views of the park, downtown Houston, and beyond.

“All of the soil mounded and put on top of the tunnel sections came from the prairie. With AutoCAD, we were able to determine the quantity needed to cap the tunnels the way we wanted to.”

—Jeffrey Aten, Principal, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

A stream runs through it

Stream through Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Prairie
Stream through Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Prairie. Nick Hubbard courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects.

Memorial Park’s stream through Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Prairie isn’t just picturesque. It’s a key component to the stormwater management plan for the surrounding park areas. Freese and Nichols joined the project and were charged with reconnecting the watershed north of the six-lane roadway through the prairie to the natural drainage system of ravines to the south, making this a unique and challenging opportunity. It involved extensive hydrology analysis and innovative design to ensure the stream could handle both everyday flows and larger storm events.

“The stream serves multiple purposes,” says Emily Brown, Associate and Ecological Engineer, Freese and Nichols. “First, it provides an inviting natural element that attracts park-goers. More importantly, it plays a critical role in flood management, which is an essential function given the park's history of flooding.”

The ability to create detailed models in Civil 3D allowed the team to visualize the stream corridor accurately. By modeling the stream in 3D, the designers could assess how the stream would interact with the surrounding topography and infrastructure.

Key to the design was a large box culvert under the land bridge, a critical component to prevent sediment build-up and clogging. This culvert features a low-flow channel to manage smaller water flows and roughness elements to slow down water during heavy rains, protecting the prairie from erosion. With Civil 3D, the team could use alignment and grading tools to adjust the stream's path and gradient dynamically, ensuring optimal water flow and sediment transport during various flow conditions.

“Civil 3D allowed us to create a 3D model of the stream alignment and integrate it with other project components. With the 3D corridor, we could visualize the project better, make necessary adjustments, and preserve as many historic trees as possible.”

—Emily Brown, Associate and Ecological Engineer, Freese and Nichols

Memorial Park is open for all

View of land bridge and prairie
Image: Nick Hubbard courtesy of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects

Now that the new portion of the park is open, Memorial Park Conservancy can tap into complete operations and maintenance documentation, from lighting to archaeological finds that were curated with the Texas Historic Commission.

“We have everything at our fingertips to maintain these incredible new features and know ahead of time what may be needed for repair and when,” Arnold says.

Most importantly, the park itself is drawing new visitors for the expanded experience. “The road is still there, but it’s in service to the park—and not the park in service to the road. And that’s thanks to NBW’s incredible vision and design,” Arnold adds.

Since the land bridge and prairie opening in February 2023, it has become a fabric of the Houston community and instills a sense of pride—both for the city and those who helped to bring it to life.

“Until recent years, the city of Houston was not known for parks,” Tanwani says. “Memorial Park has helped propel Houston further into the national and global picture with its innovation. It’s a great feeling. Not only do I go there regularly, but I always take out-of-town visitors and say, ‘Look at this first. We helped create it.’”