Back in the early 1990s, developers, who were attracted to the Third Ward’s prime location at the southeast corner of downtown Houston, began tearing down the shotgun houses and displacing residents. It was then that Rick Lowe decided to act. Lowe, a contemporary artist, helped purchase and renovate 22 shotgun houses in Houston’s Third Ward for what was supposed to be a temporary, guerrilla-style project. Twenty years later, the structures still shine as a beacon in a neighborhood that has survived institutional racism, unemployment, crime, and neglect.
While other members of the National Association of Real Estate Editors were seeing the sights in Houston during our spring convention, I wanted to follow a tip from a longtime friend and check out Project Row Houses. I grew up in the Houston area, so I was familiar with the Third Ward and it’s history. As a way to re-focus the historical conversation around the neighborhood, Lowe opened the shotgun homes built in the early 20th century as as a sort of gallery for culturally relevant artwork. Artists transform the interiors of the modest shotgun-style row houses lining Holman Street into immersive installations. To celebrate the project’s second decade, artists from Otabenga Jones & Associates reconstructed historic moments of the neighborhood that are etched into the history of the Third Ward and its inhabitants. The exhibit, entitled “Monuments: Right Beyond the Site,” will close on June 22.
Project Row Houses is more than just a gallery, as I discovered during my tour of it on Thursday. It straddles the intersection of art and activism. It’s a social sculpture, according to Lowe, of which side effects include attracting top talent for its artist residency program while also providing housing and support for single African-American mothers, workshops for neighborhood residents, housing for just a few doors down from the open-to-the-public exhibitions. The site, which has now grown to more than 40 properties over a six-block area and includes site-specific installations, a sculpture garden, and architecture and engineering incubation projects from Rice University students such as the ModPod prototype, the Row House Community Development Corporation duplexes on Francis Street, the XS Small House, and the shipping container-shaped zeRow House.
And while all of these projects have benefited the neighborhood in both tangible and abstract ways, the unintended consequences are obvious. Despite PRH’s conservation efforts and the strong will of the neighborhood, the public art project hasn’t deterred developers at all, and may actually be encouraging more builders thanks to the project’s edgy and attractive nature.
So how do you balance development and preserving the character of a neighborhood?
That’s a good question to ask West Dallas’ La Bajada. As Trinity Groves becomes more and more popular with people who want to experience the best new thing in Dallas, and as more people want to live close to the best new thing in Dallas, La Bajada will continue to feel the pressure of development that surrounds the zoning-protected area at the foot of the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge.
Or perhaps it is a better question for Fair Park and Exposition Park? South Dallas? The list goes on.
For areas like these, there is undoubtedly friction. In Houston’s Third Ward, just caddy-corner to one of the blocks occupied by PRH is an open, grassy lot on which nothing stands but a single lazy tree and a sign that says “TOWNHOMES WITH ROOFTOP TERRACE.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek critique of some of the rather homogenous housing that has been constructed to take advantage of the area’s location and views. Just a block further up is even more construction, including modern structure with an angular rooftop by kit housing builder Zamore Homes.
Of course, as these homes are built, the problem of affordable housing remains for the Third Ward. It’s a topic that was reviewed by PBS in their documentary “Third Ward, TX.” With so much of the neighborhood’s identity tied to its residents, it’s not a problem that will go away.
Amidst all the gentrification and preservation, though, art has found a home in the Third Ward.
A permanent one, at that.
