For The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO)

Interim City: Recreate, Record, Recover

An Infrastructure Toolkit

2026 AIA Texas Society of Architects Studio Design Award Recipient

This Infrastructure Toolkit proposes strategies for temporary urban activation aligned with interim viaduct infrastructure, constructed to accommodate freeway expansion and traffic diversion over an approximately ten-year period.

This 10 year demolition, excavation and expansion of infrastructure, that includes the construction of temporary concrete flyovers, requires an enhanced definition of what territories are available for rescripting.

Interventions are all the more urgent when public access is still needed, where legibility of neighborhood edges risk erosion, and when safe passage for all remains necessary.

As a response, this tactical set of structures are countermeasures that reserve the capacity for access and produce activity that results in a more informed permanent recovery.

The toolkit expands to capture a nearby transit center to unify ambitions of sustainability, accessibility, and connectivity that blends ecology, safety, and equality with place making. Disentangling and properly orienting intentions across transit and infrastructure sites creates higher interdisciplinary responsiveness.