With more than 28 million square feet of commercial office space and five million square feet of retail space combined with nearly 7,600 hotel rooms, more than 100 restaurants and a booming residential market, Uptown Houston is...Where You Can Have It All. As one of the world's leading urban districts, Uptown Houston is poised to become even greater than the prestigious blend of commercial and residential properties that it is today. Through a series of improvement initiatives, Uptown Houston is implementing a strategic vision which will ensure its continued success.
The District's vision for the future has been focused on three major cornerstones – Accessibility, Identity and Community.
In Uptown Houston, an established set of guiding principles acts as a roadmap from which both the public and private sector can build for the future. Uptown Houston's guiding principles include:
Enhanced mobility is key to the success of Uptown Houston's vision. Several improvement projects have fundamentally changed the face of Uptown and were the first critical step to making the dream a reality.
Aggressive regional improvement projects that are in progress or have been completed include improvements to the US 59 Southwest Freeway, IH-10 Katy Freeway, the Grand Parkway, Fort Bend Parkway and the proposed Northwest Tollroad. The reconstruction of the West Loop and the new Westpark Tollway have had a significant positive impact on Uptown Houston. The West Loop with new entrances and exits provides commuters with "hot links" that give direct access into and out of Uptown. The new Westpark Tollway provides southwest Houston communities a quick and convenient gateway into Uptown.
The Uptown Houston District and its Tax Increment Financing District have embarked on a $235 million local street improvement program. Its focus is to:
Complemented by the addition of open, green spaces and lively, active streetscapes, these improvements not only ease congestion and increase traffic flow, but enliven the district and create an unparalleled sense of place.
For example, Post Oak Boulevard will be transformed. Plans will accommodate new mixed-use development that incorporates pedestrian and street activity, as well as a transit corridor that links Uptown to regional transit systems and will offer improved intra-district transit options. A necklace of green spaces along this grand community, culminating at a pedestrian gateway with the area's famed Waterwall, will function as calming hideaways from surrounding commercial activity.
Plans also call for a significant pedestrian improvement program, currently underway, which widens sidewalks and adds pedestrian lighting and landscaping to all streets in Uptown.
One major mobility improvement project includes San Felipe. Widened to six lanes, traffic flows much smoother on this major thoroughfare. It has also been transformed into an oak-lined parkway with pedestrian walkways and additional green spaces.
Other neighborhood arteries feeding into major thoroughfares are being integrated into the mixed-use environment. Finally, a network of secondary streets, like the new Post Oak Lane and Skylark, is being created to ease congestion, create value and to provide more active streetscapes.
Uptown Houston is a reflection of what is best in the city. The improvements currently underway will secure its pre-eminence as the standard bearer for world-class urban districts for years to come.