HOUSTON—The Woodlands Waterway, a 1.8-mile water amenity, transportation corridor and linear park located in The Woodlands, is now a reality. The Waterway links shopping and dining, commercial businesses, residential living, entertainment including the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion with public parks, such as Town Green Park and Waterway Square, a 1-acre destination featuring fountains and a performance stage.

The Woodlands Waterway is a multigenerational project that began in 1972 as a transit corridor through the heart of The Woodlands Town Center. The Waterway began as a long-range vision with the fabled “napkin sketch,” created by Robert Heineman, vice president of planning for the Howard Hughes Corporation, the developer of The Woodlands.

“The 'napkin sketch' in 1972 was really a diagram on a large index card of a transit corridor through the heart of the Town Center. From 1972 through 1977, numerous designers including Ford Powell Carson, Cambridge 7, EDAW, Sasaki, Clark Condon, LJA and even the internationally acclaimed architect Frank Gehry developed many concepts,” said Heineman. “The concepts varied from a string of small lakes, a continuous linear pedestrian greenbelt, a continuous water amenity and a transit corridor, and finally emerged as a combination of all of the above, a linear park along a waterway bordered by a pedestrian/transit corridor.”

The workforce was a mere 5,000 back in 1980.

“The original thought was that The Woodlands should be not just a suburban residential development but one to live and work,” Heineman tells GlobeSt.com. “In reserving the waterway area, we allowed The Woodlands to grow to support the vision.”

The vision proceeded through many iterations and studies, followed by planning and designs during the next 27 years. The area did continue to evolve during that time and the sketch changed many times during that evolution period. In addition, there were about a dozen planners inputting ideas, Heineman recalled. Those ideas culminated with the design that is in place today, with the jobs count standing at 65,000.

Phased construction of the Woodlands Waterway began in 1999, concluding in a December 2017 completion. This was an 18-year public-private partnership project between the Woodlands Development Company and numerous public entities including FTA, TxDOT, HGAC, WRUD, TCOA, Montgomery County and The Woodlands Township.

“Today, with the indispensable help of the Goodman Corporation, Brazos Transit and others to implement the plan, the completion of the Waterway exists as a shining example of a commitment to a long-range vision, which began as a simple diagram on a napkin 45 years ago,” says Heineman.

The Woodlands Waterway begins at the Woodlands Mall, continues through the Waterway Square District and leads into the turning basin. A lower level of the Waterway continues to the 200-acre Lake Woodlands. Although the two-level canalway has kayak rentals, the water taxis were destroyed during Hurricane Harvey. Heineman says the plan is to bring some type of water transportation back to the Waterway in the future.

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Waterway Napkin Sketch is Now a Reality

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