Winner: Texas Society of Architects Design Award

On a cold day in 2011, the design team of the adjacent urban Buffalo Bayou Park wrangled an opportunity to drop through a rooftop hatch and view a defunct underground drinking water reservoir. The Cistern, built in 1926, had been out of service for years and the city was considering proposals for commercial uses of the space, including a parking garage. Today, the Cistern has been open to the public one year—and has won a total of nine awards.

What the designers saw was one of the most powerful and memorable industrial structures ever built in the U.S. A proposal was created to help Buffalo Bayou Partnership repurpose the space as a visitor destination that could accommodate installation art—particularly light and sound. The project has been successful beyond anyone's wildest dreams and has received national media coverage as well as the attention of visitors from all over the world. 

Page is proud that Texas Society of Architects just identified The Cistern as one of its 2017 Design Awards recipients. For more information about The Cistern, click here. To see the other winners of the TxA Design Awards, click here.