The Next Stop: METRO's Podcast
Episode 53: Revitalizing Transit Spaces with Urban Design and Art


Brandie Lockett:  We want to be able to move people efficiently, right? But we want to encourage people to think of transit differently as we do that, as we kind of build this service out.  

Doug Delony:  I’m Doug Delony. On this edition of the Next Stop:  Creating welcoming environments and revitalizing neighborhoods through public transit and urban design.  

[Introduction music plays] 

Doug Delony:  Today, on the Next Stop, we welcome Brandie Lockett. She is the Director of Urban Design here at METRO. Welcome to the podcast, Brandie!  

Brandie Lockett:  Hi, Doug. Thank you for having me.  

Doug Delony:  Even though we see urban design around us every single day, I would bet many people don’t know exactly what urban design is or that METRO has people dedicated to it.  

Brandie Lockett:  Urban design, at its basic form, is about understanding the needs of the people and living in spaces. So, it’s the design of public spaces. And it’s a practice that I deeply love and care about. It’s got many different ways of changing the places that we live, and we inhabit, and we use, and where we work. Places that we love to go and stay. I like to identify urban design and urban design space as when we’re walking down the street, and we see an open space, we see a bench that we want set on the street. We see a space that we want just be social and active with our community, small or large. An urban space and urban designer understand spaces as places that people want to inhabit.  

Doug Delony:  For someone who just, you know, lives in a community and walks around or drives around or maybe they ride the bus, it makes it feel like a place that you want to be. It makes you feel like you belong there, I would say. You know, subconsciously, even acknowledge that this is a nice place, and it keeps you from saying, “This is a really ugly place.” Or, “There’s something depressing about this place.” Is that a fair assessment?  

Brandie Lockett:  Yeah, well, I think to that point, and it’s a really great point, and you know, that is the role of the urban designer to look at these underdeveloped, underutilized, really vacant spaces that we pass by every single day. I mean, you know, a space that’s just in the middle or in the center of a very urban community or, you know, not so urban. You know, our job, we look at these places as canvases. We target vacant lots. We target vacant sites. We target underutilized places that are just waiting to be prominent, activated, to be actionable sites for people to use.  

Doug Delony:  And people think of METRO, they probably think of, you know, bus and the light rail service. Those are the primary services people think about METRO, but there’s so much more to METRO than just that.  

Brandie Lockett:  Hmm.  

Doug Delony:  And, of course, we have METRORapid, which continues expansion. We’re talking about the University line and all the planning that goes into that and Inner Katy. And people don’t realize that a lot of METRO resources, funding, and, you know, us, you know, our colleagues…

Brandie Lockett:  Hmm.  

Doug Delony:  …how much goes into improving neighborhoods as we go in and put more METRORapid line in, for instance. You know, drainage systems. I know that your colleagues in Engineering and Capital Planning, they handle those kinds of things.  

Brandie Lockett:  Hm-hmm.

Doug Delony:  But how could you explain that? How would you tell someone that METRO is so much more than bus and rail, in particular when it comes to urban design?  

Brandie Lockett:  Well, transit, there’s a couple of, I would say, areas to kind of support that answer. Transit is, I like to think of transit as inherently sustainable, and it’s, you know, as this city, Houston, grows and grows and grows, we want to be able to move people efficiently, right? But we want to encourage people to think of transit differently as we do that, as we kind of build this service out. It’s not just about, you know, you gotta have a good service, which we really, really do. But it’s also, you’ve got to encourage and entice people to use it. So, when the urban design role was brought to METRO, and when I took that role, you know, there was kind of this underlying, “Well, how do we really implement the practice of urban design, showcase what it does?” And so, we started developing language, which was really about helping people internally and externally understanding what a transit environment is. Not only what’s good urban design, but what’s good transit. What’s a good transit environment? What does that feel like? What’s available at the stop? And transit, really, it’s a huge part of the face of our streets, right? And so, when we look down the street, you know, at kind of a bus stop, you know, having only a shelter versus a bus stop that has a shaded shelter. That has, you know, a really good kind of look and feel to it. You know, that’s got a really good, it’s anchored by a really nice, you know, wide sidewalk that feels comfortable. I wouldn’t mind walking to that place. I wouldn’t mind, you know, sitting under that space. And if I do stop to sit under it, you know, if I have to wait, you know, what’s that kind of comfort level going to be for me? What’s the style of that shelter? It all matters. Like really working with the City, really working with our management districts to really develop the spaces behind the shelter, so that they also are a part of, you know, creating just a better space to walk to and wait at.  

Doug Delony:  Can you talk about that process? How long it takes? How we get public input or feedback? How can people make suggestions, for instance?  

Brandie Lockett:  Yeah, so that process is called, “Participatory Budgeting.” And it’s when we as an agency, or any kind of leading designer, comes to a community, a group of people, as a partner instead of engaging them when we already have a site or project identified. So, it’s really asking a community or a group of people, “What is it that you want to see, you know, in your community? And where would you like to see it?” And so, participatory budgeting is when it’s really the community or a particular group of people really navigating and directing where funds are developed in their site or in a site or for a site or a community. And so, it’s really engaging and being partners. As the designer, as the urban designers, as urbanists, really engaging as partners rather than as really being seen as the “lead designer.”  

Doug Delony:  I know as we expand, you know, METRORapid, in particular, we’re looking very closely at a lot of neighborhoods. And we have, you know, meetings with the community. People can submit, you know, feedback on our website as well. And I know that our planners and people across all of our departments actively listen to the community. Is there anything in particular that you’ve worked on recently or maybe even just a few years ago when you first started in this position that has now come to fruition or something in particular that you’re proud of or something that’s in the works and upcoming in the next year or two or even longer?  

Brandie Lockett:  We’re also kind of starting to develop our transit guidelines. We’re looking at sites right now to kind of identify the sites that when we really think that we want to take our first step, at not just the pilot project—I hate to use the word pilot—but we really want to kind of put the resources, you know, not to test but just to show how to use the document. And so, we’re looking at transit for Park and Rides to kind of test out and just to showcase internally how we intend and how our consultants and how outside parties can use our documents to kind of design. And also, with developers, we’ve got sites that we’re looking at retrofitting. You know, there’s so many kinds of really large-scale projects that are popping up near our transit spaces, our Park and Rides, and our Transit Centers, which is great, but we want to have a list of directives that kind of support, you know, the opening up, you know, these developments to have clear access and clear accessibility.  

Doug Delony:  And real quick, going back to the manual, you said this is in December? This is going to come out? 

Brandie Lockett: Yeah, it’s December 22. So, we’ve got a couple of more—next month, really! About a month away from getting it out there. The manual is designed for internal and external consultants. So, internal staff, technically, it’s designed for consultants who work with METRO. But I think that the way that it’s organized is to capture the interest of anyone interested in the design of a transit environment. There’s a lot of diagrams, a lot of illustrations, a lot of showcasing opportunities to amplify a transit space. Volume 2, which we’re already starting to talk about, we’re really hoping to document the projects that we’re working on now so that the kind of illustrated diagrams that you see in Volume 2 become real on-the-ground projects. Physical projects that show the before and after. You know, I think that if anyone, you know, is listening and they’re out there, and they really want to make an impact to changing not just transit but, you know, their street, getting involved in the design of their community, you know, urban design is a great way to kind of develop, you know, what you care about and taking that initiative to changing your spaces. It starts with people. It’s about changing places, and it’s got one of the greatest impacts on our communities in the look and feel of our environment.  

Doug Delony:  And switching it up a little bit, I’m sure you think about urban design in general, I consider it almost like an art form, but in a literal sense, there is some actual art involved. Can you tell me a little bit about this Arts in Transit? Is that what it’s called?  

Brandie Lockett:  That’s what it’s called. So, Art in Transit is kind of an overarching practice that we’re including within our urban design framework. Art in Transit, of course, we’ve seen it nationwide, but we wanted to take that step in including artistic mediums of all molds within our transit infrastructure. And our first step of including that is our short-term project of joining the Big Walls, Big Dreams mural festival. We’ve got four sites, 16 murals. And we’ve got Burnett Station, light rail columns, and Kashmere Operating Transit Facility.  

Doug Delony:  And so, literally, artists are going to come out and paint murals onto our facilities. Of course, it’s all approved and whatnot. They’re just not showing up and randomly doing it. [laughs]

Brandie Lockett:  [laughs] Right.  

Doug Delony:  But you have selected artists. How long will the art stay up? 

Brandie Lockett:  So, the art will be up, we hope that’ll stay up for a year. We’re thinking that this is not a pilot project but a kickoff on a transformative project for the Art in Transit initiative. So, we think that it will hopefully stay up for the year 2023.  

Doug Delony:  That’s great. And I know Houston, in general, is very welcoming of murals and mural artists. We see it on the side of our buildings. I’m glad that METRO is now stepping up and getting involved in a little bit of that as well with our properties because, certainly, it helps with the beautification and just mixing things up other than, like I was saying, concrete and steel. [laughs]

Brandie Lockett:  Exactly.  

Doug Delony:  How are the artists selected? Or where do we find these artists?  

Brandie Lockett:  So, because this is a short-term process, it’s twofold. We know we want it, so we had this Art in Transit initiative, and so, we really wanted to just get art on the street, you know. Now, with this festival coming up so fast, we partnered with UP Art, who are these public space transforming art studio, and so they knew that they wanted to be involved with the festival. They already partnered with Complete Communities, but they had these artists kind of aligned, and so, we were able to just kind of jumpstart and be a part, and we sponsor them. So, the artists were selected. I think long-term, we’re looking at a more inclusive, a more process that’s completely engaging where we work more with the community to select artists, but for this particular mural festival, the artists were pre-selected, and we believe that they’re going to really include art that’s reminiscent of their community, speaks to engaging communities, and speaks to highlighting vibrant artwork within the neighborhoods that they’re going to be showcased in.  

Doug Delony:  You said it was Burnett. You said we have four.  

Brandie Lockett:  Yes. So, we have four sites that we’re going to showcase within the mural festival. So, at Burnett station, we’ve got nb Artistry, which is the name of the art studio. For the light rail columns at Roosevelt Elementary School, we’ve got _____ (12:11) Art Studio. And at Burnett Transit Center, we’ve got Alex Maksiov (12:16), a Ukrainian artist who’s designing this really beautiful mural on the stairs at Burnett Transit Center. So, it’s not just gonna be on the vertical kind of C&E (12:28) walls at our facilities. It will be on the stairs. So, as you look up, you’ll see this kind, you know, abstract, beautiful mural as you walk your stairs or as your approaching the stairs. It’s four sites and 16 murals.  

Doug Delony:  Thanks again, Brandie, for joining us. 

Brandie Lockett:  Okay, Doug, thank you.  

Doug Delony:  And if any of you listening would like a glimpse of the Arts in Transit project and you want to check out some of the awesome artwork, make sure you keep an eye on our social pages and YouTube channel. That wraps it up for this edition of the Next Stop. Thanks to you, the listener, and all of our METRO riders out there. I’m Doug Delony. If you’d like to check out more episodes and subscribe, you can find all the links you need on ridemetro.org. As always, drive less and do more with Houston METRO!  

[Music plays to the end]  



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