Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern

A forest of two hundred and fifty-six slender concrete columns rises from a dark, subterranean pool of shallow water. This is the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, built in nineteen twenty-six to hold thirteen million gallons of drinking water for Houston. City engineers kept it operational for decades until a structural leak forced its closure. When crews finally entered to decommission it, they discovered a cavernous space with a cathedral-like echo, accidentally creating one of the city's most unusual public art venues.