Memorial Park

To accelerate implementation of the visionary Memorial Park Master Plan, the Kinder Foundation offered a grant of $70 million to Memorial Park Conservancy in April 2018. This grant became the catalyst for a public-private partnership with the City of Houston. The resulting “Ten-Year Plan” provides capital funds for many of the Master Plan signature projects and critical connections over the next 10 years along with committed resources for their long-term care.

A unique nature bridge will connect the park’s north and south sides, providing safe crossing for all people and wildlife.
The Memorial Groves will serve as a living memorial in the form of a hardwood forest commemorating Camp Logan soldiers and will be an ideal space for field trips, family gatherings and community education.
Memorial Park is Houston’s largest urban park with 4 million visitors per year from 170 zip codes across the greater Houston region.
More than 7,000 Houstonians visited the Land Bridge tunnels at a public sneak peek event on February 5, 2022. The tunnels are expected to open to vehicular traffic Spring 2022. Photo courtesy of Memorial Park Conservancy.
Hines Lake in Clay Family Eastern Glades; Image Courtesy of Memorial Park Conservancy
Taken in Memorial Park on February 10, 2023, this photo features nearly all of the people involved in bringing Memorial Park's 10 Year Plan to life. In the front row middle are Nancy (in green) and Rich Kinder.

To accelerate the visionary Memorial Park Master Plan, the Kinder Foundation offered a grant of $70 million to Memorial Park Conservancy in April 2018, then Houston’s largest single parks grant, which served as a catalyst for public-private partnership with the City of Houston. The Kinder Foundation grant specified that Memorial Park Conservancy would raise the remaining $55 million of the total $125 million in private funding, with the City committing to a $50 million public dollar investment for infrastructure improvements. It also leveraged the potential for $30 million in federal support.

The foundation’s grant supports connectivity to and within the park including a land bridge and prairie over Memorial Drive; destination projects such as Eastern Glades, Memorial Groves, and Phase 1 of the Sports Complex; and ecological restoration. Other plan additions include a trail/bridge system north over I-10, linking the White Oak Bayou Greenway trail system, and south over Buffalo Bayou (dependent on federal funding); a 1.5-mile accessibility trail through the 600-acre wilderness, and other trails and crossings. See the full Memorial Park Master Plan approved by Houston City Council in 2015.

The Clay Family Eastern Glades opened to critical acclaim in July 2020. In early 2022, Houstonians gathered to celebrate the completion of four spacious Memorial Drive tunnels, which allow 55,000 cars to pass each day below the massive earthen Land Bridge. In February 2023, the iconic Kinder Land Bridge and the Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff Prairie opened. The nearly 100-acre destination reconnects the north and south halves of the park with safe passage for humans and animals over Memorial Drive and reestablishes native coastal prairie to enable a more resilient ecology and diverse habitat.

memorialparkconservancy.org

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