Prairieland Village opened in 2023 within the Howard Hughes Holdings-owned Bridgeland community located northwest of Houston, Texas. The development is known for its world-class amenities and emphasis on outdoor living. Such amenities include miles of wooded trails, lakes for canoeing, kayaking, and paddle boarding, and lush amenity centers that boast lap pools, spraygrounds and lazy rivers. Prairieland Village sits among a heritage of Bridgeland outdoor spaces that put this residential development in a class all its own.
Within Prairieland Village lies Longwing Landing, a park built exclusively for residents of the community. While at first glance, you might assume this to be just another park, we assure you it’s anything but. Developer Howard Hughes Holdings pulled out all the stops for this park and amenity center complex, designed by SWA Group landscape architects. Our team of solution-ists led the efforts on all hardscape and landscape installations, including flat work and monument signage, in a process that spanned several months.
World Class Amenities
Upon entering the 4.5-acre space (that neighbors a 40-acre lake) the part of the park most likely to catch your eye first is the colorful playground and butterfly-shaped pool area. And this is not by accident. Decked out with the latest and greatest of playground equipment, our team installed each of the play structures, as well as a rubber fall surface (in lieu of traditional mulch) to help protect young patrons. A large climbing caterpillar was formed within the play surface area to tie into the butterfly theme of the park. Shade sails and a colorful pavilion fabricated by Refrow+Co were added as a reprieve from the sun.
Flanking the playground is a 2,000-square-foot IPE deck we installed, which gives way to one of several amenity buildings on site. These flex spaces can be used for a variety of purposes, with the goal of providing residents space to entertain and fully enjoy the park’s amenities. Additional hardscape elements our team implemented include the addition of pre-cast elements such as a 300,000-pound seating wall, 7,000 black, white and grey pavers, sidewalks and a butterfly wall featuring the family names of the first 100 homebuyers in Prairieland Village.
Other decorative elements include a fine art wagon wheel made of vibrant colors in the pool area that acts as a sunshade, and artistic fencing and gates made of laser-cut carbon steel panels with a powder-coated finish. The fencing panels feature oversized flower cut-outs that highlight the names of flowers and plants found in the surrounding gardens.
Landscape at Longwing Landing
Speaking of gardens, our team provided a large scope of landscaping efforts at Prairieland. The park was designed and built with environmental sustainability in mind and a desire to create a haven for butterflies and other pollinating insects. Nearly 9,000 plants were put in, many of which are pollinator-attracting plants that will help provide nectar for butterflies. We also installed roughly an acre’s worth of planting beds and Bermuda sod.
Adorning the property are approximately 100 trees, including Sycamore, Cypress and Cedar Elms. Keeping all of the plants and trees alive in the triple-digit Texas heat proved to be a challenge, but an attainable one utilizing the top-notch irrigation and drainage systems we installed.
The highlight of the park’s artistry, by far, is a custom-built butterfly sculpture located by the lake. A true work of beauty, the butterfly, designed by SWA Group and fabricated by Renfrow+Co, rests on a moveable pedestal that allows it to float with the wind. Acrylic panels capture sunlight and transfer it to the ground below, creating a beautiful display of color that changes with the sunlight.
The most unexpected feature of the park you’ll find? An electric vehicle charger, which has proven to be a big hit within the community, and another testament to the world-class features of the Bridgeland community.
Stats
Developer: Howard Hughes Holdings
Landscape Architect: SWA Group
B&D Project Manager: Chris Schweigert
