Destinations: Houston’s hidden gem

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, November 12th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: an architectural marvel.

The quest to find and store water for survival dates to the beginning of human history. Archeologists have found evidence going back 5,000 years of structures called cisterns.

REICHARD: In Houston, Texas, they don’t go back that far.

But an old cistern left to decay is finding a second life as a cultural hotspot. Eerie acoustics and striking architecture make the cistern a place where history and art come together in unexpected ways.

Here’s WORLD’s Todd Vician.

AUDIO: [Sound of water trickling down stream near cistern]

TODD VICIAN: Buffalo Bayou is a 52-mile natural waterway that meanders from the Texas prairie to the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a source of transportation and trade that made Houston the largest port in Texas by 1900, but it has a history of wreaking havoc, too. After the great flood of 1935, business leaders created a comprehensive flood-control program to help tame the bayou. That ambitious plan included an underground cistern storing up to 15 million gallons of drinking water for a rapidly-growing population.

FLORES: The designer for the cistern was inspired by the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, Turkey. So I think it's pretty similar. You know, we're just missing a couple medusa heads.

Lou Flores leads tours of the cistern that was completed almost a 100 years ago. It’s 87,000 square feet and made of reinforced concrete. More than 200 columns support an 8-inch-thick ceiling.

FLORES: Something that might surprise people is the fact that it took about 95 days to be built because it seems like something that might have taken years.

The cavernous water reservoir served residents well for almost a century, but in 2007 city officials determined there were too many leaks to keep it operating. So they drained and decommissioned it. But three years later, the public-private partnership that manages the 168-acre park along the bayou set about repurposing it.

FLORES: It's pretty much stayed the same way since 1926.The only thing that's been added has been the walkway, the LEDs. And the exits, of course.

The cistern opened to the public in 2016 for tours, art exhibitions, light shows, concerts, and even meditation sessions. The River Oaks Chamber Orchestra is heard here performing in 2022

AUDIO: [Orchestra music]

That’s an example of site-specific art, something created to incorporate the space where it’s performed. Digital artist Rachel Rossin displayed site-specific art this summer in the cistern. It used video-game-graphics to combine a light show, AI-animated holographic images, and sounds from a Houston musician to tell the children’s story of the Velveteen Rabbit.

AUDIO: [Sounds from art show in the cistern]

One Houston resident enjoyed it so much she returned with a friend to see it before the show ended this past weekend.

TABITHA: Man, I can't really explain it, it’s like you’re in a different world.

It was definitely different. The loud music combined with strobe lights piercing the darkness and reflecting off the watery floor was disorienting. But it was still easy to tell the bayou is nearby as water coming from the outside cascades down the cistern wall.

AUDIO: [Sounds of water coming down wall]

The underground cave is about the size of one and a half football fields and the acoustics attract performers of all calibers. Vocalists and musicians have performed songs specifically composed or arranged for the cistern.

And tour guide Lou is also a professional singer.

FLORES: I could give you a little demo if you'd like.

Listen for the 17-second echo.

AUDIO: [Flores singing, echoes]

Despite man’s best efforts over the years to tame the bayou, Hurricane Harvey flooded the decommissioned cistern about half way up the 25-foot tall columns in 2017.

FLORES: There was like water coming in from the doors, from the emergency exits and the fire hatches. And it took about two days for the water to be pumped out, because the park is designed to flood over and over again. So the power went out automatically, but once it was safe to turn it back on, it took about two days for the water to be pumped out.

After the flooding subsided, the cistern reopened for tours. Throughout the upcoming Christmas season, visitors can take in special performances by a downtown cathedral choir or see the annual Cistern Illuminated with an original soundtrack and synchronized light show.

AUDIO: [Sound of chimes and music]

This once-forgotten, man-made wonder that brings together sights, sounds and people is open for tours four days a week.

FLORES: It just became something else that kind of took a life of its own, something that's more communal now, and it brings people together from like all over the world, honestly.

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