Houston's Urban Interstate Debate: Transform, or Tear Down?

Like so many American cities in the 1960s, Houston built a raised interstate right through its core—a segment of Interstate 45 known as the Pierce Elevated. Despite objections that life around the Pierce Elevated would become "psychologically intolerable," officials advanced the plans anyway. They even argued the area beneath the highway would be a pleasant place to, say, play basketball.

Shocker: no one played basketball under I-45. "I see that as a public relations attempt to say, 'No, really, honestly, it's not that bad!'" says Kyle Shelton of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University, who's documented this particular era. Instead, like so many other urban freeways, the Pierce Elevated divided the city, mangled the street grid, and served as a barrier to local development.