Project Row Houses



 Project Row Houses is a project started by Rick Lowe in 1993. Lowe was a native of Houston’s third ward and saw the houses on Holman Street to be an eye sore to the community. He decided to clear out the houses and turn them into open art galleries where local artists could display their artwork for all the community to see. This project took place in Houston’s third ward where the population is about 13,000 citizens. The third ward was a rundown community that dealt with a lot of homelessness and abandoned houses. The ward was also historically a poor community that had a drug ridden society. As Lowe started to clear out the houses and turn them into galleries the community vibrancy started to take a turn for the better. The people in the community said that they felt as if the neighborhood had been reborn after Lowe began his work. They also said that it made them feel safer now that the drugs had been removed from the houses. Some citizens said that they felt safe to walk around their neighborhood for the first time in a long time. When the project began Lowe and a group of local volunteers remolded 22 shot gun style houses into art galleries. Today there are over 50 houses that have been converted that span over ten blocks. The houses are open for viewing everyday between 12 and 5. People travel from all over the country to view these houses and the art work displayed on the inside, and sometimes the outside.

             The people in the third ward are historically a lower class people. Drugs had taken over the ward and its neighborhoods and it was not a safe place to live. Mostly minorities lived in the ward with 64% of the people being either African American or Latino. Many of the houses in the neighborhoods had been turned into drug houses and the community had an overall dull look to it. The third ward became known as the center of Houston’s African American community. The ward system was abolished in the early 1900’s but is still used to describe the area that it covers. Project Row Houses worked wonders for the people of the third ward and the neighborhoods.

             There’s no set number for what the project costs but many local business made donations to help pay for the costs. Some of the companies were IKEA, Met Life, and Chevron. There were also several others because they really believed in what Mr. Lowe was doing. Further funding came from the National Endowment for the Arts and from Houston itself. Houston’s city council approved a $975,000 loan for the project. The loan was to help with Project Row Houses and with their sister program which is the Young Mothers Residential program. This program helps young mothers find affordable housing and helps them get back on their feet. Though Rick Lowe was the founder of the project many people helped promote it. The project was promoted manly by volunteers in the community who would help remodel the homes and also put up art work in the galleries. The city of Houston soon became a promoter of this project not only by getting the project out there they helped with funding also. The people and the community began to get involved with project because they could see the current state of their town and they didn’t like what they saw. Once the community got involved the project took off. Soon the project would have major support from such people as The Andy Warhol Foundation, Chevron, the Ford Foundation, and the School of Architecture at Rice University. The project began to grow into something huge that would change the third ward forever. Thankfully there were no opponents of this project because everyone in the community could see all the good it was doing for them and where they live.

             The project is still not complete. They are continuing to add to the houses and vibrancy to the community. The project has evolved greatly over time. They have gone from 22 houses to over 50 and now people come from all over to display their work and admire others. Project Rowe not only remolded homes into art galleries but it helped spawn another very important program which was the Young Mother Residential Program. I believe that this is also a great program that helps young mothers in the community. As the project grows I believe more and more good things will come out of it such as other community programs. The reaction to the project has been amazing. The locals love it they believe that it has brought a tremendous amount of vibrancy to their community, and they also feel that it brought a sense of safety now that the drug infested homes have been converted into art galleries. Some locals say they feel as if Project Row Houses gave them their neighborhood back. The people learned that even in a bad situation, to which there seems no end, art can change a community for the better. I believe there is not a better example of what art can do for people who need it the most. This project changed these people’s lives.

             Here in the upstate we have many poorer neighborhoods with abandoned houses that I believe could benefit from such a project as this. I grew up in a neighborhood that was poor and run down and I believe a project like project row houses would change things tremendously in a neighborhood like this. I do believe this project would work well in the Upstate. There are many neighborhoods that I believe could use a change like this and it would be amazing to see what a difference it could make. It would add a great amount of vibrancy to the upstate and give people a since of pride in where they live. Project Row Houses worked wonders for Houston’s Third Ward and I believe a similar project would work wonders in the upstate. I personally believe there are parts of the upstate that could really use more art and vibrancy and I believe a project like this would fill that void. I like to think that it could give a people their neighborhood back just as Project Row Houses did for the third ward. The upstate could benefit greatly from this project.

             Project Row Houses was a small arts project started in 1993 by Rick Lowe that I believed saved the spirit of Houston’s third ward and maybe even the city itself. It gave the neighborhood back to its people and made them feel safe again and I believe this is what such projects are all about. Project Row Houses added a great amount of vibrancy to Houston’s third ward and I believe it could do the same for us. With the hard times surrounding us and the failing neighborhoods we have around the upstate a project like this could make significant changes, changes for the better that could save a community just like it did in Houston. That is why I believe a project like Project Row Houses would work great in our Upstate and add more vibrancy than we could ever imagine.