roadsTaken: Introduction | Baker Institute [Video]

This is an introduction to the “roadsTaken” project, which documents the history of highway planning, construction, and displacement in Houston, Texas.

“Houston today is the American present and future.”— Ada Louise Huxtable, 1976

Home to one of the country’s first modern “superhighways” — the Gulf Freeway — Houston is a city defined by its highways.^[1] Its transportation infrastructure profoundly influences how residents navigate and interact with their city, so much so that Houstonians have even developed their own unique freeway lingo.^[2] Given this deep connection to its roadways, it is fitting that Houston is at the forefront of research into the historical impact of highways. Within this context, the roadsTaken project seeks to uncover a hidden chapter of Houston’s and America’s past, one that has been paved over by the infrastructure of the future.

In the post-World War II era, Houston’s economy generated breakneck growth. Between 1940 and 1980, the city’s population quadrupled. During these decades, Houston city planners designed and …