One of the city's most strange and wonderful hidden spaces, the Cistern, at the Water Works in Buffalo Bayou Park, was first constructed almost a century ago as an underground freshwater reservoir. After falling into disuse for decades, the Buffalo Bayou Partnership rediscovered and renovated the the 87,500-square-foot-space, filled with hundreds of 25-foot high concrete columns that appear to grow from the watery depths. The architecture on its own-looking both ancient and alien-has drawn tens of thousands of tourists and curious Houstonians to the park. But the Cistern has also become a kind of concrete, three dimensional canvas for brilliant contemporary art.
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