Garson B. Silvers
La Porte, Texas - A hub for the chemical industry and a major port city on the Houston Ship Channel with two container terminals - not the most likely place you’d find a US Green Building Council LEED Certified office building, green space for public use and entertainment, and a Children’s Eco-Systems Museum. But if Garson Silvers sees the realization of his dream come true, that’s exactly what you can expect in the near future at LaPorte’s Five Points Plaza.
Where others saw a desolate triangle of land in the heart of this blue collar bayside city, Silvers saw the potential for sustainable beauty. The small space, located at the corners of Main, San Jacinto and Broadway, was recently home to a diesel rig repair shop, an abandoned gas station, and an eight-plex brothel-turned-low-income rental building.
Upon learning that this property was for sale, Silvers investigated. He climbed atop the old brothel and from the roof he could see the bay a half-mile away toward Sylvan Beach. The bay breezes were strong and soothing. “I found this innovative little building intriguing, and thought that I could clean it up and make it something better than it was,” Silvers says. “So I went to the city and talked to the Economic Development Coordinator about what they’d like to see there.”
Silvers recognized the need for office space in LaPorte, and saw this potential for the space. “My plan was to build a LEED Certified office building and utilize carbon credits,” he explains. The City of LaPorte liked the idea, and a public/private partnership was created between Silvers and the City.
Guardians of the status quo
With the City onboard, plans were underway to create an “Urban Town Plaza Development” with a 120,000 sq. ft. office building, 30,000 sq. ft. of retail space, and a green space/park for public use. The City paid for the environmental cleanup of the contaminated property and Silvers funded the development. The plan was in place, with City Manager Ron Bottoms playing a proactive role in its success, but challenges loomed large from people who just don’t take kindly to change.
Resistance arose from locals in LaPorte who didn’t want this kind of development in their town. For a variety of reasons, loud opponents did the best they could to throw obstacles in the path of progress. Struggles ensued, but in the end, the evolution of Five Points Plaza prevailed.
Enter the economy
The next hurdle arrived with the financial fallout and recession. Nobody was starting new building construction for office space, and financing was (and still is) difficult to secure. With the new office building in a holding pattern, Silvers focused his time and energy on one of the existing buildings on the property – the old Dirty Ernie’s Bar – a 5200 sq. ft. building built in 1929, with lots of character and space.
The building, re-named The Alamo Building, was gutted and refurbished using LEED principles such as:
Low-e, energy efficient, operable windows that invite beautiful bay breezes to flow through the building.
A white reflective roof, which keeps the inside of the building remarkably cool, even in hot summer months.
White paint on the building’s exterior also adds to lower temperatures inside.
Recycled wood and metals were used wherever possible.
“Everything we did was green,” Silvers says. “We are not yet LEED certified but that is in the plan. The building is currently for lease. And I have other ideas for public usage of the space as well.”
Teaching good stewardship
The father of two small sons and two grown children (son and daughter), and blessed with an activist/environmentalist mother who “was always on her soapbox,” Silvers says: “Just like my mother instilled her environmental ideologies in me, I’m trying to teach my own children and other children as well that, if we don’t take care of this planet, then we all die.”
Silvers’ has taken up the cause of creating the Galveston Bay Estuary Children‘s Eco-Systems Museum and making it a place where kids can have fun learning to be good stewards of Galveston Bay and how important this eco-system is. And in light of the oil spill disaster in the Gulf, this education couldn’t come at a better time. But in order to create the Children’s Museum, Silvers needs financial support from the community and those who can help. (See sidebar)
“Together, we can make a difference,” Silvers says. “We have made a difference. Where shade tree mechanics worked on rigs and gasoline contaminated the ground at the center of old LaPorte’s Five Points, we’ve got a park and lots of potential for sustainable practices.”
Silvers says he will continue to do his part to build green and to teach younger generations the importance living in harmony with the world around them. “My hope is that more people will become part of the positive change needed to make a lasting difference. I do this to honor my late wife Barbara Gottlieb Silvers, and teach my children to make a difference."
Support Silvers’ Eco-Systems Museum in LaPorte
Garson Silvers needs partners and sponsors to create the Galveston Bay Estuary Children‘s Eco-Systems Museum. “I invite public (Harris County and/or State of Texas) and private sector local companies to join with me in creating a place to teach our children to be better stewards of planet Earth,” Silvers says. He is talking with the Galveston Bay Foundation, which is funded by the Galveston Estuary Program, about his idea and has a June meeting with County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia. “I’d love to see our elected officials, community-minded CEOs and others open their wallets like I’ve reached into mine. Together we can make this happen.”
For more information and to support the Children’s Eco-Systems Museum contact Garson Silvers at 713.522.3182, 832.228.0884, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . '