The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern is a former drinking water reservoir built in 1926 for the City of Houston. As one of the city’s early underground reservoirs, it supported the municipal water system’s goals of fire suppression (water pressure) and drinking water storage. After operating for decades, an irreparable leak was discovered, and after a few years, the reservoir was decommissioned in 2007.

Fun facts:
• 87,500 square feet or the size of 1.5 football fields
• 221 25-foot-tall, slender concrete columns span
• the space
• Holds 15 million gallons of water when
• functioning at capacity
• 8-inch-thick concrete roof and tapered concrete
• walls range from 8 inches at the top to 18 inches
• at the bottom
• 17-second echo