Stunning Downtown Views and Underground Houston Tours Make This Buffalo Bayou Partnership Evening Magical
A Grand Tent With Trees and Many More Surprises Delight Along the City's Historic Waterway
BY Shelby Hodge // 11.14.23
Buffalo Bayou Partnership Gala 'Branching Out Along Buffalo Bayou' chairs Gaynell Floyd Drexler and Leigh Smith flank Buffalo Bayou Partnership president Anne Olson. (Photo by Lawrence Elizabeth Knox)
What: Buffalo Bayou Partnership “Branching Out Along Buffalo Bayou” gala
Where: The Brown Foundation Lawn in Buffalo Bayou Park
PC moment: More than 400 guests began the Buffalo Bayou Partnership dinner evening with cocktails at the Water Works where they could enjoy the impressive views of the downtown skyline and slip underground for tours of the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern. The Mariachi Amor a Mexico provided background music as attendees sipped signature cocktails such as blackberry, bramble, offerings from a hot toddy station and Giant Texas Distillers‘ old fashioneds.
Following dinner chimes, the throng, ladies in flat shoes of course, moved along to the Brown Foundation Lawn where a grand tent served as the ultimate party space. Bergner & Johnson dressed the tent in magnolia trees, fluffy pink muhly grass and fresh goldenrod while utilizing autumn floral arrangements as centerpieces.
In a magical touch, rose-hued lighting created the image of branches on the tent ceiling. The popular City Kitchen provided the three course dinner.
Channel 13 KTRK news anchor Melanie Lawson helmed the podium where she introduced gala chairs Gaynell Floyd Drexler and Leigh Smith along with the numerous city and county officials in attendance.
Proceeds from the evening support the partnership’s mission of planning, designing and stewardship of the public spaces along the 10-mile stretch of the historic waterway that stretches from Shepherd Drive to the Port of Houston.
PC Seen: Anne Whitlock and Michael Skelly, Nancy and Butch Abendshein, Chinhui and Eddie Allen, Asha and Faisal Momin, Nancy and Rich Kinder, the Rev. Harvey Clemons Jr., Monica and Brad Radoff, Karen Farber, Lee Haverman and Lisa Helfman, Bolivar “Bo” Fraga, Martha and Richard Finger, Cullen Geiselman Muse, Heidi and Marcus Smith, Karen and Charlie Penland, Kristy Bradshaw, Ryan Makhani, Farah Lalani, Guy Hagstette, Carolyn and Chris Dorros, Roberto Contreras IV, Jerry Davis, Acho Azuike, and Buffalo Bayou Partnership president Anne Olson and her husband Tom.
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