Cistern Illuminated at the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern
November 28, 2025 – January 18, 2026

HOUSTON, TX – Buffalo Bayou Partnership (BBP) is pleased to announce the opening of Cistern Illuminated, a multi-sensory art experience transforming the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern into a transcendent spectacle of color, echo, and optical illusion.

Beginning the day after Thanksgiving and running through the holiday season, visitors will be invited on a luminous journey through this underground infrastructural relic. 221 towering concrete columns will be illuminated with vivid, shifting hues of light and accompanied by an ethereal soundscape that builds upon the unique acoustic and reflective qualities of this cavernous space. Cistern Illuminated is created by artist/engineer Kelly O’Brien of Fenris to complement and enhance the decommissioned drinking water reservoir.

Tours will be offered Wednesday through Sunday on the hour at 10 and 11 a.m. and 1, 2, 3, and 5 p.m., November 28, 2025 through January 18, 2026. Tickets can be reserved here.

On select evenings, the Cistern will be further activated with live performances by Ars Lyrica. Ring in the Peace is a multi-cultural musical composition taking inspiration from the ninth century and onward, curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco. This experiential piece encourages reflection and a sense of unity with one another and with the local and global community. Tickets for Ring in the Peace can be reserved here.
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About Buffalo Bayou Partnership

Since 1986, Buffalo Bayou Partnership (BBP) has been reimagining Houston’s most significant natural waterway. As the nonprofit leading the way in creating parks, trails, and vibrant public spaces, BBP focuses on the 10-mile stretch of Buffalo Bayou from Shepherd Drive through downtown and the East End, and on to the Port of Houston Turning Basin. BBP also operates comprehensive green space and waterway maintenance programs and engages tens of thousands of visitors each year with dynamic programming, public art, volunteer events, and recreational experiences that bring the bayou — and the city — to life.

About the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern

A structure reminiscent of the ancient Roman cisterns in Istanbul, the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern is a cavernous, 87,500-square-foot-space featuring more than 200 slender, 25-foot-high concrete columns. BBP rediscovered the Cistern in 2010 when it was developing Buffalo Bayou Park, a 160-acre green space west of downtown Houston. Recognizing the significance of the highly unusual site, BBP took the bold step of repurposing the Cistern into a magnificent public space. In addition to tours highlighting the history and architecture of the Cistern, BBP presents an ambitious program of changing art installations in this iconic space, including past projects by Magdalena Fernández, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Anri Sala, and Rachel Rossin.

About Kelly O’Brien

An artist and engineer, Kelly O’Brien has extensive experience designing and fabricating art installations. O’Brien develops his own large-scale artistic work, as well as managing Fenris, a team of designers and fabricators honed to build and install captivating creations for other artists. His application of engineering principles and fabrication methods successfully transforms workable ideas from the realm of imagination into three-dimensional reality.