The Work
We lead strategic processes that engage stakeholders and communities, move groups from 'no' to 'yes', and drive future-proofed projects forward. We collaborate with clients on their toughest city and society-building challenges, and bring our vision, expertise, and momentum every step of the way. This project sampling is reflective of our core value of leading impactful, creative, and transformative work that sets new standards for our cities and communities.
Main Street Promenade
Downtown Houston+
SF Railyards
Prologis
Public Realm Action Plan
Downtown Houston+
Harris County Community Flood Resilience Task Force
Harris County Flood Control District
Temporary to Transformative: Ushering in a New Era for Streets
SPUR
Diridon Station Area and Google Campus Engagement
City of San Jose
Detention Basin Transformation
HCTRA
Kerr County Recovery Convenings
The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country
Main Street Promenade
Client
Downtown Houston+
Results
- Main Street’s newest transformation—a car-free pedestrian promenade!
- Collaborative workshops with public and private agencies resulting in unanimous sign-off of the working plan and support for the final design
- Future-proofed project that resulted in successfully navigated an administration change, weathering construction, and activation of the Promenade
- Signature new street for Downtown activity, destinations, and events
Outside Voices led a cohesive stakeholder, agency, and community engagement strategy for the Main Street Promenade, which reimagined seven key blocks of Houston’s historic Main Street after a pandemic-era pilot. In collaboration with Design Workshop and Walter P Moore, Outside Voices hosted 2 years of engagement, including stakeholder interviews, focus group discussions, and Open House Workshops hosted right on Main Street. In the end 99% of respondents were Excited or Very Excited about the project, moving the project forward to implementation!
This work included a large number of invested stakeholders. Leah Chambers led conversations with City of Houston Planning Department, Public Works, the Fire and Police Departments, Centerpoint, METRO, and Main Street businesses to work through conceptual, technical, and detailed design ideas to get to a workable plan to move forward. Those collaborations led to unanimous sign-off from agencies, stakeholders, and the community—and a design that opened in time for Houston to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup!
San Francisco Railyards
Client
Prologis
Results
- Three rounds of engagement to shape the urban form of the plan with the community
- Railyards Focus Group, station pop-ups, virtual meetings, and in-person open houses
- Project Application submitted in Spring 2026
Outside Voices is currently leading the community engagement process for the San Francisco Railyards—a transformative vision for a new world-class train station and neighborhood center of gravity at the 4th and King Caltrain Station. This process is designed to have the Central SOMA, Mission Bay, and Showplace Square communities shape the urban form of the plan, including the station, parks and plazas, streets, and the skyline.
In collaboration with Kristen Hall City Design, Pickard Chilton, Field Operations, and Nelson Nygaard, the team conducted three engagement series on the concept development—including pop-up, virtual, and in-person workshops—as well as hosted site tours and office hours. The resultant community-driven Project Application was submitted to the City of SF in 2026!
Harris County Community Flood Resilience Task Force
Client
Harris County Flood Control District
Results
- Building capacity of members to understand, advise, and lead on flood resilience issues
- Created feedback loops between Task Force and County departments
- Ongoing progress toward flood resilience
We facilitated the inaugural year of Harris County's Community Flood Resilience Task Force, a diverse group of 17 community and technical members working to further Harris County's equitable flood resilience efforts. This group represents the full diversity of Harris County, including economic, racial, technical, ability, political, and geographic representation and is collaborating with County staff to develop the 2050 Flood Resilience Plan. This effort is a highly innovative approach in which Harris County is empowering a community group to advise County departments and Harris County Commissioners Court on overall resilience efforts and the first major comprehensive flood resilience plan for the region.
Outside Voices' Leah Chambers provided strategic direction, intentional and impactful facilitation, and an equity lens to guide this diverse group, as well as collaborate with the County Judge's Office, the Infrastructure Resilience Team, Office of the County Administrator, and other County departments on overall approach and strategy. We advised the County on engagement and process, as well as provided "translation" of technical information into an accessible format for all Task Force members and the community— soliciting discussion and feedback on complex topics.
SPUR Temporary to Transformative: Ushering in a New Era for Streets
Client
SPUR
Results
- Convened a multi-disciplinary Task Force composed of city staff, design professionals, and community advocates
- SPUR-issued report, with the support of Mayor’s Office and SFMTA staff
- San Francisco Chronicle article, by John King
- SPUR digital discourse
During the COVID-19 pandemic, San Francisco city leaders transformed streets from spaces to drive through into places for public life. But as the tide of the pandemic started to turn, SPUR sought to explore how to make those changes permanent in sustainable and equitable ways. Outside Voices and Kristen Hall City Design, co-led SPUR’s Temporary to Transformative effort, resulting in a policy and design advocacy report looking to shape a new vision for the city’s street network and street life.
Leah Chambers and Kristen Hall guided an impactful engagement effort with a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency Task Force and key stakeholders to develop the key design and policy recommendations, as well as crafted the language for the full report. Outside Voices, in collaboration with Alice An, created a series of videos, infographics, and sketches to illustrate the robustness of the new vision.
Diridon Station Area and Google Campus Engagement
Client
City of San Jose
Results
- 40-member Station Area Advisory Group voted to support the project
- Advisory Group and community collaborated with the City on desired community benefits
- Google and City of San Jose signed a landmark Developer Agreement based on community buy-in
Outside Voices acted as facilitators and strategists on the multi-disciplinary community engagement strategy for the landmark proposed Google campus development in downtown San Jose. In partnership with Plan to Place and Raimi + Associates, Leah Chambers guided the City of San Jose in building equitable, community-driven consensus around a strategic approach for engaging with Google on their controversial development proposal. The comprehensive, equitable, and multi-pronged engagement plan worked to build consensus among many—and often conflicting—community voices on the highly-visible and complex topic, within diverse groups that had historically been ignored or minimized in public processes.
Throughout the process the team successfully translated key project information, needs, and goals while navigating an array of stakeholders and input that spanned the City and government agencies, the developer, technical teams, design professionals, the advisory group, and the broader community. After three years of intensive engagement, the Station Area Advisory group—composed of business owners, non-profits, neighborhood groups, advocates, and community members—overwhelmingly supported the project and the City and Google entered into a landmark Developer Agreement based on guiding principles led by the community.
Kerr County Recovery Convenings
Client
The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country
Results
- The Community Foundation convened over 120 members of their grantee organizations over several phases of recovery
- Input collected from a River Design Charrette component is shaping understanding of community concerns and priorities for river recovery
Within the first year after the disastrous July 4, 2025 floods along the Guadalupe River, Leah collaborated with Connective and The Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country to design, develop, and facilitate a series of convenings for grantees of the foundation. These convenings centered trauma-informed experts, community leaders, and organizations leading recovery efforts both locally and across the globe.
Each event was specifically designed to engage grantees on both their own personal recovery and the recovery of their community, as well as build trust and momentum for the collective work they were doing together. The convenings featured information-sharing, collective healing exercises, and visioning and design on recovery and the future of the Guadalupe River.
Detention Basin Transformation
Client
Harris County Toll Road Authority
Results
- Vision for new community amenity featuring an entirely new stormwater ecosystem
- Community-driven plan is moving forward into technical schematic design
The Hardy Downtown Connector planning effort identified key spaces along its route to create a range of new community amenities. In 2025-2026, Outside Voices led the engagement for the transformation of Detention Basins A & B in Houston's historic First Ward neighborhood. These currently lawn-covered, deep detention basins were reimagined with the community into an ecological stormwater park amenity—creating entirely new biological and social ecoystems for this long underutilized centerpiece to the community.
Engagement included 1-1 conversations with neighborhood leaders and organizations, community survey, pop-ups at key destinations—such as the historic Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church, the YMCA, and the Fifth Ward Multi-Service Center—and a community workshop to evaluate and shape design alternatives.
Downtown Houston Public Realm Action Plan
Client
Downtown Houston+
Results
- Comprehensive strategy spanning operations, programming, policy, and design
- Recommendations driving investments in storefront grants, street improvements, and events activation
- The first Cool and Connected Corridor was implemented on Texas Avenue, in time for the 2026 World Cup
Outside Voices collaborated with the interdisciplinary team of Gehl, Rios, and Agora Partners on Downtown Houston’s first Public Realm Action Plan. This effort engaged key stakeholders, property owners, businesses, residents, and the broader downtown community to shape and prioritize strategic initiatives focused on placemaking and connectivity.
Drawing on her deep expertise in urban design, landscape architecture, and stakeholder engagement, Leah Chambers advised on the overall engagement strategy, recommendations, prioritization framework, and implementation roadmap. The resulting plan—approved by the Downtown Houston+ boards in February 2025—has already catalyzed progress on 21 proposed initiatives. Together with the Main Street Promenade, these efforts form a cohesive and actionable vision for a walkable, connected, and active downtown, positioned to shine on the global stage during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.