Travis Street Parking Lot

Rice University is building a new parking lot at 1903 University Blvd in Houston, Texas. The project, filed with TDLR as the Travis Street Parking Lot, is a new construction effort on private land. The scope includes a parking surface using a TrueGrid system, sidewalks along the right-of-way, landscape installation, irrigation, and pole lights. The estimated cost for this work is $1,500,000.

The owner of record is William Marsh Rice University, and LJA Engineering is the design firm of record. Laura Fulkerson serves as the registered accessibility specialist for the project. The filing indicates a construction start date of February 2026 and a target completion date of June 2026. The project was registered with TDLR in June 2026. The site is located in Harris County and falls within a FEMA moderate-risk flood zone, designated as Zone X, which carries a 0.2 percent annual-chance flood hazard.

According to the public record, no plan review or inspection has been recorded. While the target completion date of June 2026 has passed, the status remains Project Registered. There are no confirmations in the TDLR data that the work proceeded or was finished. The estimated square footage on the filing is listed as 1 sq ft, which likely reflects a data entry convention for site work rather than building area. The project is privately funded and intended for private use.

Context and Comparisons

This project’s estimated cost is above the county median for new construction in Harris County, which is $750,000. The scheduled build window of 120 days is shorter than the county median of 219 days. William Marsh Rice University has six other TDLR-registered projects in Harris County, with a combined estimated value of $60,692,991. LJA Engineering has six other registered projects totaling $9,024,995. The ZIP code 77030 has a median household income of $79,415 and a median owner-occupied home value of $614,100, according to U.S. Census ACS 2023 five-year estimates.

City of Houston permit records show one permit on file at this street address, issued between February 2026 and February 2026. The permit type is a Building Permit, described as SITEWORK W/PAVING FOR PARKING LOT ADDITION 2021 IBC. This permit aligns with the scope of work described in the TDLR filing. The Harris County unemployment rate in July 2026 was 5.2 percent, higher than a year earlier. These details provide context for the construction activity in the area, but the primary status of the project remains unconfirmed in the inspection record.