José Solís is an independent project management and planning consultant who focuses on greenspace, arts, and cultural projects in Houston. Since 2018, he has worked with Buffalo Bayou Partnership on its Buffalo Bayou East project, a transformational redevelopment of the segment of Houston’s most historic waterway between Downtown and the Port of Houston Turning Basin. José oversaw the master planning process and played a significant role in crafting the final Buffalo Bayou East master plan document. José is currently overseeing the development of the $63 million Tony Marron Park, the signature greenspace of the master plan, with anticipated opening date of December 2026. To date, Buffalo Bayou Partnership has worked to secure over $280 million towards the $309 overall budget of the projects included in the initial 10-year development plan.
Since 2022, José has also overseen the initial conceptual planning process for Advocates of a Latino Museum of Cultural and Visual Arts & Archive Complex in Houston, Harris County (ALMAAHH), an organization seeking to develop a significant multidisciplinary Latino arts and cultural destination for Houston. The complex will focus on visual arts, music, theater, dance, performance art, literature/poetry, culinary arts, artisanal crafts, and other expressions of Latino arts and culture. Still in its early conceptual planning stages, ALMAAHH has received $1 million in seed money from the Houston Endowment as well as roughly $200K from the City of Houston.
Prior to working with Buffalo Bayou Partnership and ALMAAHH, José worked with McCord Development on its 4,000-acre Generation Park development in northeast Houston. José worked with McCord to revise and refine its design standards for the development and oversaw the approval of all new projects located there.
Prior to his work as an independent project management and planning consultant, José worked in the field of architecture for 13 years, over 11 of which were with the global firm Gensler. During that period, José worked on a variety of project types, including corporate headquarters, corporate interiors, hotel, retail, clinic, and cultural projects totaling roughly 2.3 million square feet of space. Key projects included Deloitte University, USAA Corporate Headquarters, Legacy Community Health Headquarters, and the Blaffer Museum of Art.
José has actively volunteered for a variety of organizations in Houston. He was one of the original founders of the organization that developed the MATCH arts complex in Midtown as well as served on the founding boards of directors of Houston Mod and Open Dance Project. He has also served on the boards of directors of DiverseWorks, Glasstire, Blaffer Museum of Art, and the Houston Arts Alliance. He served on the publications committee of the Rice Design Alliance where he guest. edited two issues of Cite Magazine and wrote a number of articles for the magazine, several of which were also re-published by the Houston Chronicle.
José holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University as well as a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Science of Natural Resources and the Environment from University of Michigan where he received the Stephen M. Ross and Erb Family fellowships.
José is an eighth generation Texan and a native Houstonian.