Skanska is touting the green roof it’s planning atop the 11-story parking-garage portion of the Capitol Tower as a “Sky Park”: It’ll be the “first and largest green roof in Downtown Houston to be open to all building tenants,” the development company says. The 24,000-sq.-ft. roofscape will feature pathways surrounded by plants, grasses, and a few decorative trees; arbors with roofs modeled after the pipe-assembly structure seen at Rice’s Brochstein Pavilion, and “an infinity edge that makes it appear as though the park is floating in the sky.” Plus: an automated irrigation system that’ll pull water from the building’s 50,000-gallon rainwater cistern. Looming neighbors will include the Esperson Building, 712 Main, and Pennzoil Place.

Access to the roofscape, which was designed by OJB Landscape Architecture, will be through west-facing doors on the building’s 12th floor, the 35-story building’s lowest office level:

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The tower, constructed on the site of the former Houston Club building at 800 Capitol St., isn’t expected to be complete before 2019. The parking-garage-only section, however, went up first, on the site of an earlier garage which Skanska demolished after first expanding. It’s finished enough to show off a few views of where the park-like space will go:

This image matches the view in the rendering at top:

Here’s a recent view of the construction site from the building’s future street entrance at the corner of Capitol and Travis, as the Capitol-St.-facing garage levels are completed:

And a view from higher up near the same intersection, showing how the completed Capitol Tower will look. A corner of the green roof is visible peaking from behind the left side of the building:

• Previously on Swamplot: Craning To See The First Member of Capitol Tower’s Crane Flock; Esperson, Pennzoil, 712 Main Tunnels To Reopen Next Thursday Around Stalled Sprout of Capitol Tower; Skanska Will Get Out of the Tunnels, But Won’t Budge Upward on Capitol Tower Until Economy Goes First; Revealing the Full Plan for Skanska’s Downtown Block Will Take Some Time; Twists and Shouts on the Houston Club Building’s Short Way Down; Hulking Remains of Houston Club Building Downtown Will Get Dynamited Early Sunday Morning; The Clubbing of the Houston Club Building Begins; Skanska’s New Downtown Office Tower; Houston Club Tunnel Tenants Making Their Escape; Houston Club Building To Be Demolished, Say Auctioneers; Will Skanska Knock Down the Houston Club?; Downtown Houston Club Building Will Stay Put; Skanska Goes for a Houston Office Building Hat Trick; Skanska Helping Houston Club to Early Exit; Will Skanska Knock Down the Houston Club?; At Risk on Rusk

Renderings: Skanska. Photos: Craig Hartley