One Houston company plans to make the Bayou City a bit cooler during the 2026 FIFA World Cup this summer. 

Rootlab, a design and manufacturing firm founded in 2014, partnered with the city of Houston to create 16 sets of “architectural trees” that will line Texas Avenue beginning downtown and extending into the FIFA Fan Festival in East Downtown. The trees will be made of large stainless-steel pipes, with the tops shaped into an assortment of large leafs, slightly tilted upward. The collection of architectural trees is expected to lower street temperatures by 10-to-15 degrees for those standing underneath, and they will also light up at night to guide fans down Texas Avenue. 

“The smallest unit, the shade area is roughly eight feet in diameter,” Logan Beck, co-founder of Rootlab, told Chron. “They’re about 15-or-16 feet tall. … The larger unit is about 13 feet in diameter. Those are real big.”

Rootlab hopes to install the new trees along Texas Avenue between May 18 and May 28. Houston’s first World Cup match will be held June 11 at Reliant Stadium—which will be called Houston Stadium for the World Cup—with the last Houston match held on July 4. The FIFA Fan Festival in EaDo will take place for all 34 match days of the 2026 World Cup, beginning June 11 and ending July 19. Rootlab’s newest creation will provide shelter from Houston’s summer heat throughout the 2026 World Cup, then remain as fixtures downtown for years to come. 

“This is for the World Cup, at least that’s the catalyst for it,” Beck said. “But these are permenant structures that should outlive us all. It’s all stainless steel, and they should be there forever. If people like them, I’m hopeful we’ll get to make some more for the rest of downtown.”

Rootlab specializes in design and construction of public-works projects, frequently pairing with musuems, city-owned attractions and various retail spaces. The company is responsible installations at the NASA Johnson Space Center, the Houston Musuem of Natural History and Meow Wolf Houston, among others.

Beck says the Rootlab was first contacted by the Downtown Houston+ organization in September 2025, who sought a company to aid their Cooled and Connected Corridors plan aimed at reducing surface temperatures in downtown Houston. Rootlab then partnered with the California architecture firm SWA for the project as well as Höweler + Yoon Architecture, a firm based in Boston. The trio of companies created a prototype that was presented to Houston Mayor John Whitmire in February, and they then signed contracts to produce the collection of trees. Beck says his company is now “looking to make a miracle happen,” in its sprint to the finish, with expected installation in the coming weeks. 

Rootlab creates its assemblage of works in a 50,000 square-foot facility located in Houston’s East End. The company sports a team of 50-plus employees, who will unveil their latest creation to the people of Houston by the end of this month.