Great Lungs of Houston Hermann and Memorial parks, Houston’s two great inner city parks, provide not only recreation areas and natural beauty for Houstonians, but literally help our city breathe. These two city parks point to Houston’s earliest attempts to green the city – long before the word “sustainability” was such an important part of our civic vocabulary. Today the Hermann Park Conservancy and the Memorial Park Conservancy, in strong private/public partnerships with the City of Houston Department of Parks and Recreation, provide not only funding, but ideas, focus, responsible stewardhip, and volunteers to assure that these great lungs of our city breath well and keep us healthy both physically and mentally.