The demo-photo tag team of Joe Lex and Kerwin McKenzie have more pics to share of the ongoing destruction at 1600 Louisiana St. downtown. But there’s more to their latest images than your run-of-the-mill demolition porn. Hidden behind the racquetball courts already pulled down on the southwest end of the former YMCA building, they claim: What looks to be the building’s original brick facade, before the courts were added. You can see what sure looks like an original exterior wall on the far left side of the image above, which shows the view from along Pease St.: Look for the lighter-colored brick structure with the engaged arches.
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- Previously on Swamplot: Watching the Walls Fall at the Downtown Y, Starting Now: Downtown YMCA Is Coming Down, Early Exit: The Fire at the Downtown Y, Downtown YMCA To Self-Destruct, Finally
Photos: Joe Lex (top and bottom) and Kerwin McKenzie (middle)
Uh guys what am I supposed to be seeing? More bricks? (snore)..
Secret room? Way to make us read for nothing. Snooooooooooooore.
look at the middle left side of the first picture, you can clearly see the old facade..
“arches”
Pretty sure this has nothing to do with Phil’s BBQ.
If you ever went inside the Y and attended a class in one of these back rooms that were also basketball courts, would would’ve clearly seen the old facade walls from the inside. You could also see where the new walls pulled away from the old (now interior) walls and see a crack of daylight shining through….
Goody, goody. More Houston architectural history on the scrapheap. Way to go Houston! Nice to know your reputation for razing historical structures is firmly intact.
PLEASE tell me this building couldn’t be saved. It was a beautiful building.
Comments that I have heard were that the cost of bringing the building up to code were cost prohibited. Spinkler systems, fire systems not to mention the posibility of asbestos abatement. Sounds logical to me unless you just want to make a monument out of it. – my 2 cents-