From a largely-barren expanse of surface lot west of Toyota Center, a reader sends a few fresh images snapped during a street-level fly-by of the 1930s office building at the corner of Leeland and Caroline streets, where Texas Direct Auto has recently taken up both residence and a new advertising tack. Following in the wake of a previous foray into Downtown real-estate-billboard crossover, the company’s newest mural encompasses 3 of the 4 sides of the building (including the dog in an astronaut suit on the side opposite Leeland). Painting started in January, and a we’re-done-now party was thrown in early April. 

As was the case for the company’s red-tagged Main St. doggie-in-the-window signage, the newer mural incorporates some of the structure’s actual windows into the design — this time as a set of questionable-utility solar panel arrays on an artificial astronaut habitat:

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Here’s what the building looked like before the paint job, per one of the many leasing listings accumulated over the past decade:

• New Mural Pays Homage To Space City With Cosmic Canine [Houston Public Media}
• Previously on Swamplot: City Inspector Gives Thumbs Down to Texas Direct Auto’s Main St. Building Billboard; Down on Main St., Where an Auto Billboard Has Moved In Next to the Home of Easy Credit

Photos: Swamplot inbox (mural), LoopNet (previous listing photo)