What’s going on with the Astrodome, after state senator John Whitmire’s plan to require a vote on a planned reconfiguration of the long-vacant former stadium was blocked last month? The project is still in a “design phase” that continued through the legislative session and is expected to last through the end of this year, and which includes some rather unglamorous tasks — such as verifying existing drawings and digging up the facility’s drainage pipe to see what condition it’s in. But officials won’t wait until the design phase is complete before getting estimates from construction managers. “After we get all the estimates, we’ll go back to commissioners court for approval to proceed,†county engineer John Blount tells Community Impact reporter Shawn Arrajj.
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Although released drawings have shown layouts for the 2 levels of parking the county is planning to insert atop the former playing field and the 8-acre central event space (now brought up to ground level) atop it, they’ve been a whole lot more vague about plans for the roughly 500,000 sq. ft. of space on 6 levels that’ll still ring it. Most of that former seating area is intended to become available for some unknown mix of leasable space — for offices, retail, or restaurants. It’s still early in the timeline, but Blount says the goal is for the first new events at a reopened Astrodome to take place in 2020.
- Astrodome project moves forward after bill requiring voter approval officially dies [Community Impact]
- Previously on Swamplot: The Bill To Force an Astrodome Garage-ification Election Is Dead, Again, For Now; Preservationists, Heineken Now Crowdsourcing $15K To Let People Party in the Astrodome; State Committee Okays Bill To Require ‘Certain Counties’ To Vote on Astrodome Parking Garage-ification; Judge Emmett on the New Plan To Rein In the New Astrodome Plan; Astrodome To Be Highlighted for Supporting Role as Super Bowl Storage Facility; County Approves First $10.5 Million for Astrodome Basement Parking Garage Plan; How You’d Park Under Astrodome’s Floor, and Where To Fish for More Details; County Wants To Fill In the Astrodome’s Flood Levels with Parking
- All Astrodome coverage [Swamplot]
Drawings of proposed Astrodome redo: Office of County Judge Ed Emmett
Great to see more concept art! But grass and trees in the Dome? I hope they don’t try to grow real grass… again. It’s going to interesting how this parking garage/ park/ retail center (?) comes together. Can they just yes the mixed-use clinche?
Great, I’m sure HLSR & the Texans will be very pleased with the taxpayers investing in new facilities for their benefit.
A mix of leasable space for offices, retail, or restaurants sounds like a really cheap shopping mall. Come on; is it not obvious that the former seating area would best be suited for indoor NFL tailgating and rodeo cook-off? The central event space needs to be arranged similar to the former baseball/football field footprint the building was originally designed to incorporate. Park landscaping should be limited to AstroTurf and chalk lines. No trees! A replica scoreboard would be a nice addition. What a great place to throw the ball around during NFL tailgating or practice on that mutton bust’n before the big show.
Why can’t they make a second attempt to grow grass? No one is left to complain about glare while looking for pop fly balls, so the ceiling can be made translucent again.
Great news!
just give me a wedge for an indoor ski slope with room to expand
Y E S !
Ski slope.
On WHITE Astroturf.
Build the ski-surface on a full diameter A-dome screw rotating at say 5mph.
You could ski and ski and ski and never reach bottom!
Or, race your friends to the base to ride a disco-party elevator more often!
Frequent Elevator Rider Cards afford you drink discounts at the bars located both top and bottom.
I think this’ll work!
I was recently in Nashville and the area around Nissan stadium is great. Beautiful views along the Cumberland river, Cumberland Park, a huge pedestrian bridge spanning the river and more. I wish NRG / Astrodome could become a place other than a huge sea of surface parking spaces.
I just noticed in the rendering, someone is getting ready to fly a kite. Maybe they could position all the AC vents at one side of the building and turn the Astrodome into the world’s largest indoor kite flying venue.
I’m willing to bet this thing will cost twice as much as their initial projections.
Indoor tailgating and rodeo cookoff? Ha. Complete with carbon monoxide poisoning. No one will want to do indoor activities that typically involve BBQ as i’m sure it wouldn’t be allowed inside.
The underground parking idea is absurd. Getting out of reliant park now is horrible, no way in hell would i want to have to sit in traffic to get out of the garage and then to only sit in traffic again to get out of the surface lots.
A waste of time and money. Is that people shopping? Real malls are having enough trouble as is. Who would bother going to the Astrodome to shop? An indoor park sounds well stupid. Fake grass, Fake trees…yeah, lets go party! And without a lot of people going, it will feel unsafe if not creepy.
The 105 million proposed to rehab the dome could be better spent for demolishing costs, maintaining and upgrading the Reliant center and hiring additional sheriff deputies for the county.
Recently I was at the Reliant center for the annual RV show and noticed how outdated this facility appears. When I was waiting in line to purchase tickets, I noticed that there are no electronic venue signs/boards above the ticket windows. Instead you have to look over and around people standing in line and look for a copied print out taped to the ticket window to make sure your in line to purchase tickets at the correct ticket window.
The numerous groups of TV monitors mounted above the entire length of the entry corridor are the old heavy/clunky type they stopped making several years ago and should be replaced with newer LED TV’s.
They can’t even properly maintain and upgrade the current venue facility due to costs, so where will the money come from for ongoing maintenance and future upgrades once the dome has been renovated.
Man those plans look stupid as fuck. Classic lame backwards Houstonian/Texan teabagger thinking. They should’ve stuck with the http://www.adomepark.org/ idea.
Complete disregard for taxpayers multiple votes to demo this structure. The last thing NRG need is more parking. It’s already a mess getting in and out. They should use a portion of these funds to eliminate existing parking spaces and replace with green spaces to eliminate exit options for drivers and reduce the wait time when leaving.