“It looks amazingly shiny without the 50 years of grime,” notes the reader who late last week snapped these photos of the former Houston Post building at 4747 Southwest Fwy., tucked into the lifted right armpit of the I-69-610 intersection. The brutalist main building of the 7-building campus, designed in 1970 by Astrodome architects Wilson, Morris, Crain, and Anderson, is being powerwashed — with a significant portion of the work complete just in time for this week’s heavy rains.
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But there’s much more to Gensler’s reworking of the 440,000-sq.-ft. campus. The revived facility will serve as a suitable fortress for the Houston Chronicle against any threatening windstorms or new-media models once renovations are completed next year.
- Previously on Swamplot: Houston Chronicle Building Goes on Sale Tomorrow, the Chronicle Reports; Houston Chronicle Complex Downtown Going on Sale — A Year or 2 Too Late?; The Houston Chronicle Will Abandon Downtown for This Freeway-Side Post-Brutalist Bunker
Photos: Swamplot inbox
Straight outta Moscow.
It’s difficult to conceive an uglier building.
It looks great now…I don’t suppose they can power wash the limestone blocks on the City Hall building without harming them. They are filthy.
Propaganda bunker.
Looks fabulous. Resembles a power amplifier.
What is I-69?
Why is Swamploy pushing I-69 so much?
Using I-69 to me would mean you are out of touch with Houston and the locals. US-59, Eastex, or Southwest Freeway are really the only option.
@Houstonian: Big road, runs through town. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_69
I-69 is the new US interstate that is replacing Texas Hwy-59
It looks like the Bob Lanier Public Works Building at Smith and Rusk got chopped up by a blender and landed in a heap of building sections and elevator shaft pieces.
love it, so much character compared to everything that has come after this time period. seriously doubt I’d ever want to work inside of it though.
@kjb434: It isn’t Swamplot pushing I-69. Look at the big (local) signs above and next to the freeways. Or look on a map.
At least the building will one of the few standing after the zombie apocalypse. Lord only knows who we would be able to survive without our slideshows of “best margaritas in h-town” and “top ten homes for sale over 5 million.”
Beautiful. Just beautiful. Also, concur with kjb. “59” is acceptable, as is “59/69.” “69” without 59 is just right out.
“I-69” is what the carpetbaggers who call our city “H-Town” call the Eastex and Southwest Freeways.
Another Hearst Castle. I’ve always liked this bldg. I-69 is not replacing Hwy 59- it’s just a glorified government renaming PR stunt !!! A LOT of buildings in/around Houston NEED to be power washed !
I drove by today and noticed how clean it looked. I also noticed that there was a big banner advertising the company that cleaned up the building.
Now it looks like a clean prison! I suppose a prison looking building is very fitting for some folks in the press. Especially those who do shoddy fact checking!
I-69 is what the sex-crazed liberal left decided to name our Judeo-christian freeway! Only Northerners would stoop so low. I oppose the interstate highway act. Eisenhower was nothing but a RINO.
In Boston they still call Interstate 95, at least the loop portion of it, Route 128, or just 128 for short. That’s after the official name changed half a century ago.
I am glad to see them clean the place up — I’m liking it much more now. I could actually grow fond of the place.
All people ever do on this web site is complain! I’ll bet not one of them is a qualified architect. LOL!