A reader sends us this view from the scene of the YMCA on Louisiana and Pease Downtown. A fire broke out in a resident’s room on the 9th floor of the 67-year-old building early this afternoon after someone left a lit candle unattended, according to news reports. YMCA officials tell Channel 2 News that 16 residents will need to be relocated as a result of the damages.
Of course, all 135 residents of the YMCA will need to be relocated after the new YMCA down the street at 808 Pease St. (at Milam) opens this October. The YMCA plans to demolish the Louisiana St. building, then sell the vacant 85,000-sq.-ft. property to Chevron, which owns the shiny former Enron building next door. The new Tellepsen Family Downtown YMCA now under construction contains no residences.
Late Update: Our correspondent sends in a later photo from the scene:
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After the fire trucks move on, the Stanley Steemer vans move in:
- 3-Alarm Fire Breaks Out At YMCA [Click2Houston]
- Fire breaks out at old downtown YMCA [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: New Downtown Y: All the Letters Are Up, A Peek Inside the New Downtown Sweatbox, The New Downtown YMCA Replacement: When?, Downtown YMCA To Self-Destruct, Finally
Photo: Swamplot inbox
C’mon, REALLY?! They’re gonna tear down that beautiful building….oh wait…this is Houston……can they squeeze some townhouses on it?
At what point is the YMCA no longer a non-profit. Somehow, it loses that to me when they kick out the 135 senior retirees and working poor.
Guessing they have other programs to retain their status?
At what point is the YMCA no longer a non-profit. Somehow, it loses that to me when they kick out the 135 senior retirees and working poor.
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Rumor was some wanted to be rid of the “transient population” as in “out of sight, out of mind” and as in those old men should have planned better for retirement and those young men should just get a better job and get an apartment.
There were other similar “accomodations” downtown but most of them were the older hotels and I believe all but one is gone.
It’s hell to be poor as Marvin Zindler used to say. Particularly in Houston.
The old YMCA may look like a lovely piece of historic Houston from the outside, but if you’ve spent any time in the leaky maze of an interior you would not be wondering why it needs to be torn down.
Good riddance. That place is a dump. I used to work out there several times a week about 15 years ago. It was a dump then. It can only be worse now.
I only hope Chevron decides to build another skyscraper on the same scale as the two it already occupies in the neighborhood. Another million or so SF of office space in the downtown (rather than the suburbs) is a another step in the right direction.
So I am guessing they are not going to repair the damages..
though the DT Y will no longer have a residence they will continue to offer the same social services as the current location. instead of having an on site residence (regardless of reason) they plan to be work along side several local agencies to provide shelter.
also, memberships are still offered on a sliding scale based on income and the new location will have more youth programs.
The thing about beautiful old buildings that are dumps inside is that the buildings’ owners have allowed them to become dumps by not maintaining them propertly. In 80 years or so, I’m sure the Y will be making plans to demolish the 808 Pease building, too, because it will have turned into a hellhole for the same reasons. I can imagine the conversation on Swamplot 2090 now …
“Propertly,” by the way: new word.
This is not a matter of being propertly maintained (love that new word!). The Y has had serious structural problems for about 10-15 years. They looked into repairing it about 10 years ago, and determined it would actually cost less to build a new Y than repair the existing one. Structural repairs to an 80 year old 9-story building ain’t cheap. Then add in the $$$ to bring it up to code, and modernize the facilities, and it became a no-brainer to build a new one.
As much as we would love to save every old building, sometimes it just doesn’t work out.
(get it… “work out”. I just kill myself sometimes :)
instead of having an on site residence (regardless of reason) they plan to be work along side several local agencies to provide shelter.
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In other words, 135 men will be added to the list of people who when the shelters are full will be handed a blanket and told to stay warm on the sidewalk or under ther freeway underpass.
As a country if we tore down all the old buildings that have fallen into disrepair then we’d have no old buildings. Houstonians are shortsighted and ignorant when it comes to historical preservation and it seems that despite our inner loop “Renaissance” we have yet to realize the value of historic buildings.
Chevron will end up tearing down the Y and use the lot for surface parking for at least 3 years, before doing anything rational with such a valuable piece of land. Mark my words
I doubt anyone questions the reality of the condition of the property. But why didn’t the YMCA just demolish the old building and build a new building on the land?
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Which of course raises the question of whether selling the land which as I recall Enron wanted to expand the “corporate castle” on was lucrative enough to simply stop maintaining the existing building in order to justify selling the land.
Tearing down that building is gay. Leave it to the YMCA to take the gay way out.