Photo of El Capitan Theater: Molly Block via Swamplot Flickr Pool

03/27/13 8:30am
by Meredith Deliso

11 Comment

  • KHOU had a story about an architecture student’s plan to save the Astrodome by stripping it down to it’s frame and making it a giant gazebo essentially.

    http://www.khou.com/news/local/UH-grad-student-presents-masters-thesis-on-saving-iconic-Astrodome–200138171.html

  • Re: Low-Income Housing
    People are always for “fairness” until it affect them personally. (not saying it’s wrong, just a fact). My favorite one that also applies in this case is “If you’re not a liberal at 20 then you have no heart, but if you’re not a conservative by 30, you have no brain.”

  • Love the photo of the Capitan Theater in Pasadena. Don’t know that any of it is still there, but I toured the facility when it was closed in the 1980s. Incredible art deco interior. Murals on the theater walls were an aquatic theme, with dolphins, mermen, and mermaids jumping out of stylized waves. There was a huge mermaid painted on the ceiling holding a compass. The lobby was also art deco, with stainless steel handrails on the stairs and a curved snack area. The stair rails also had etched glass “portholes”. The stage area around the movie screen had floor to ceiling red curtains made of plaster and held back by huge gold plaster medallions. We were told at the time, that the paintings were done by a muralist from California who was well known for his art deco paintings in theaters, and that when he did this, he was in his 80’s and this was his last theater. The quality of the art work was incredible. We tried at the time to work with the owner out of Dallas to preserve the building, but were not successful. Losing that interior is a great loss to the Houston area.

  • The Eiffel Tower of Houston! Strip it to the frame and put a multi-use park under it ala Discovery Green. Love the idea.

  • I dont understand Low-income subsidized housing. IMO if you cant afford to live somewhere, then move to where you can afford!

  • El Capitan still standing- although the interior has faded. The seats are stacked in other rooms and the theatre itself is being used as storage for the city.

    that said, it’s still a great candidate for restoration, if the city can develop a will to do it and access funding for it. re

    Best neon around!!

  • Subsidized housing is a good thing because our economy will always depend, in ways large and small, on low-income workers, and those folks need a place to live. Forcing them to search far and wide for affordable housing only makes sense if there is such housing within a reasonable commute of their employment. The people with the heaviest burdens in this country are not the homeless and completely destitute, but the working poor who have jobs but struggle to make ends meet. These jobs are an important part of our economy, a point lost on people who seem to think these folks are losers who deserve their lot in life or something. It’s a basic act of decency practiced by civilized cultures the world over. As for conservatives having brains…I see it in only fits and starts and passing glances. I can’t agree that the Tea Party/Glenn Beck wing embodies anything resembling “intelligence.”

  • I hate to see downtown lose business, but wouldn’t they benefit to make it a convention center?

    Also, one of my vendors told me their company worked on a proposal for a 35-40 story tower for Shell in The Woodlands. Has anyone else heard the same?

    He also said Anadarko wants to build a 3rd tower.

  • @Anse Songwood is a decent blue collar neighborhood and low-income housing is not a good idea there. The area 1 mile to the east (I-10 and Federal) is already i̶n̶f̶e̶s̶t̶e̶d̶ saturated with low-income apartments. The Wood Shadows subdivision adjacent to those apartments was practically destroyed by the influx of crime.

    As for the Astrodome, I really like the new idea. My question is how would we keep an exposed steel structure from rusting in hot, humid Houston?

  • Anse, why should taxpayers subsidize those jobs? If the workers are not able or willing to come to work at certain businesses then those business will simply have to pay them a little more to entice them. It’s a self balancing equation that the government keeps meddling with.

  • I played some sad violin music as I read Anse’s excuses.