- Thousands Attend Ceremony To Mark the 50th Birthday of the Astrodome [Reuters]
- Slideshow: A Past and Present Look Inside the Astrodome [Houston Public Media]
- The Astrodome’s Prospects for Survival [The Guardian]
- Chicago-Based Harrison Street Real Estate Capital Joining Midway in Developing 60-Acre Mixed-Use Project in College Point [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- Grimaldi’s Opening in CityCentre by Late Summer in 3,500-SF Space Beneath the Texans Grille [Culturemap]
- Bovine & Barley Now Open in 2-Story Space at 416 Main Once Home to El Centro [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot]
- Proposed State Law Would Allow Houston To Regulate Petroleum Coke Piling Up Along the Houston Ship Channel [Houston Public Media]
- How the Waldo Mansion Ended Up Moving from Quality Hill to Westmoreland 110 Years Ago [OffCite Blog]
- The Origins of Houston’s Art-Car Movement [Houston Chronicle]
- Old Sixth Ward Compound Including Moved, Restored Eisele House Featured in This Weekend’s Rice Design Alliance Home Tour [Houston House & Home; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of Westheimer Rd.: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
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I always find it ironic that the Waldo Mansion has historic status, I mean the house looks absolutely NOTHING like the beautiful original house. I’ve never liked the “reincarnation”, it’s lost all it’s Victorian beauty, all it’s style and grace. The house has been completely ruined, frankly. I’m was stunned when as a kid someone showed me a pic of what it had originally looked like. I was like, ugh…WTF?! I think it’s ridiculous to act like this beautiful house was “saved”. In relatively, it was desecrated and bared zero resemblance to the original. Think Jackson 5 Michael Jackson to the This is It, Michael….awful.
Its* reality*….Swamplot please add commevt correction, so we can edit our comments or you can, when you text these comments, Autocorrect, has a mind of its own.
Strange to see a British newspaper covering the Astrodome. If they just read the comment threads on Swamplot, they would know that nobody outside Houston cares about the Astrodome.
We tried to go to the Astrodome thing yesterday but it was a freaking madhouse. The line stretched about a quarter of the way around it. Went for margaritas instead. ;)
Yes the Astrodome was a madhouse yesterday.
Horribly coordinated by the staff there.
We went to the Astrodome yesterday, and yes the line was absurdly long. When we got in line it reached all the way around the building & made a couple extra bends to make it longer than that. It was about a 2.5 hour wait, but with friends it went fine & I thought the staff did a remarkable job dealing with the ridiculous amount of people there.
I thought about going to the Astrodome party, but I figured it would be crazy crowded. Also, I like to remember the Dome the way it was at the last Astros game I attended there. Sort of like how I prefer remembering my dead friends when they were alive, not crawling around inside their rotting corpses.
Went to the dome party around 6:30, and obviously should have gone earlier. The line was equal to two loops around the dome, and getting longer by the second. ONE door open, and a guy with a clicker. Considering the Astrodome seat sale fiasco, if this is how Harris County manages things, the dome is in big trouble.
Just imagine how smoothly a $200-300M project would go with Ed Emmett….he had a hard time handling a birthday cake and few thousand people. I guess with a few of his constiuent/consultants, they would pull it off.
There were about 5 bajillion people at the Astrodome yesterday, we skipped waiting in line to go inside but did spend some time at the outdoor event. I hope that there’s a future for the old building.
I do hope meaningful, better regulations can be put in place for Pet Coke piles. It is desperately needed. But it will be an uphill battle, given the current stance of Austin against any local regulations. Ridiculous, really, since the reason local governments try to regulate this, is because the State fails miserably to do so in an effective way.
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It doesn’t surprise me that the folks at Kinder Morgan who own the coke claim their dust control measures meet State law. TCEQ regulations are a joke on things that are seen as temporary, like piles of pet coke.
Re: Astrodome – Can someone please explain why we should spend untold millions in renovating a 50 year old, decrepit, and otherwise useless sports stadium with public monies / tax dollars? Is a happy feeling of nostalgia really worth that much money? Think of all the other truly valuable things that could be done to make public life in Houston better.
Maybe they should have charged people $100 per person for entry and a photo and used the collected money for the renovation. I bet that line would have been painfully short and the collected money barely enough to pay to turn on the lights..
I’d gladly pay $100 / min to operate a wrecking ball machine, full release of liability, etc…. To get after it. And I bet there would be a line, a long line of like minded people.
Come on Houston, get real, and put your money where your mouth is. Shut up or put up! I say “FLATEN IT, and move on.”