Now You Can See Right Through the Houston Press Building’s Disguise Thanks to Wrecking Crews

Chevron made some strikingly real 3D changes to the fake 3D facade of the old Houston Press building last week, bringing it closer to total collapse. The photos above — shot over the weekend from the YMCA catty corner to the scene — show Suzanne E. Sellers’ 1994 trompe-l’œil additions to the building’s east face no longer fooling anyone, though a few sections of her work on that side and off Leeland St. remain intact.

Nothing’s crumbled yet on the unpainted, Pease-St. side:

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That’s where plate glass windows once offered glimpses of the car fleet for sale inside. Less visible: the interior ramp that ran up to the rooftop parking deckwrites Stephen Fox, looking back at the Chronicle‘s coverage of what the new building had to offer when it opened in 1928. The Houston Press moved into it in 2003 (at which time some of those original windows were still in place), then moved out when Chevron bought the structure in 2013.

Photos: Swamplox inbox

Illusions Shattered