Sixties Mod Meadowcreek Park B-Ball Pavilion Bites the Dust

Demolition of Meadowcreek Park Basketball Pavilion, 5333 Berry Creek Dr., Meadowcreek Village, Houston

Crews tore down the Mod basketball pavilion in Meadowcreek Park on Monday. Its structure had been declared unsafe last August. The pavilion and community center at 5333 Berry Creek Dr. were built in 1961, following a design by Raymond Brogniez — the architect of the River Oaks-Lamar Shopping Center and the Sylvan Beach Pavilion.

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Demolition of Meadowcreek Park Basketball Pavilion, 5333 Berry Creek Dr., Meadowcreek Village, Houston

The parks and recreation department originally planned to replace the pavilion with a larger barrel-vault shade structure, but objections from neighborhood residents triggered a change in plans. The new pavilion will attempt to match Brogniez’s design, but will use 12-in.-by-6-in. hollow metal core arch beams in place of the original’s wooden glulam beams. Officials in charge of the project told Meadowcreek Village residents in February that construction on the replacement structure would begin this October and take 8 months.

Demolition of Meadowcreek Park Basketball Pavilion, 5333 Berry Creek Dr., Meadowcreek Village, Houston

Photos: Dave Martin (top); Jose Rocha (demo)

Coming Back in Steel

9 Comment

  • It was a beautiful pavilion. I hope the replacement really does look the same.

  • This article reminded me about many fond days spent at a cool mod park pavilion when growing up in Stinkadena. Looks to be the structure at Strawberry Park that I’m recalling and really nice to see that they’re expanding the park with a lazy river and all. Always sad to see how little the place has changed in the many many years since.

  • It’s a real shame that they decided they had to demo it. If the residents were involved we can probably assume that they wanted to original structure to remain if at all possible but were told it wasn’t without altering it radically, or spending more $ than would ever be alloted. So, is a reproduction the next best thing? Maybe.

  • Classic h-town… Pretty soon we won’t have any historical architecture or civil engineering projects left. We will have plenty of vacant multi-family though!

    Hahaha, oh Houston. You silly gal you…

  • They tore a similar gym down in Edgewood Park on Bellfort. Structurally unsound, they said. This was about 2012. Still visible on Google Streetview. https://www.google.com/maps/@29.666537,-95.332039,3a,75y,15.35h,89.75t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sJwxc5oaIVq2S5gznPGh8Yg!2e0!6m1!1e1

  • Umm I like historic preservation, but this was yet another example of a “mod” structure not being able to stand the test of time (or the elements). An outdoor pavilion made of wood (glulam in this case) in our climate is not able to be preserved. In the past, I’ve made similar comments about mod flat roofs (also wondering how many of those have leaked in the deluge of the past few weeks).

  • Please, please, PLUUUULEEEZZ tell me this is a warm up event for the Big Kahuna of run down crappy obsolete 60’s sports venues. Flatten the Astrodome and be done with it. Stop wasting taxpayer money on the worlds biggest cockroach motel. You’ve had your walk down memory lane, move on….

  • Thank You to the Meadowcreek Village Civic Club and Residents for coming together to voice their concerns and wishes for the replacement pavilion. Thank You to the City of Houston for listening and responding.

  • 1) The structure rotted because the glue-lam beams were encased in fiberglass (so any water that entered could not escape) in a 1990s “upgrade”.

    2) I hope the replacement “exact replica in steel” structure looks as good and functions as well as the old design.