One of those 19 private bids that the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation didn’t quite get around to asking for and yet still received just in time for Monday’s deadline comes from entrepreneur Tim Trae Tindall, who suggests that the Astrodome might be the perfect environment to trap heat — so to speak — as a business incubator: Click2Houston’s Gianna Caserta reports that Tindall’s bid for this “one-stop shop location” would provide “consultants, restaurants, investors, IT support, and office space. There would even be an extended-stay area for visitors to have accommodations while scoping out the Houston business climate.” (Having investors there on the spot? Now that beats cold calling.) Tindall, who says he’s trying to raise the money to fund the project, seems to think that a fledgling business would be drawn almost naturally to the decaying Dome: “What we intend to do is seize upon the notoriety of Houston’s greatest landmark.” [Click2Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
Read more about: 77054, Astrodome, Harris County Government, Houston Landmarks, Proposed Developments, Public Buildings, Redevelopment
Writing in the New York Times, sportswriter Jeré Longman tries to raise Houston’s burgeoning “are we really gonna demolish it?” moment to a level of national concern: “. . . it was despairing to hear that the vacant Astrodome might be torn down and its site paved over as Houston prepares to host the 2017 Super Bowl. Demolition would be a failure of civic imagination, a betrayal of Houston’s greatness as a city of swaggering ambition, of dreamers who dispensed with zoning laws and any restraint on possibility.” [New York Times; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
Read more about: 77054, Astrodome, Demolitions, Houston Landmarks, Proposed Developments, Public Buildings, Real Estate Marketing
With the June 10th deadline to submit the Astrodome proposals that the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation kind of forgot to ask for approaching, architect Ben Koush pens some poetic support for UH grad student Ryan Slattery’s idea to open the Dome up for public use and reduce it to a shell of itself: “Architects, myself included, often tend to like ‘structure’ and buildings that are under construction better than those that are finished. Even crappy suburban spec houses have a noble purity when they are just a concrete slab and 2x4s, before the pipes, wires, and air-conditioning ducts go in and clutter everything up.” Noble purity notwithstanding, Koush does recognize at least one problem: “Since the Astrodome is essentially in the center of a giant parking lot with gates as well as a long, un-shaded walk discouraging the public from visiting, one wonders who would actually use [it].” [Arts + Culture Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Save the Astrodome
Read more about: 77054, Adaptive Reuse, Astrodome, Houston Landmarks, Parks, Public Space, Stadiums
The Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation this week approved a June 10th deadline for all private proposals to redevelop the Astrodome. That’s a notable event not only because of the somewhat hurried timeframe, but also because the organization appears to have left out a possibly minor step: Formally requesting private proposals to redevelop the Astrodome in the first place.
If that sounds a little odd to you, rest assured this sort of oversight is entirely within character for the 13-year-old quasi-governmental body, whose major achievement has been to shepherd Houston’s most famous building on a steady path from viable sports, entertainment, and celebrity ball-shagging venue to decaying, moldy relic. Hasn’t the corporation been soliciting plans all this time?
Continue Reading This Story >
Read more about: 77054, Astrodome, Harris County Government, Houston Landmarks, Public Buildings, Redevelopment, Reliant Park
March 28, 2013 – 10:30 am
Making the rounds this week are a couple more long shots for the Astrodome from people who don’t seem very keen on the 2,500 parking spaces the Texans and Rodeo proposed last week. First, you’ve got Ed Seale and his wife of “Keep the Astrodome,” who say they want to see the ol’ thing renovated into an global bazaar, reports KUHF’s Jack Williams, “a space filled with international, ethnic, cultural and business organizations . . . and ethnic restaurants.” And then there’s the UH graduate student Ryan Slattery, whose friend leaked online parts of his architecture master’s thesis that calls for the big baby to be stripped to a skeleton and used as greenspace: “If you don’t need it,” Slattery tells KHOU’s Jeremy Desel, “it does not need to be there. It is never going to be a stadium again. So you don’t need the seats. You need to take those seats out. Concrete on the facade? You don’t need that.” Adds Slattery: “If and when the Astrodome does come down you will see a grown man cry.” [KUHF; KHOU; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
Read more about: 77054, Adaptive Reuse, Astrodome, Houston Landmarks, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Reliant Park, Renovations, Restaurants
The study paid for by the Texans and the Rodeo that found the Astrodome could be torn down and replaced with 2,500 parking spots for $29 million — the one Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said he’s putting on his shelf — has apparently made its way to the desk of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who seems to have crunched the numbers in light of Houston’s impending bid to host the 2017 Super Bowl. Goodell, reports the Houston Chronicle‘s John McClain, says he doesn’t want to get involved in the dome demo drama right before getting involved: “That issue is for the community to decide, but I think having an extra 2,500 parking spaces would enhance Houston’s bid.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Russell Hancock
Read more about: 77054, Astrodome, Demolitions, Houston-Texans, Parking-Lots, Quicklink, Reliant Park, Rodeo
“The more this saga continues, the more I’m inclined to agree with the opinion that the dome should become the Rodeo’s and the Texans’ problem, since they seem to shoot down every idea that’s ever been proposed for the reuse of the dome. Clearly their goal is to be rid of the place, so they’ve dragged the repurposing process out long enough for the place to fall into disrepair in order to seal the dome’s fate. Both the Rodeo and the Texans are flush with cash, so if they want it gone, let them pay for the demolition.” [KC, commenting on Judge Emmett Not Impressed by Texans, Rodeo Plan To Demolish the Astrodome]
Read more about: 77054, Comments, Demolitions, Houston Landmarks, Houston-Texans, Reliant Park, Rodeo
March 20, 2013 – 10:00 am
A study paid for by the Houston Texans and the Livestock Show and Rodeo has determined that tearing down the Astrodome will cost a hair more than $29 million, reports Fox 26, but Harris County judge Ed Emmett doesn’t seem all that moved by the study’s finding: “Unless there’s something there I didn’t see when it came across my desk, all I saw were two or three options for how to demolish it and turn it into a parking lot. I know that’s their position. I’m not denigrating it, but that doesn’t really move the ball anywhere.” And what’s Emmett going to do with the study? “Read it and put it on a shelf. . . . It’s not meaningful at all.” [Fox 26; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia
Read more about: 77054, Astrodome, Demolitions, Houston-Texans, Public Buildings, Quicklink, Reliant Park, Rodeo
February 28, 2013 – 11:00 am
Depending on which city gets the Super Bowl in 2016, Houston will be vying with either Miami or San Francisco to host the big game in 2017, reports Culturemap’s Chris Baldwin, and Houston’s in great shape to put together an attractive proposal — but there’s still one thing standing in the way: “When the Astrodome opened in 1965, it deserved its Eighth Wonder of the World moniker. It screamed innovation. Now, it screams . . . embarrassment,” Baldwin writes: “There have been more than enough multi-million studies. There is no need to put off a decision yet again. Sometimes, the simplest choice, the most obvious choice, is the best one. Put together a demolition crew. . . . This isn’t Fenway Park. It’s not Wrigley Field. It’s not that old Yankee Stadium that went through all those remodels. It’s a relic that long ago lost its last bit of charm.” And if you want to save the “rotting giant,” Baldwin suggests, you’re “showing as much sense as someone featured on Hoarders.” [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
Read more about: 77054, Astrodome, Houston Landmarks, Quicklink, Reliant Park, Sports, Stadiums, Tourism
February 8, 2013 – 3:00 pm
For a charitable nonprofit, Rodeo Houston comes across as a tad indifferent about one of Houston’s neediest causes: CEO Skip Wagner tells the Houston Business Journal‘s Emily Wilkinson that Rodeo Houston is “busting at the seams” and needs more space: “And we’ve got 18 acres that is just wasted right in the heart of Reliant.” What, Wilkinson asks, would Wagner prefer to see happen to the Astrodome?
“Honestly, we don’t care. There are two options — one is tear it down. If so, it would become open area, and we would use it effectively that way. Second, ultimately if they gut it or renovate it, as long as we can use it to put on elements of our show, then we’re fine with that.”
And what about the 48 acres Rodeo Houston bought of the former AstroWorld site across 610? “We could move things like our bus operations over there and expand the presentation footprint (at Reliant),” says Wagner. “We can look at how to use it for its maximum benefit — maybe put in some RV hookups.”
Photo: Candace Garcia
Read more about: 77054, Astrodome, AstroWorld, Commercial Real Estate, Proposed Developments, Rodeo
Comment of the Day Runner-Up: Bogarting the Astrodome
“The only roadblock to redevelopment of the Dome, as I see it, are two self-interested organizations that are afforded an unwarranted and undeserved say in the matter.” [TheNiche, commenting on Headlines: Itemizing Astrodome Tax Expenses; El Tiempo Cantina Heading South]