- Incarnate Word Academy To Raze 110-Year-Old Downtown Building Despite Protests, To Make Way for New $8.5M School [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Plans for Downtown Site Earmarked for Shelved Nau Center for Texas Cultural Heritage Now Up in the Air; Donors’ Money Being Returned [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- ‘Futureproof’ Your New Home with Flex Pipe [HBJ]
- Ula’s Mexican Restaurant Confirms Rumored Location at 5555 Washington Ave [Eater Houston]
- Richmond, Rosenberg To Get New Fixed-Route Bus Service Starting in July, in Response to Increased Demand [Houston Public Media]
- Phase I of Study Looking at Ways Texas Coastal Communities Can Reduce Future Storm Damage Released Nearly 7 Years After Ike [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Energy Corridor District Master Plan Envisions ‘Version of Central Park’ Along Langham Creek [Culturemap]
Photo of Incarnate Word Academy, Downtown: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
There’s a special place in hell for nuns who tear down bulidings like that..
There is a solution to this situation and it’s a little ironic.
The sisters of incarnate word want to stay downtown, but they say there’s no room.
John Nau and his group own the block right next door to the campus. They just announced that they were
Canceling their fund raising efforts and giving all of the money donated back to the donors for a Houston history museum.
It seems to me if John Nau wants to save some of Houston history, he could donate the block adjacent to the school so that that the historically important Nicholas Clayton building could be saved. That way his efforts to preserve history could still be accomplished, the nuns could stay downtown and the Nicholas Clayton building could be saved. Now that’s a lot easier than trying to figure out what to do with the dome!
This is really sickening. There oughta be a law … I only recently discovered this beautiful gem of a building and now it’s slated for demolition. How much space will they need if they plan to cap enrollment at 350 students. They already have that hideous box (with awnings) adjacent to this historic building … those Fn nuns did not do their homework when exploring alternatives.
Why not tear down the two monstrosities flanking that building?
Something has to be done to save the Clayton building. There’s so little left from that era in Houston – it’s a one of a kind structure that speaks to a different time.
Nau should swap land with the nuns and make this part of his museum. I’m sure donors to the museum would be supportive to use $300K to stabilize this historic structure.
This is why the city needs a real landmark preservation ordinance that will force structures like this to be saved. We simply can’t count on people doing the intelligent thing, because that has failed us time and again and our city is suffering for it.
I think it’s great that the Langham Creek-property is being targeted for park development. I think it’s very telling, however, that the ECD is describing this as a version of “Central Park” when there is a perfectly-good model of the concept already in the heart of Houston — Hermann Park — that locals know and love.
Another question not discussed — who will administer it? City of Houston? Harris County?. Or is this actually going to be a privately owned and operated space?
Re: “Energy Corridor District Master Plan Envisions ‘Version of Central Park’ Along Langham Creek”
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This idea is ridiculous and far-fetched on its face. Central park is 13,500 feet by 2,700 feet (or ~840 acres). The site the ECD is talking about is 6,000 feet long by 700 feet wide (1/10th of the size). Not to mention that 100% of it is already occupied by a channel which carries a flood flow as large as the entire Hudson River. The site has as many park amenities now as it ever will because they will be inundated any/every time Addicks dam releases flood flow.
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If that’s the best that the “master-plan” authors can come up with, they’re blatantly fleecing the ECD.
Pleasantly surprised to see support for the historic Clayton building. Surely, there is a solution to the accommodation of an additional 48 students and need repairs…. Mr. Nau, are you listening? or reading, as it were?
I’m in agreement about Incarnate Word. They seem to be taking a rather myopic view of their spectrum of options.
Huh….?! This just BLOWS my mind, seriously… There is NO need to tear this wonderful structure to pieces. Any forward thinking design Architect could easily go vertical and at least incorporate the facade into a new structure! It’s been done along Potzdamer Platz in Berlin after being bombed out in WWII, the las Rambla in Barcelona, Division Street in Chicago and even I’m sure the recently burned Rennie MacIntosh Arts Building will be brought back to life…
Nuns, if you are reading this or Mr. Nau; I WILL do architectural work to save this landmark piece of AMERICAN history pro-bono!!
I will never understand the incessant need for Houston to continue sending perfectly good structures to the land fill… It’s like the ultimate slap in the face to any of Houston’s recycle-reuse-reduce programs… Ahh H-town, you are an ignorant beast sometimes.