THE CASE FOR A GHOST ASTRODOME 
“I’d say let’s be radical! Let’s strip it bare back to its frame and have out-of-towners wonder why it is so. It will minimize maintenance costs while keeping the footprint of the building. Thus, by only making it useless it may be the only way to save it. That way, we’ll buy some time to see how it can truly, purposely be reused AND don’t lose it to circumstantial interests along the way.
The ethereal nature of its bare structure will capture everyone’s attention. I imagined that for the people involved in its construction process, the shell in itself wouldn’t mean much, just another day at work, putting together bolts and plates. But to us looking at it 50 years later, facing the prospect of demolition for lack of good options, this shell becomes both haunting and evocative, that memory of a brighter future and at the same time, the challenge of not forgetting.” [Archinect] Photo: Save the Astrodome
Sign up for the Newsletter
Sell it on ebay!
Great ‘effin idea! Doesn’t the shell best represent the innovation in its design anyway?
Deconstructed buildings like this can be found all over the world and seem to be considered more works of art than ruins.
Nestor Topchy could do something wonderful with it.
That’s a beautiful idea.
I love it. Houston’s answer to the Eiffel Tower. Let’s do it.
Reminds me of Philip Johnson’s Ghost House.
Apart from completely demolishing it, this is the single worst suggestion I’ve heard for what to do with the Astrodome.
Let’s convert the Dome into a huge gazebo park. The frame structure would be a very dramatic venue to have the Houston Symphony perform on a pretty day. Yes, Houston has pretty weather!
less is more.
It would still require maintenance.
And is the steel up for weathering?
How much might it fetch at R&D Recycling?
@movocelot
Do you mean C&D Scrapemetal? Because that would be a hell of a lot of 2 Dollar bills.
Yeah sure – sounds right :-)
I brought a crooked metal desk to Port Recycling and got $29.00!
If the ‘Stros go to the A.L. – Let’s put a National League Baseball team in there! Bring back the Colt .45’s!
I agree with Rob! Houston could benefit from a large temperature/mosquito controlled space.
According to this paper, http://goo.gl/xhSWC, there are 2150+ tons of steel in the building. Brokers (not C&D) will pay about $400 bucks a ton, so… that makes about 17.14 cubic feet of perfectly arranged $2 bills (granted that the broker will pay you in $2 bills). Should be enough room in my car to fit all that cash.
I don’t want ten cents of my tax dollars going toward that thing except to remove it.
Bill–I think this idea was more in the realm of humor and is deliberately blue-sky thinking. Calm down–no one is seriously proposing a skeletal Astrodome.
I don’t know–what if they poured in some dirt and let it be overcome by creeping fig and other invasive plants? That would be awesome/creepy like Midgar at the end of FFIV. Midgar? FFIV? Anyone? *digresses*
Implode it in the middle of the night. Everyone just needs to quit “Bagwelling” the dome. Get over it.
We should put a bunch of people with mohawks and chains, assless chaps, motorcycles, and flamethrowers in there and call it the Thunderdome.
YES Justin!
I say let the place regress, digress, corrode, implode…
.
There was a great “Nature” episode, Sunday, on KUHT about the rich successions of animals in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Wolves, bison, deer, beaver, carp, eagles, apple trees, flowering vines, etc. (They don’t know they’re radio-active.)
Nature prevails.
I feel Houston could leverage the Astrodome into a teachable moment/decade/century!
Blow the damn thing up !!!!
#18 = nerdiest comment ever
And it was FFVII