Tag Archives: preservation

Art Car Museum announces its closure

Bummer. Leaders of the Art Car Museum announced their intention to close after nearly 30 years in its Houston Heights location, according to a statement on its website. The announcement comes not long after both the museum’s founders, Ann O’Connor … Continue reading

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River Oaks Theater renovations set to begin

A bit of good news. The next step in River Oaks Theatre’s comeback starts this week. Construction on renovations to the historic movie theater will begin soon with an eye towards reopening by the end of the year. Movie-loving Houstonians … Continue reading

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Checking in on the Astrodome

With the Final Four in town, we have visitors at Reliant Stadium looking over at its unused predecessor and wondering what’s going on with it. The short answer is, not much. The state of the dome and prospects for its … Continue reading

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The Evergreen Negro Cemetery

Wow. City and METRO officials have discovered 33 burial sites, including three that appear fully intact, near a historic Black cemetery on Lockwood Drive, which the city apparently missed when it tore through the site to expand the street in … Continue reading

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River Oaks Theater lives again

Wow. The curtain is going up on a new era for the vacated River Oaks Theatre. Kimco Realty, the Jericho, New York-based company that owns the River Oaks Shopping Center where the theater sits, announced Wednesday that the cinema will … Continue reading

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Supreme Court upholds Houston historic preservation ordinance

Blast from the past. The Texas Supreme Court has upheld Houston’s ordinance regulating the preservation of historic districts, after residents argued it was an illegal zoning measure. Two homeowners in the Heights challenged the law, arguing that it constituted zoning … Continue reading

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It’s time for another Astrodome redevelopment effort

Astrodome redevelopment for a new generation. Nineteen years after the Astrodome last hosted an event, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving Houston’s most famous building hopes to finally develop a renovation plan that will actually come to fruition. The nonprofit Astrodome … Continue reading

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Giving a hand to music venues

This is a good idea. Qualifying Texas music venues could get up to $100,000 each in tax rebates on alcohol sales under legislation that has passed the House and Senate and now is on its way to Gov. Greg Abbott … Continue reading

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River Oaks Theater closes down

Officially gone. The first film ever shown at the River Oaks Theatre was “Bachelor Mother” in 1939 starring Ginger Rogers and David Niven. The last film, it seems, will be the Oscar-nominated “Nomadland” starring Frances McDormand. When credits rolled after … Continue reading

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RIP, River Oaks Theater

It was nice while it lasted, but we don’t get to enjoy things like that for very long in Houston. After an 82-year run, Houston’s historic River Oaks Theatre is preparing to close. The lease between Los Angeles-based Landmark Theatres, … Continue reading

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Astrodome renovation officially on hold

Not a surprise, given everything that is going on right now. The COVID-19 pandemic upended most aspects of normal life, but this year has clutched dearly to one bit of normalcy for Houston residents: inaction on the Astrodome. For 12 … Continue reading

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Preserving Texas’ film history

Cool story. Click play on the grainy, black-and-white image titled simply “Houston Time Service” on the website of the Texas Archive of the Moving Image and you’re treated to a 110-second Houston love story. The film, from the 1940s, is … Continue reading

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Independence Heights and I-45

Sometimes, with everything else that’s going on in the world, I forget that the I-45 expansion is still out there, looming like a battleship in the harbor. But there it is, and we can’t not worry about it. For Tanya … Continue reading

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The timeline for the Astrodome

Work will get started after the Rodeo. According to Ryan Walsh, executive director of the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation and NRG Park, the final phase of asbestos abatement is scheduled to get underway at the Dome next week … Continue reading

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That’s the Texas State Historical Astrodome to you, pal

It’s got a marker and everything. More than 56 years after ground was broken on what would become the world’s first domed stadium, the Astrodome is now a bonafide recorded Texas historic landmark. Installed on the stadium’s southwest end, a … Continue reading

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Another designation for the Astrodome

It’s quite the historic place. The famed Astrodome will be designated as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark — the highest honor the state can bestow on a historic structure. The marker will finally and officially tell the story of the … Continue reading

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County approves Astrodome plan

Like it or not, here it comes. Harris County Commissioners Court voted unanimously Tuesday to move forward with the final design and construction of a $105 million project to transform the cherished piece of Houston’s sporting history into what officials … Continue reading

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Freedmen’s Town may get UNESCO designation

That’s cool. For all the years the historic bricks of Freedmen’s Town in Fourth Ward were questioned, devalued and disturbed, a new international spotlight is bringing a renewed appreciation for the strenuous efforts to validate, treasure and preserve them. UNESCO … Continue reading

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“We must find a way to co-exist with the bayou ecosystem”

Offcite points to a way forward. We must find a way to co-exist with the bayou ecosystem, not get in its way. As Albert Pope, a professor at Rice Architecture, has pointed out in a series of proposals, most of Houston’s … Continue reading

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We don’t need another vote on the Astrodome

Not for this we don’t, anyway. Less than five months ago, the future of the Astrodome seemed to be more secure than it has been in the decades since it hosted its last Astros game, with Harris County commissioners moving … Continue reading

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Astrodome gains antiquities status

Nice. The aging behemoth billed as the Eighth Wonder of the World has joined the revered ranks of the Alamo and State Capitol as an honored historical site. Just days before a crowd of more than 70,000 files past for … Continue reading

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The history of the Chicken Ranch

Chron columnist and Texas historian Joe Holley writes about an attempt to put a marker by the site of the infamous Chicken Ranch. It’s been 43 years since KTRK-TV’s crusading consumer affairs reporter (“Slime in the ice machine!!”) rolled into … Continue reading

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Commissioners Court approves Astrodome parking plan

Here we go. Harris County commissioners approved the first piece of a $105 million plan to transform the stadium into part parking garage and part event space for things like concerts and trade shows. After years of indecision, advocates for … Continue reading

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The Astrodome parking proposal is about to get real

Here it comes. Harris County commissioners are poised to make their largest investment yet in the Astrodome’s future next week. They are slated to vote on the first piece of a $105 million plan to raise the ground level two … Continue reading

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Astrodome parking plan coming

Better get ready. Harris County officials on Friday unveiled a $105 million plan to raise the floor of the Astrodome and build two new levels of parking beneath it, the strongest signal yet that the county plans to maintain and … Continue reading

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Hey, look, it’s another Astrodome proposal

Meet A-Dome Park. A Houston architect is touting a new idea for the Astrodome’s overhaul, urging the county to avoid an indoor park concept and instead strip the structure down to its bones. The concept, dubbed “A-Dome Park,” is being … Continue reading

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Help a brick out

From Swamplot: AN INDIEGOGO PAGE has just been launched to crowdfund the removal and reuse of an unexpectedly large group of well-preserved 1930s bricks from thenow-under-deconstruction Yale St. bridge over White Oak Bayou. The group calling itself Friends of Houston’s Yale Bridge Bricks says the funds will be used … Continue reading

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Three I-45 updates

From The Highwayman: Texas Transportation Commission members on Thursday approved a $3.6 million contract with Main Lane Industries, based in Houston, to replace the entrance ramp from Allen Parkway to southbound I-45. The ramp, which whips drivers through a steep … Continue reading

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Revisiting the historic preservation ordinance

This sort of thing is always fun. Houstonians who live in historic districts, including the Old Sixth Ward, the Heights and the High First Ward, weighed in this week on proposed updates to the city’s rules that create areas preserved … Continue reading

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The Dome at 50

We still don’t know what to do with it. The late Judge Roy Hofheinz was a raconteur with a 57-inch waist and affinity for cigars and Diet Dr Pepper with Jack Daniels, a larger-than-life man who hatched the idea of … Continue reading

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ULI releases its Astrodome plan

Feast your eyes on what the Urban Land Institute has in mind for the Astrodome. A final assessment by a group focused on sparing the Astrodome from the wrecking ball sets the price tag of reusing the iconic stadium at … Continue reading

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2015 Mayoral manifesto: Quality of life and other issues

Preliminaries Transportation Public safety A few quick hits on topics that didn’t fit elsewhere. Making Houston affordable again Remember when Houston was an inexpensive place to live? If you haven’t been here at least a decade – more like two … Continue reading

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More on the ULI Astrodome plan

From Tory Gattis: This was not a presentation of, “well, if the all the stars line up you might be able to make this work.” The theme was more, “this is an absolutely incredible opportunity and you would be fools … Continue reading

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Urban Land Institute report on the Astrodome

Is this, at long last, The Plan for the Astrodome? The iconic, yet aging Astrodome is worth saving from the wrecking ball and could find new life as a massive indoor park and green space, a national land use group … Continue reading

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