Astrodome Tour

[Firefly]

A current tour of the Astrodome from the Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/news/gallery/Astrodome-tour-41244/photo-2774936.php. This is what you get with 2-3 million dollars of maintenance a year.

[pmoehrin]

What's this, a city failed to maintain a building that's not in use? No way. Next your going to tell me banks do the same thing to houses they foreclose on.

On a more serious note though I would give either convert the building, give it landmark status or tear it down within the next year. I'm leaning more towards the first and last options.

[ninersdd]

Now here's a stadium that really should turn into a parking lot .

[GriffinM6]

That's kind of sad. Either tear it down, or renovate it, so U of Houston could use it for football, and have a bigger stadium. This place could be put to good use, but the city and/or maintenance just won't take care of it.

[missouri tigers]

It's only barely a step down from Tropicana field in it's current condition

But in all seriousness, It is pretty sad.

[NEW.ERA]

That poor soul.

[DaytonBlue]

I've always hoped they would save it, but it looks like it's going to be beyond saving soon if it isn't already. Sad.

[dfwabel]

That's kind of sad. Either tear it down, or renovate it, so U of Houston could use it for football, and have a bigger stadium. This place could be put to good use, but the city and/or maintenance just won't take care of it.

University of Houston approved a the location for a new Robertson stadium on campus last week.

That location will cost much less than doing anything with the Reliant Astrodome site. Plus, the city and county still owe millions of the bonds used to renovate the place for the Oilers years ago.

From December's Governing Magazine:

?When you try to convert things, it often costs more money than knocking them down,? says architect Peter Eisenman, who designed the Arizona Cardinals football stadium outside of Phoenix. ?That kind of space is too problematic for other functions.?

As it stands, there are three choices under consideration, according to the Harris County Sports & Convention Corp., which is charged by the county with overseeing the Astrodome. Option one: Demolish the Astrodome and replace it with a plaza for $128 million. Option two: Turn the building into a venue that includes an exhibit hall and planetarium for $324 million. Option three: Build the exhibit hall and planetarium, plus a museum, conference center and some other amenities, for $588 million. All of the choices could be augmented with new parking facilities, transit centers and a hotel, which would add to the costs. The most expensive combination would cost nearly $1.4 billion. Each of those figures includes about $40 million the county still owes on debt it accrued making renovations to the facility in the 1980s at the request of the Houston Oilers, who have played in Tennessee for the last 15 years. All but the cheapest renovation options are actually more expensive than the price tag was for Minute Maid Park, the new home of the Astros.

At one point, the county came extremely close to solving the Astrodome problem. A group called the Astrodome Redevelopment Corp. was granted exclusive rights to negotiate a redevelopment deal, pitching a $450 million plan that included a 1,200-room convention hotel along with shopping, amusement park rides and something akin to San Antonio?s River Walk. ?Dome deal is likely weeks away,? the Houston Chronicle declared in a 2008 headline. But eventually it became clear that the developers couldn?t secure financing. ?We?ve seen so many hurdles,? says Willie Loston, who leads the Sports & Convention Corp. ?We thought we had some promising dialogues, and they?ve just fallen apart.?

[Firefly]

U of H is already getting a new stadium in the same footprint of their current stadium. There was talk about the Dynamo using it but that would have cost the city/county $100+ million as opposed to the $30 the city/county used on BBVA Stadium. In fact, the reason that the Dome isn't torn down, according to the County Commissioner, is that it would cost somewhere around $128 million.

As for any other use, well, it is stuck in the middle of Reliant park. That means sharing parking lots with the Texans, Rodeo, concerts, monster truck shows, etc. It does have direct access to the Metrorail line.

I imagine it'll stay in disrepair until a hurricane caves in the roof or there's a fire.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

A current tour of the Astrodome from the Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/news/gallery/Astrodome-tour-41244/photo-2774936.php. This is what you get with 2-3 million dollars of maintenance a year.

I've been staring at that photo a good long while trying to wrap my head around the perspective. I gather it's from the press or a luxury box (did the latter even exist then?), but it also looks like someone shrunk a scale version of the warped Astrodome into their living room.

[pmoehrin]

A current tour of the Astrodome from the Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com...to-2774936.php. This is what you get with 2-3 million dollars of maintenance a year.

I've been staring at that photo a good long while trying to wrap my head around the perspective. I gather it's from the press or a luxury box (did the latter even exist then?), but it also looks like someone shrunk a scale version of the warped Astrodome into their living room.

My guess would be the narrow second deck of the outfield as seen in this shot. Although on closer look it could be the same deck from behind home plate.

[NJTank]

U of H is already getting a new stadium in the same footprint of their current stadium. There was talk about the Dynamo using it but that would have cost the city/county $100+ million as opposed to the $30 the city/county used on BBVA Stadium. In fact, the reason that the Dome isn't torn down, according to the County Commissioner, is that it would cost somewhere around $128 million.

As for any other use, well, it is stuck in the middle of Reliant park. That means sharing parking lots with the Texans, Rodeo, concerts, monster truck shows, etc. It does have direct access to the Metrorail line.

I imagine it'll stay in disrepair until a hurricane caves in the roof or there's a fire.

That looks like Nassau Coliseum

[ElwoodCuse]

A current tour of the Astrodome from the Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/news/gallery/Astrodome-tour-41244/photo-2774936.php. This is what you get with 2-3 million dollars of maintenance a year.

I've been staring at that photo a good long while trying to wrap my head around the perspective. I gather it's from the press or a luxury box (did the latter even exist then?), but it also looks like someone shrunk a scale version of the warped Astrodome into their living room.

this is exactly how the playing surface looked from the end seats at Mellon Arena too

[Norva]

A current tour of the Astrodome from the Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/news/gallery/Astrodome-tour-41244/photo-2774936.php. This is what you get with 2-3 million dollars of maintenance a year.

I've been staring at that photo a good long while trying to wrap my head around the perspective. I gather it's from the press or a luxury box (did the latter even exist then?), but it also looks like someone shrunk a scale version of the warped Astrodome into their living room.

From the link above; View from a luxury suite in the Reliant Astrodome Tuesday, April 3, 2012, in Houston. ( Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle ) (Melissa Phillip / Houston Chronicle) / HC

[RedSox44]

I always had an inexplicable love affair with the Astrodome. This hurts.

[Lee.]

As one who took the Astrodome tour a couple or three times as a youth, this really hurts. I still remember the tour guide bragging about how they paid A MILLION DOLLARS for their scoreboard system, and how it was a big deal back in the day.

A damned shame.

[pmoehrin]

I know they've talked about giving it landmark status but right now the building is a white elephant and if they just give it landmark status without a tenant or a use it will continue to be a white elephant.

I think the building has to be torn down. Its been a decade already since the last time it had a full time tenant and so far nothing in terms of finding another use for it. The luxury hotel idea went down as did the movie studio idea.

I don't know the Houston area that will, but I don't see any real major shopping mall in the area, so I would probably go with that option. Then again there may be a reason for that fact that I'm not aware of, or I'm missing a mall so it may or may not even be feasable for that. But just looking at the map I don't see a whole lot to do in that area and I think there's alot of potential, so the fact that they can't find some use for the building I think is pretty sad.

[bosrs1]

I know it'll cost them 128 million to demo it, but for the love of God do it. This is like letting a sick/dying animal live too long rather that putting it down. What boggles my mind is that this "wonder of the world" that's biggest contribution to sport were the abortions known as Astroturf and the dome, is still hanging on but a landmark like Tiger Stadium was demolished despite a fight to keep it.

[dfwabel]

I know they've talked about giving it landmark status but right now the building is a white elephant and if they just give it landmark status without a tenant or a use it will continue to be a white elephant.

I think the building has to be torn down. Its been a decade already since the last time it had a full time tenant and so far nothing in terms of finding another use for it. The luxury hotel idea went down as did the movie studio idea.

I don't know the Houston area that will, but I don't see any real major shopping mall in the area, so I would probably go with that option. Then again there may be a reason for that fact that I'm not aware of, or I'm missing a mall so it may or may not even be feasable for that. But just looking at the map I don't see a whole lot to do in that area and I think there's alot of potential, so the fact that they can't find some use for the building I think is pretty sad.

In you are within the "inner loop', you shop at The Houston Galleria approx seven miles away. Plus most new retail space in greater Houston is for grocery.

Putting a retail in that location is as risky as Memphis officials turning The Pyramid into a Bass Pro Shop.

[pmoehrin]

I know they've talked about giving it landmark status but right now the building is a white elephant and if they just give it landmark status without a tenant or a use it will continue to be a white elephant.

I think the building has to be torn down. Its been a decade already since the last time it had a full time tenant and so far nothing in terms of finding another use for it. The luxury hotel idea went down as did the movie studio idea.

I don't know the Houston area that will, but I don't see any real major shopping mall in the area, so I would probably go with that option. Then again there may be a reason for that fact that I'm not aware of, or I'm missing a mall so it may or may not even be feasable for that. But just looking at the map I don't see a whole lot to do in that area and I think there's alot of potential, so the fact that they can't find some use for the building I think is pretty sad.

In you are within the "inner loop', you shop at The Houston Galleria approx seven miles away. Plus most new retail space in greater Houston is for grocery.

Putting a retail in that location is as risky as Memphis officials turning The Pyramid into a Bass Pro Shop.

The Bass Pro Shop thing is something at least. I've been to the one up in Foxboro. Felt like I was walking into heaven if god was Ted Nugent. I didn't buy a thing but it was a very nice store.

At it is a massively risky investment. The mall that was supposed to open six years ago in the Meadowlands has alerady put two companies into bankruptcy and still has no definite date of completion. But what else are you going to do? There's very few industries that could use space of that size.

But ok somebody else saw what I did which was Houston is probably underdeveloped for retail space. So why didn't somebody get on the phone with this guy Ed Wulfe before he started his project? If they did and he said no, fine, but if nobody bothered to even contact him that is huge mistake.