We all seriously know the astrodome and colosseum are totally incomparable right? That's just flat silly. For so many reasons, not least of all is that it's physically fantastic looking, even half destroyed. The astrodome is the first of it's kind but as far as historical impact, that's about as close as it gets to the colosseum. The only way the astrodome is of value 1000 years from now is if it's the only sports stadium still standing in the United States and the major sports are long dead. Unlikely. It provides zero tourist interest and whatever it becomes, the venue itself will still provide zero tourist interest. If you made it the largest strip club in history, you'd get a lot of visitors, but .001% of them would be because it was the place Earl Campbell ran the football. Nobody outside of Houston cares about it at all. I grew up going to the Dome and have a lot of memories there but I don't need to see it to remember it. I'm not advocating tearing it down if it can actually be put to use, but I also wouldn't bat an eye if they did.
I'm gonna go way out on a limb here and say that the Colosseum was just slightly more culturally important to Ancient Roman civilization than the Astrodome was to 20th century American society.
And do what with it? For how much money? TBH, all you crying about the historical significance of it should basically be vouching for them to be keeping it INTACT, as a sports stadium, in its exact form.... If you really have that sort of sentiment about it. THAT is the historical significance of it... The first air-conditioned SPORTS STADIUM. The structure/skeleton is not the significant aspect. Turning it into a shell of itself, as a freaking PARKING GARAGE, adds absolutely no sentiment/nostalgia... And is in fact more embarrassing if you think about it. (Yeah, Houston decided to keep the Astrodome, turn it into a parking garage, and they paid $100 million to do so... You can't even make this **** up, it's so ludicrous). The county is treating it as a hollow structure... Since it's paid for, they want to do something with the concrete... It's like keeping a body on life support because it still has blood and makes urine. Its really not the same without the playing field, seats, and to be honest, FANS there. The Roman coliseum was not turned into a parking garage/convention space. It was left as a ruin. If you honestly believe the dome is on the same level... Then again, you should be wishing a similar fate. I'm sure your grandkids will take their kids to see the asbestos-encased rat droppings...
I'm sure Mrs. Bates had a lot of sentimental value to Norman, but..... Spoiler Seriously, I have a lot of great memories of the Astrodome but turning it into a parking garage isn't going to keep them alive. You didn't see the original Yankee Stadium turned into a parking garage....or Boston Garden....or Candlestick Park.....you get the idea...
It was an arena. How is all that different than the Astrodome? It just happens to be really old which gives it some significance. The fact that Astrodome is so hard to blow up should to be a testament to the engineering prowess put into that building.
Additionally, in 1000 years the ruins of the Galleria will be as culturally significant as the Egyptian Pyramids and the Summit/Compaq Center/Lakewood Church will be as revered as St Peter's Basilica.
Allright, let's squash this Roman Colosseum thing once and for all. Aesthetics Roman Colosseum - Work of art Astrodome - Boring post WW2 monolith Lifecycle Roman Colosseum - Actively used for nearly 1000 years Astrodome - Less than 50 years Upkeep Cost Roman Colosseum - Largely unknown but undoubtedly smaller due to the materials it is constructed from as well as the type of structure it is. Underwent one €25 million restoration project in its history (privately funded) in 2014 (work yet to be complete) Astrodome - ??? (probably a lot) Historical Significance Roman Colosseum - Deeply interwoven within much of human history (art, culture, architecture, religion) and one of the most powerful civilizations in its existence. A cornerstone for the identity of one of the largest nations on Earth. Astrodome - An architectural first in terms of a domed stadium, somebody mostly only Houstonians care about did something with a sportsball there once. Key to the identity and existence of a generation of baby boomers in Southeast Texas.
Great post... I'd also say that NASA and the space program means more for Houston on a national/world level than the Astrodome does.
Its still up and running... and far more tourists still go there than will ever go solely to the re-incarnation of the Astrodome parking garage. Check out the new exhibit with the fake shuttle on top of the 747.
It's not about sports. Has nothing to do with what the building was erected for. It's purely an engineering marvel. Stop using sports as its label. If you know nothing about the building other than it housed a sports team you're denying yourself some pretty terrific knowledge of engineering prowess. There's beauty in that steel. I wish the commish would stop with these indoor plans and let real engineers expose that beauty.
Its a marvel in the sense that it was able to house 45,000+ people, serve them food/drink (in never before done opulent-type suites), keep them comfortable in air-conditioned theater-like seats, have sofisiticated lighting and sound systems that allowed fans to attend night games/concerts, AND be erected tall enough so that major league players could hit fly balls as if they were playing under a night's sky. Skyscrapers are marvels too... so are a lot of airports. But they lose a sense of their architectural significance when you take away their purpose. The Astrodome was built to be an arena... that is where the marvel starts, and as soon as they try and turn it into something else, to me that's where it ends. But sure... to pay homage for the structure, they should keep a skeleton version of it.... or the pillars. Leaving it rotting, or gutting it further to make a parking garage, is not giving it the respect it supposedly deserves.
