I always find it interesting when someone accuses someone of ignorance without knowing their background or when clearly they themselves are lacking in key information. My field is architecture with a background in both architectural history and structural engineering. From that I can tell you that the Astrodome is one of the most significant structures of the 20th Century. Structurally it is more significant than the Roman Coliseum given that it was a revolutionary concept to do a Lamella dome of interconnected trusses in that way. Where did I say to let it rot away? Also the Italian government is spending tens of millions to restore and renovate the Coliseum. http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/colosseum-restoration-italy
Isn't the roof basically the same as the Superdome? How much would it cost to just paint it or something before the super bowl? It looks horrible and no one is mentioning a cosmetic redo.
Actually the Coliseum wasn't just left as a ruin nor was it only used as either a sports stadium or culturally significant ruin. During the Medieval times it was used a church, cemetery and in it's concourses housing, stores and workshops. The Astrodome doesn't just have to be left as either a sports stadium or nothing else. Many significant structures have been preserved and adapted to other uses.
Many current monuments had original practical purposes before switching to different uses, including tourism. Dual, triple, etc... use is also very common. No reason the dome can't serve many in different ways. -edit- One thing that hurts Houston is we do have architectural/historical "monuments" but many of them are NOT in Houston. JSC, SanJac, Hartman Bridge, etc... The ones we do have, Waterwall, Herman, etc... are kinda spread out. I guess that's just Houston in general.
Being the pioneer for domed stadiums, a type of stadium that is still being built currently, says otherwise. Blame the Oilers and Astros for not winning anything during its main usage. NASA and the space program has more worldwide significance than The Colosseum.
But its purpose was as a sports stadium... far less in cultural significance and duration when compared to the Coliseum. Its also now been replicated/duplicated ad-naseum.. to the point where it would now be considered out-dated to build a sports stadium or arena that mirrors the Astrodome. Yes, it was the first of its kind... deserves some sort of method to pay homage to that... does not deserve to be repurposed as a useless parking garage simply because the concrete and roof haven't fully rotted away (yet).
The Astrodome cannot survive on a legacy of being an engineering marvel/first-of-its-kind. Very few things do. If we wanted the Astrodome to survive, we wouldn't have voted for Minute Maid or NRG to be built.
Says most people who have no earthly idea what to do with it... Again, if it needs to be preserved... then it should be preserved for it's original intended purpose. Anything else is a sham being cooked up by crooked county officials.... who happily have been gutting anything historically significant that it harbors, and selling it for whatever they can get for it. And again, it isn't even the most historically significant entity in Houston, let alone comparable to the freakin roman coliseum.
It may be an engineering marvel/first-of-its-kind, but the fact is that no one outside of Houston gives a crap about it. Certainly not as much as the Roman Colosseum....
There's plenty of people IN Houston with absolutely no emotional or nostalgic attachment to it either... and that list grows with each and every year it sits there, unused/uninhabitable.
This is a snapshot of what made the Astrodome revolutionary and peaked the interest of the nation/world. It was housing aspects/ideas that had never before been considered in the history of sports arenas. (let alone providing an air-conditioned venue to escape the impossible Houston summers). It did usher in the era of sports facilities being catered for money-making and corporate clientele. It deserves a far better fate than a NON-air-conditioned parking lot that wouldn't even have a view of the roof!
This short sided thinking is one of the reasons Houston is devoid of architectural history. NRG was primarily built for football but is used for concerts, rodeo, etc... McAllen Pubic Library was an abandoned Walmart that was re-purposed into an award winning, largest single story library in the country. You've seen in this thread the converted WW2 hanger into a water park. In Germany, they turned a planned nuclear plant into theme park!!! Including a ride inside one of the cooling towers!!! There was an old peanut factory in France that was recently converted to a skate park. In Belgium an old Coca Cola factory was turned into City Hall/Public Works offices, including employee amenities like day care, cafetieres, gyms, etc... the closeness of the different public works departments has helped the management as well. Closer to home, Rice Hotel is now Lofts. Many, many examples, I could go on. Astrodome has value on many different fronts.
Only a moron would park their car in an Astrodome garage. I'd rather deal with the nasty seats on the metro rail before going though a post game hell that would be.
Summit is now a church. If there was a viable public/private use for the Astrodome it would have happened in the last 15 years. A big problem is the access due to NRG being a fenced off restricted entry facility.
Houston is a relatively young city that is plagued by urban sprawl moreso than any other major city in the nation (thanks to there being virtually nothing established in the surrounding area preventing the expansion). You can blame that (and the lack of central transport) more as a reason why nothing within the city either gets preserved or has any solid roots. So name something it should be used for... besides a freaking parking garage that would cost over $100 million. That is the discussion at hand. And I'm sure the city of Houston would be really interested in an old peanut factory skate park!
I don't know, man. It all depends on what level you get to park on and if the hotdog stands are open!
How about turning it into a bar/club/hotel. It'd be the place to go after events at Reliant. You could get ****faced and just stay the night.
By far the best idea has been to strip off the walls, keep the dome, and create shaded green space/park that can be used for outdoor concerts, recreation, etc. This preserves one of Houston's few historical landmarks, gives it an ongoing purpose, and honors the original innovation that was the Astrodome.
