It was a terrible decision to put Reliant in the same space. It is all in the crummiest part of town. Nobody willingly goes there other than to go to the rodeo or to a Texans game. If they had built Reliant out on the west side somewhere, more to the population center of the region, the Rodeo could have maybe done something with the Astrodome, or Reliant could have been designed with more similarity to the Dome, something.. either way, nobody would have ever cared about the 'old dome' if they had made the new one with some echoes of the classic. For the people saying 'build a park'.. seriously? Who would GO there? A park? We have parks everywhere. I would literally have to drive PAST about a hundred parks to get to THAT park. I would not EVER go there. I'm sorry if some of you live right there, but that part of the city is a dreadful dump, and pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into that thing, AND an ongoing commitment to keep spending on it in perpetuity.. no. Just no. Let it go. A convention center? Ok, well, let private money do that. I don't want to spend a dime on another thing in Houston I will never ever use. We have pictures of it. We know what it was like when it was cool, when it truly was the 8th Wonder of the World. But regardless of the fact that the corpse is still there, the soul is gone. It's nothing but a dead rotting body. Move on.
It's not just here, it's everywhere, but people are just turning into dicks at an unbelievable pace. The lack of common courtesy I see on an everyday basis astounds and saddens me.
Yeah, well I'll see you in HELL. But seriously, I was for keeping it until someone mentioned the Summit being turned into Lakewood Church. Does anyone drive down 59, see that place, and still associate it with the Rockets? I know I don't.
I got this comment in rep. Not at all. Just stating facts. The Dome hasn't been on Houston's radar since Bud stole the Oilers. That's going on 20 years, and it's not realistic to expect people who weren't living here during the Luv Ya Blue era to care about the Dome, nor should they be expected to. And, yes, converting the Dome to a soccer stadium would have been a way of connecting the older Whiter generation to the younger Hispanic generation. I'm honestly surprised that idea was never floated. I think it could have worked.
As I've said before, I went to Colt 45's games in the temporary stadium when the Dome was a gigantic hole in the ground. That place holds an enormous number of good memories for me, and it is one of the things that put Houston on the map back then. Not just in the States, but around the world. Look, this is a reflection of the utter disregard that Houston typically has for its history. I have seen so much destroyed without a blink, and not just historic buildings and neighborhoods, but simply good, ordinary neighborhoods ruined because Houston doesn't have zoning, and the lack of zoning is a direct reflection on how little far to many Houstonians care about a great city's past, and its present.
Turning it into a soccer stadium was discussed. Before the Dynamo moved here they looked into potential stadium locations and the Astrodome was one of them. After inspecting it and bringing in architects to see what would have to be done to make it work they decided it would be too expensive.
It would be an enormous help. The question would center around just how good those "teeth" are. In Austin, we have both zoning and a commission, and after living here for 33 years, I've seen historical buildings torn down because the commission, in my opinion, allowed itself to be influenced by the city council (which can grant waivers), which allowed itself to be influenced by business interests with their eyes on that particular property, and who had deep pockets. And this is in Austin, where both zoning and the historical commission have had a powerfully positive impact on the city. It is all in the details, as you allude to.
The summit is a basketball stadium. It has no real significance. The Astrodome was an architectural achievement at the time. It was something no one had done before and it took some actual engineering and foresight to build. Even with all the history Yankee stadium has I don't the it has the architectural significance from a historical sense. Did you know the Eiffel tower was supposed to be torn down after 20 years? If it were in Houston Texas there would be no Eiffel tower.
A really dumb bill to save the dome attracted more people opposed to it than for it. I firmly believe that if it were put to a vote, 'demo or no demo', no demo would absolutely slaughter demo. A lot of people, I'd say at minimum 10% of the 57% who voted against prop 2, actually don't want to raze the dome, they just think the convention center was impractical. As Bandwagoner alluded to, the cost to raze the dome will be pretty staggering, as you'll have to pay for not only the demo, but also pay off the outstanding bonds.
Good point...the Summit was never iconic. It doesn't resonate around the world the way the Astrodome does, connecting a city with a specific structure. I'm disappointed, but really interested to hear what the next step is...and how those steps get approved or carried out otherwise.
No kidding, right? The level of bile being spewed is pretty ridiculous. People take this stuff way too personally. Reeko hit it on the head, the Astrodome is the architectural version of Teri Schiavo.
He could buy it up and paint the ceiling and call it the christdome. The Sistine Chapel would have nothing on us.
I don't believe in saving any facility that no one can seem to find a use for and is just gathering cobwebs. True...it was an architectural gem back in the day. But, I think the lamest excuse for saving it is to just brand it as now it will be a convention center. It's not like Houston is lacking a convention center. If they couldn't find anything better to do with it, then tear it down. Build a miniature version and put it in a museum while claiming this was once an architectural gem and among the 8 wonders of the world. Whoopy freaking doo. I have as many memories in that stadium as the next person growing up in Houston and attending many events there. But, I'm not for saving it just for the sake of saving it because it was once an architectural gem and the only thing one could find to do with it nowadays is make it a convention center. Buh bye, Dome.
The problem is that parody doesn't work when discussing religion. You are probably being sarcastic, but the truth is that turning the Dome into a mega church would shock absolutely no one in America. No one.
