the location makes it tough for what you can do there, the convention space/ game day space made the most sense. turning it into a mall make sno sense theres malls everywhere why would people go to a mall/shopping center in the dome.. given its proximity to reliant it would have to be solely sports/convention related...
I don't think a mall is a great idea by any means, but they are definitely to everywhere. The only mall close to the city is the galleria.
Look at whats happening with Turner Stadium in Atlanta. At that rate, minute maid park will be outdated in 5 years.......enough time to set up the dome for the Astros again
This is speculation on my part but I suspect the price tag for demolition to the dome will be much higher than the $20-30 mil. estimate. From what I know of construction the asbestos and other toxins abatement will cost millions and the stadium will have to be carefully deconstructed to avoid damage to the surrounding structures. While the Reliant Stadium is built to withstand wind loads seismic loads are different matter. Given that Houston's soil is mostly swamp that could liquify under seismic conditions I highly doubt implosion is possible. The Dome structure itself is very strong and based on geodesic dome principle. That is one reason why it was revolutionary.
Since it looks like there isn't any plan to demolish the Astrodome over Thanksgiving week I took some time to come up with my own proposal for the Dome. In case they ever open again for proposals I might develop this further. Let me know what y'all think. Full Proposal http://c3homedesign.com/sishir/astrodome/Mixed Use Proposal for Renovation of the Astrodome.pdf
i think those circulating towers are already gone, well by sunday they will be. http://houston.culturemap.com/news/...ready-coming-down-only-11-days-to-demolition/
I figured they could be reused but as your article notes they weren't included in any renovation plans and aren't critical to what I am proposing.
I've actually been to Las Arenas rocketsjudoka and it was very nice. Had a fantastic view of the city. Didn't know it used to be a stadium.
The idea circulated that I liked the most was something akin to the Gaylord Hotel. A convention center hotel providing restaurants/bars/shopping, etc. Would seem to me that would make Super Bowl and NCAA bids more attractive with that right next to Reliant Stadium. Obviously it takes a private company with the vision to make that a reality; and it seems you'd need to inject some public funds to help offset the initial costs of retrofitting the building
That was why I included the hotel into my concept. When I was there last year for the Meineke Bowl a friend of mine stayed at the Quality Inn which was one of the closest hotels to the stadium and we still had to walk a ways to get to Reliant. It seems like a no brainer to me that an adjacent hotel complex would be a huge benefit to the Reliant Park Complex. The Astrodome though isn't well suited for a hotel though as there is too much interior space to exterior surface area so I figured that doing an exterior ring of hotel rooms would work. On the inside of the ring you could run a corridor like you seen in atrium hotel arrangements. Just doing a hotel ring though might not be enough of a revenue generator so I added more space for retail and / or office while still leaving enough space under the dome for atrium, convention or amusement park.
Never been to Barcelona but it is on my bucket list. More to see La Sagrada de Familia but would also love to see Las Arenas.
How do you get people to their rooms without them walking all over the place? How many rooms could your setup have?
Barcelona is an amazing place to visit, Judo. La Sagrada de Familia is as mindblowing in person as you've no doubt imagined it would be. When I was there last (it's been a while), they hadn't done that to Las Arenas, and it looks like that's worth a return visit by itself. Wow! Really like your idea for the Dome. If only!
If it's anything like the Gaylord Texan, you have enough things to do inside the complex itself that walking all over the place is half the fun.
In my proposal I figured there would be close to 400,000 SF of hotel space. I didn't list the number of possible rooms because depending on types of room you could have very different numbers. If we just presume one and two bedroom rooms those are about 15' in width. The Astrodome is roughly 700' in diameter so the perimeter is about 2,200'. Dividing that by 15 gives 147 rooms per level. Times that by the five levels is 735 rooms. The hotel ring would work with multiple access points so you wouldn't have to walk around the whole circumference to find your room. With putting in a couple of levels of commercial space in the middle the lobby could actually be close to the middle of the dome and then from there walk to the closest elevator lobby to your room. That way the furthest distance you walk is just about the radius of the dome rather than the circumference. For vertical transport I was thinking the existing towers could be saved and elevators with views of the outside put in them but it sounds like those are being torn down.
