Hakeem Olajuwon Launches New Showcase Clothing Store in Former NASA Moon Institute

http://swamplot.com/hakeem-olajuwon...ore-in-former-nasa-moon-institute/2012-12-21/

FORMER HOUSTON ROCKET Hakeem Olajuwon quietly opened the doors this past week of a brand-new flagship store for his new clothing line, DR34M. It’s conveniently located just off NASA Pkwy., inside a mansion built during the Depression by a Texas oilman — used later for more than 20 years by NASA for its Lunar and Planetary Institute.
The 17,000-sq.-ft. Italianate mansion by the Clear Lake shore was completed in 1930 by Houston city hall architect Joseph Finger for Jim West, whose family sold it to Humble Oil when he died in 1941. Since then, it has been owned by the Pappas restaurant family and Rice University. And in 1969, during the Apollo missions, the nearby Johnson Space Center moved its moon unit here; it stayed until 1991.
Olajuwon, who has made a lot of investments in Houston-area real estate since his 2002 retirement from the NBA, bought the West Mansion in 2006. He had plans to subdivide the sprawling 41-acre estate to sell off to developers, according to news reports. Later reports indicated the mansion would be razed, or that a retirement village would be built around it. But since early this year, workers have been making extensive renovations to the building, inside and out:
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Vacant rooms that once held research equipment have been turned into museum-like exhibits displaying pieces from the DR34M lines. (The name is a jumble of Olajuwon’s jersey number and nickname.) His DR34M Shake Athletic Wear has its own room:



Elsewhere are rooms for a second signature line, Peachbasket Sportswear, a name that hearkens basketball’s humble origins in cold gymnasia:



And for both men’s and women’s formal wear:





Shopping visits to Olajuwon’s new spread at 3300 E. NASA Pkwy. are now available by appointment only, Mondays through Saturdays.

 

Hakeem getting some hate in the comments because metro overpaid him for some land