The Astrodome debacle (Pasadena: to move, light rail, oil)

[HouTXmetro]

Originally Posted by annie_himself

I'm all for blowing it up. It doesn't hold any sentimental value to me.
What do you both think it should be? If you suggest it stay up, you should at least have an idea.

This has been debated verbatim on this forum.

https://www.city-data.com/forum/houst...bring-tax.html
https://www.city-data.com/forum/houst...nally-get.html
https://www.city-data.com/forum/houst...st-indoor.html

[BaoWow77007]

Turn the Astrodome into an indoor recreation amusement park. Build something like this inside the Astrodome but scale down to 200ft. max height with: snow lift, indoor white water kayaking, 200 ft rock climbing wall, half pipe for snow boarding, indoor sky diving, florider surfing, ice skating rink, and etc..



http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...ed=0CCsQ9QEwBQ

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by HouTXmetro

Speak for yourself sir. I don't think the Dome is an Eyesore.

I agree. Plus many stations just slap on a facade so that the side facing the street is presentable.

The Hauptbahnhof in Zurick looks pretty from certain angles but it looks like an industrial mess from others.

This is what it looks like from the front:



Here is another angle:



both images are public use images from wiki.

Houston is a modern city so I don't think the facade would be so stately looking, but they can do a modern facade that is appealing.

The Hauptbahnhof in Berlin is more Houston's speed.

pic from wiki commons
It would look more in line with Reliant

Houston could totally steal the spaceship motif to keep in like with the spacecity image:

wiki commons pic.


Manchester in England went the opposite route. They turned an old train station into an exhibition center. They also attached an Arena to their Victoria station. Its position on the rail allowed it to be one of the top two busiest arenas in the world selling twice as many tickets as Madison Square Garden and four times as many as Cynthia Woods. And this is Manchester, not London. I like how they reuse and re-purpose things in Europe. The Only Arena surpassing the Manchester one was the O2.

Like The Astrodome the O2 stayed empty for awhile.
Like The Astrodome it cost tax payers millions to maintain empty

But look at it now. Its the Busiest concert venue in the WORLD!!!!!!!

Would be nice to have a concert venue on top of a rail station, in the heart of the city, instead of having to drive 30 miles to the north

[HouTXmetro]

H-TownLove, anyway we can get to those County Commissioners meetings and give them a kick in the rear? lol

[txstate]

national historic site...worlds first dome there are thousand uses of it.

[Dopo]

Htownlove,
thanks for the comment


Here's another idea for the "eyesore"

[crone]

What does it cost to air condition that place?

They were able to redo and use the old train stations because the track was there. St. Louis did it, too. DH took the train from St. Louis to Kansas City all the time. It was easier than flying.

[stoneclaw]

Originally Posted by kttx

I believe a complete demolition is in-order. You don't convert you're old car into a new car, why not make it the same with stadiums. Turn it into a courtyard/pep-rally spot for Reliant Stadium.

I like the idea to turn into a planetarium but I think that basically nobody thought that through completely. The roof is way too tall and unusable to make it into a regular space-themed museum and it would be absolutely ridiculous to just plate the roof and add telescopes inside. It would be a giant playground with walls not reaching the top. And besides, the maintenance cost would remain just as high.

I think someone just sat down and thought "dome" and related it to "space". Completely ridiculous idea.

Although the second part of your post started to make some half-sense, I have to completely disagree with your 1st paragraph. It's that type of thinking that has plagued cities like Houston and Dallas for years. They don't preserve their history like San Antonio, they just tear it down and build something new.

It is frustrating to see the Astrodome just sitting there unutilized. But as someone said, there's crooked politics going on. Dirty politicians are making plenty of money conducting surveys and polls from ideas on what to do with the Astrodome. As long as they can continue doing this, there will be no immediate plans to reinvigorate life into the dome.

[HtownLove]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Htownlove,
thanks for the comment


Here's another idea for the "eyesore"

ohhh that looks fun

Originally Posted by HouTXmetro

H-TownLove, anyway we can get to those County Commissioners meetings and give them a kick in the rear? lol

that sounds like fun too

[ToyYot]

Originally Posted by HtownLove

I agree. Plus many stations just slap on a facade so that the side facing the street is presentable.

The Hauptbahnhof in Zurick looks pretty from certain angles but it looks like an industrial mess from others.

Houston is a modern city so I don't think the facade would be so stately looking, but they can do a modern facade that is appealing.

So your saying its not an eyesore but lets put up a facade so people won't see how ugly it is. You're going to need a lot of lipstick for that pig!