Something other than turning it into a parking lot, please.
Still cheaper to renovate than the real thing
Whatever we do with the former Astrodome location should bolster Reliant Stadium’s capability to host events and make the overall complex a more attractive location during bidding processes.
For inspiration, county officials should look north along the light rail line to downtown’s Discovery Green. During the NBA All-Star Game, that urban park hosted media events and fan spectacles that helped make the weekend such a success. And George R. Brown conventioneers are a common sight at Discovery Green’s grassy fields. If Reliant hosts a convention, or the Summer X Games, or a Super Bowl, fans and media folk could use a go-to gathering place that is more than a temporary installation on a concrete field that seems to stretch to the horizon.
A post-Dome park could even implement parts of the once-great stadium in its design – bleachers as park benches, a few spots of classic AstroTurf, some remaining interlaced concrete facade as a sunshade. A University of Houston graduate student in architecture has even proposed a plan to strip the Dome down to its skeleton and let the metal husk stand over a park like a Houston-style Eiffel Tower.
See here for more about that UH student’s suggestion. I like the idea of a park, but I’m not sure how much use it would get being located between Reliant Stadium and Loop 610. I guess you could say the same kind of thing about Memorial Park, and that’s worked out pretty well for us. Just don’t rush Commissioners Court, they’ll get to it when they get to it.