observationcafe
Notsuoh Photography |
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Sat, Aug. 12th, 2006 11:41 am
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Preservationists in Houston say the city’s most endangered building is the former Alabama Theater, which reopened as a bookstore in 1984.
The River Oaks Theater, built in 1939, is still showing movies, but demolition rumors have stirred an uproar.
August 12, 2006
Fighting the Wrecking Ball to Save Houston Landmarks
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
HOUSTON, Aug. 11 — This fast-spreading metropolis of see-through skyscrapers, clogged freeways and antipathy to zoning has long worn its boomtown history lightly, freely consigning cherished landmarks to the wrecking ball.
Though only New York, Los Angeles and Chicago have more people, and it covers more acreage than Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Detroit combined, Houston has one of the nation’s weakest urban preservation statutes. Any owner wishing to demolish a landmark must only give notice to the city and allow 90 days for discussion. After that it can be torn down.
But with a rallying cry of Alamo-like fervor — “Remember the Shamrock Hotel!” — many Houstonians are now drawing a rare line in the sand in defense of some particularly beloved architectural treasures threatened with demolition.
The sites at risk include Houston’s two oldest movie theaters, the River Oaks and the Alabama, both dating from 1939, and the 1937 Art Moderne River Oaks shopping center, which is the oldest in Texas and the second-oldest in the nation. The streamlined black-and-white mall has been a “veritable icon,” said Stephen Fox, adjunct professor of architecture at Rice University and one of Houston’s leading architectural authorities, at a City Council hearing last week.
( Read More... )
N.Y. Times  
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observationcafe
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Sat, Aug. 12th, 2006 11:40 am
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The theater's marquee advertises a 1939 movie plus short features in this historic photograph.
Bob Bailey Studios: COLLECTION OF LOVITA IRBY
July 28, 2006, 12:43AM
Battle to save River Oaks center
Public outcry rises over fears that the historical theater and shops will be torn down
By LISA GRAY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Fear that the River Oaks Shopping Center, including its much-loved movie theater, might be demolished has fueled grass-roots interest in historic preservation — a surprising development in a city where many architectural landmarks have fallen without a fight.
In less than a week, an online petition sponsored by the Web site Houstonist.com has attracted more than 13,700 signers.
At Historic Houston's Web site, more than 4,000 individuals have registered to receive e-mail updates about the River Oaks Shopping Center and the Landmark River Oaks Theatre.
City Councilwoman Ada Edwards, whose District D includes the shopping center, said more than 100 letters and e-mail messages have flooded into her office — none of them form letters. She and other council members hope to persuade Houston-based Weingarten Realty Investors to change its plans.
"We're going to fight to find a balance between historic preservation and development," Edwards said.
( Read More... )
Houston Chronicle
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observationcafe
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Sat, Aug. 12th, 2006 07:44 am
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Isle port riding a wave of success
By Greg Barr
The Daily News
Published August 4, 2006
While “We’re No. 1” may be the universal rallying cry of success, Port of Galveston officials are thrilled with the idea of being No. 11.
In its annual ranking of cruise ports, industry trade publication Lloyds Cruise International has moved Galveston up one notch closer to being among the top 10 worldwide.
In North American rankings, Galveston is No. 5, while perennial cruise industry leader Miami remains No. 1, the same ranking it retained in the world. Galveston is also now the industry’s top Gulf of Mexico homeport for Caribbean operations.
The announcement was made by Port Director Steve Cernak on Thursday at a luncheon aboard the Carnival Cruise Lines’ ship Ecstasy, a few hours before the vessel set sail for another cruise.
This year, 600,000 passengers will come through Galveston’s two cruise terminals, showing continued strong growth from 2005, when 532,000 passengers strode through the turnstiles. Cruise operation revenue now accounts for about 40 percent of total port revenue.
( Read More... )
Galveston Daily News
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observationcafe
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Fri, Aug. 11th, 2006 11:44 am
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The artists of Otabenga Jones & Associates -- Dawolu Jabari Anderson, from left, Kenya Evans, Jamal Cyrus and Robert Pruitt -- gather around a man the group identifies as "Otabenga Jones."
Otabenga Jones & Associates
A piece from Symmetrical Patterns of Def, the group's first collective show at the Lawndale Art Center.
otabenga jones & associates
Dawolu Jabari Anderson's Cheating Chief Wahoo.
otabenga jones & associates
A painting from Symmetrical Patterns of Def.
Otabenga Jones and Associates
The group's Exploring the Outer Reaches of the Garden of Pro-Black Sanctuary was featured at the Whitney Biennial in New York.
Otabenga Jones and Associates
A photograph by Jamal Cyrus from The Art of Subversion.
Otabenga Jones & Associates
Robert Pruitt's New Kiddz in tha Hood won first prize at the Lawndale Art Center's Big Show in 2004.
Otabenga Jones & Associates
July 21, 2006, 1:34PM
Our story. Our vision. Our purpose.
Proactive and provocative, the artwork of Houston-based Otabenga Jones & Associates seeps into the mainstream art world
By BILL DAVENPORT
For The Chronicle
An overturned police car, a graffiti mural drawn on the wall in Magic Marker, bootleg mix tapes for sale from the trunk of a plywood Cadillac. How you react to the work of the Houston-based art collective Otabenga Jones & Associates depends strongly on who you are -- black or white, rich or poor, old or young. Everyone takes the provocative works personally. They force you to take sides.
The group takes its name from Ota Benga, a displaced African pygmy who was exhibited at the Bronx Zoo in 1906. Like the original Ota Benga, Otabenga Jones has been on display in New York, too: The group and the four artists individually were selected for this spring's Whitney Biennial, the tip-top national showcase for American artists. But there's a key difference, says Robert Pruitt, the group's de facto spokesman: "We control what they're gawking at."
( Read More... )
Houston Chronicle
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observationcafe
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Sun, Jul. 23rd, 2006 11:48 am
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What the German archeologists found in an ancient cave.
Hot times in the Ice Age
Last year German archeologists found the 14th piece to a jumble of 13 fragments of siltstone, leading them to reassemble one of the earliest representations of male sexuality — and possibly the world’s first dildo. It is dated at roughly 28,000 years, and considering the trouble I have getting dated at a mere 44, I congratulate it.
I might have better luck if I had a rock-solid 8 inches, as this thing has, but then, mine has never shattered into 14 pieces. Of course, no one has ever used mine to shape flints with, as certain markings on this one indicate, and gods help them if they do.
( Read More... )
Houston Voice
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observationcafe
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Sat, Jul. 22nd, 2006 07:02 pm
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Opened in 1939, the Landmark River Oaks
Theatre is Houston's oldest functioning movie theater.
Shopping center tenants say a high-rise residential building
may replace it.
The Alabama movie theater
is seen in a photo in 1939, the
year it was built.
Today, the old Alabama movie theater houses the Bookstop.
July 22, 2006, 5:57AM
ENDANGERED LANDMARKS
Historic theater could soon fade into history
Tenants told of unconfirmed plan to raze portions of the River Oaks Shopping Center
By LISA GRAY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Three Houston landmarks, including the Landmark River Oaks Theatre and the Bookstop in the former Alabama Theater, have been declared endangered by the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance.
The alliance has learned, spokesman David Bush said Friday, that two buildings in the River Oaks Shopping Center could face demolition within two years.
The center is controlled by Weingarten Realty Investors, a Houston-based company that owns and manages about 300 retail properties in the southern United States.
A Weingarten spokeswoman would not confirm the company's plans for the shopping center.
"We don't have any official statement at this time," Amy Jones, Weingarten's director of marketing, said Friday. Other Weingarten officials did not return phone calls.
( Read More... )
Houston Chronicle
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