Landmark designation begins for River Oaks, Alabama

The Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission voted yesterday to begin the landmark designation process for the River Oaks Shopping Center, River Oaks Theater and Alabama Theater/Bookstop, the three significant Art Deco structures that have been in the news since news broke last summer that Weingarten Realty Investors could be planning to demolish them to make way for new development. The move toward designating the buildings city landmarks comes without Weingarten's approval — the first time the HAHC has begun the landmark designation process on its own. "We feel if there's ever a time we should be bold and initiate designation ourselves, this is the time to do it," HAHC member Phoebe Tudor said.

According to Greater Houston Preservation Alliance, Weingarten will now be officially notified of the HAHC's decision, and a public hearing on the landmark proposal will be held in 30 days. At that time, the HAHC will vote on the measure again; if it's approved then, the city planning commission and City Council must also approve it in order for the buildings to be declared landmarks. As we noted Tuesday, though, city landmark designation won't keep the buildings from being demolished: Under Houston's preservation ordinance, property owners may demolish landmarks as long as they notify the HAHC and then sit through a 90-day waiting period. "I don't expect this to stop anything, even if these property are designated historic landmarks. [Weingarten] could still come to us with an application to demolish it. We can't deny that, they can still tear it (the River Oaks properties) down. This, unfortunately, is not going to save the center," HAHC Chairwoman Betty Chapman told the Chronicle. "We just feel like we need to make a statement that these are important buildings. The other statement is about how weak our preservation ordinance is."

In other River Oaks news, KTRK's Miya Shay wrote yesterday about a sketch City Councilman Peter Brown made showing how the River Oaks Theater could be saved from demolition. According to Shay, Weingarten met with Brown — who is an architect — to ask for help in figuring out how the theater could be spared the wrecking ball, and Brown came up with the idea of building a parking garage behind the theater and, perhaps, some kind of structure on top of it (his plan is sketched on the napkin at left). It's not that we doubt Brown's ability, but something about this just doesn't add up. Why would Weingarten, which we imagine has access to any number of other architects, need to have a private meeting with Brown so he could point out that a parking garage could be built behind the theater — especially considering that Weingarten CEO Drew Alexander has already said he doesn't expect the River Oaks Theater to be able to pay what will apparently be increased rent when its lease comes up for renewal? We can only imagine the Weingarten folks' reaction: Behind the building, you say? Ingenious! Now we don't have to tear these wonderful structures down and make ourselves look like money-hungry philistines after all! Yeah, sure.

Update: We hear Three Brothers Bakery, one of the tenants in the north section of the River Oaks Shopping Center — the section Weingarten has released redevelopment plans for — will be closing May 5.