Kipling St. cleaned up a bit by Peter Brown Kipling Street, just behind the Alabama Theater/Shopping Center, will be a little more flat this week. 2136 and 2140 Kipling (pictures) are set to be demolished, and the current owner of the two properties - built in 1925 and 1938 - is listed as at-large man #1, Peter Brown. While there are no apparent plans for the land, we assume that they will not be the...
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Results tagged “alabamatheater”
We were hoping that the nearly posthumous landmark designation and demolition-delaying rain spells might have given Weingarten Realty that last little bit of time to ruminate over their plans to demolish the River Oaks Shopping Center - unfortunately, according to Cherry Demolition, the bulldozers move in Tuesday to begin the demolition and make way for the big box anchor Barnes and Noble plus a four story parking garage. We were sad to see places like...
So, short of some kind of miracle — we're not sure exactly what kind, but we're thinking maybe a midnight ghostly visit to Weingarten Realty CEO Drew Alexander, a la A Christmas Carol — the north section of the River Oaks Shopping Center will be coming down in the next few days, to be replaced with a new retail strip anchored by a Barnes & Noble megastore. And in case you've forgotten, B&N's moving into...
...for demolitionToday, Houston City Council voted to designate the River Oaks Shopping Center, River Oaks Theater, Alabama Shopping Center, and Alabama Theater as historic landmarks, though it will not afford the structures any protection from Weingarten Realty's current and future decisions to demolish them. According to Historic Houston, there were three dissenting votes from council members Michael Berry (big surprise), Addie Wiseman (who tagged this measure last week), and Pam Holm. Save Our Landmarks invites...
Tuesday, August 7 at 2pm is the last chance for the public to speak about the pending historic landmark status of the River Oaks Shopping Center, River Oaks Theater, Alabama Shopping Center, and Alabama Theater in front of City Council. Members of the public must sign up to speak by 12pm Tuesday by calling the City Secretary Anna Russell (713-247-1840), and people who have already spoken to City Council on this issue may not do...
The city's Planning Commission on Thursday recommended landmark designation for the River Oaks Shopping Center and Alabama Theater/Bookstop, meaning the two structures are a step closer to preservation — or as close as Houston ever really gets to preservation, which is far enough away to be sure the city doesn't piss off any developers with deep pockets. As we noted when the landmark designation process began back in April, the next step in designation...
Save our Landmarks, one of the groups trying to save the River Oaks Shopping Center and Theater and the Alabama Theater/Bookstop, sent out an e-mail update about the River Oaks situation yesterday. Here's a overview of what's going on. Weingarten Realty Investors, which owns all three properties, on Monday began the process to get approval to demolish the curved section of the River Oaks center on the north side of West Gray — the portion...
In her column today, the Chronicle's Lisa Gray proposes a new idea to get the attention of Weingarten Realty Investors, the company that's planning to demolish the historic River Oaks Shopping Center, and of Barnes & Noble, which Weingarten is trying to lure into abandoning its Bookstop store in the Alabama Theater building in favor of a new megastore in the redeveloped River Oaks. The idea: Let's put our money where our mouths are. This...
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...
According to the Greater Houston preservation Alliance, the Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission might try to extend its preservation power in a new way: since 1995, the Commission has had the power to designate historic landmarks without owner consent, but has yet to do it. With the endangerment of the River Oaks Theater, River Oaks Shopping Center, and the Alabama Theater by Weingarten Realty Investors, the HAHC will discuss beginning the process of designating these...
Today, Preservation Texas named five Houston-area sites to its list of 2007's Most Endangered Places in the state: the River Oaks Shopping Center, River Oaks and Alabama theaters, the West Mansion in Clear Lake, the Capitan Theater in Pasadena and unprotected neighborhoods in Galveston. This year's list focuses on historic movie theaters, but all the sites made it for a reason — unfortunately: All of them are in imminent danger of being lost through demolition or neglect. We figured this would be a good time to introduce you to the local endangered sites you don't know about and update you on the ones you do:
Monday, November 6th, 7 p.m.: The star-filled tear-jerker Terms of Endearment, written by Larry McMurtry and James Brooks, and the drama-filled 1984 Cannes Film Festival winner Paris, Texas.
In today's Wall Street Journal, Thaddeus Herrick reports on the continued concern about the fate of several landmarks in Houston. This time, though, there is a solid statement about the developments:David Deason, vice president for development at Barnes & Noble, said the New York-based company intends to close the Bookstop in favor of a "state of the art" facility. But Mr. Deason said the fate of the landmarks is in the hands of Weingarten. The...
Now that everyone has had time to marvel at the thought of the River Oaks Shopping Center/theater (a couple of the few remaining art deco structures in this city) on the dark side of the wrecking ball, let Houstonist shift your attention several blocks away to the Alabama Theater. When Weingarten Realty and Pete Kaldis Realty teamed up in the early to mid-'80s to buy the property and adaptively re-use it, the theater, which was turned into a Bookstop, was refurbished so that it could serve as a store now with the capability of being converted back to a theater at a later point in time.
We've tried to think of something memorable to say in celebration of getting 10,000 signatures on our petition opposing the demolition of the River Oaks Shopping Center and the former Alabama Theater this afternoon, but all we can come up with is, "Wow." Thanks to everyone who has signed the petition and passed it around to friends, neighbors, concerned Houstonians and even people in other parts of the country who don't want to see architecturally and historically significant buildings get torn down to make way for big-box retail and high-rise residential projects. You guys rock.
Houstonist has never been much of one to mess with petitions, but we figured the possible demolition of the River Oaks Shopping Center (and the Alabama Theater) was as good a reason as any — better than most, in our book — to get started. So we're sponsoring a petition opposing Weingarten Realty Investors' plans to tear down the River Oaks center. If you missed the news this weekend, check out the Chronicle article. Here's...
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