Please help save two of Houston's landmarks!
8:48 PM - Current mood: depressed
If you didn't see the article in Saturday's Chronicle (shown below), tenants of the River Oaks Shopping Center on West Gray have been informed by the owner of the property that much of the property on the corner of West Gray and Shepherd will be raised in order to put in a high-rise residential building and, of all things, a Barnes and Noble.
They plan to demolish the entire center on both the south and north sides of Gray, including Black Eyed Pea, Three Brothers Bakery and, worst of all, River Oaks Theater, a Houston landmark.
To make matters worse, because Barnes and Noble owns Bookstop, many also fear they will eliminate the Bookstop inside the old Alabama Theater building on Shepherd and Alabama and demolish that as well. That Bookstop won awards for its unique preservation of the classic theater.
Losing the River Oaks Center and the River Oaks Theater is TOTALLY unacceptable. A petition drive has begun at the link below. Please visit the link, sign the petition and pass the information along to as many concerned people as possible. You can also get more information through the links below.
Thanks!
Petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/riveroaks/
Chronicle story: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/metropolitan/4064372
Please click on the link and search for River Oaks. This will lead you to the right petition.
July 22, 2006, 8:34AM
ENDANGERED LANDMARKSHistoric theater could soon fade into historyTenants told of unconfirmed plan to raze portions of the River Oaks Shopping CenterBy LISA GRAYCopyright 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.
The GHPA has repeatedly tried to discuss the buildings with Weingarten Realty but has been rebuffed, Bush said.
But a half-dozen tenants of the River Oaks Shopping Center told the Houston Chronicle that a Weingarten's leasing agent informed them of plans to raze parts of the historic shopping center.
The first domino to fall, they said, would be the River Oaks Shopping Center building at the northeast corner of Shepherd and West Gray. Erected in 1937, the curved art deco building is "of national significance," architecture historian Stephen Fox said.
Three Brothers Bakery co-owner Robert Jucker said that when he confronted the leasing agent about rumors the building was to be demolished, she confirmed them, and told him that it would remain standing through the end of this year. "But she wouldn't give me that in writing," he said.
The bakery, located for 17 years in the strip between the Black-Eyed Pea restaurant and Jos. A. Bank clothing store, is on a month-to-month lease, Jucker said.
A number of River Oaks Shopping Center tenants including owners of Archway Gallery, Chase's Closet and Laff Stop said that a Weingarten's leasing agent told them the Black-Eyed Pea building would be replaced with a multistory Barnes & Noble.
Archway is located near the River Oaks Theatre on the south side of West Gray. At a meeting with the gallery's owners in March, a Weingarten's leasing agent detailed the company's plans to tear down their entire building including the theater in early 2008, Archway co-owner Marsha Harris said.
Weingarten offered the gallery other accommodations until its lease runs out in December 2008, she said.
"They're proceeding apace," Harris said. "I think it's real stupid and short-sighted if they pull that theater down."
Harris and other tenants said their leasing agent described plans to erect a high-rise residential building in the theater's place possibly preserving part of the theater's exterior, but none of its art deco interior.
Opened in 1939, the River Oaks is Houston's oldest functioning movie theater.
Bill Banowsky, CEO of Landmark Theatres, wrote in an
e-mail that Landmark is "100 percent committed to the River Oaks Theatre," and that Landmark recently signed a lease extension. Landmark spokeswoman Melissa Raddatz would not say how long that lease lasts.
Celeste Williams, a lecturer at the University of Houston's Gerald D. Hines School of Architecture, has studied Houston's earliest movie theaters extensively, and notes that in many cities the historic buildings still function either as movie theaters or auditoriums.
"There aren't many buildings I'd lie down in front of bulldozers to save," she said. "The River Oaks theater is one of them."
In addition to the two segments of the River Oaks center, the preservation alliance placed the art deco Alabama Shepherd Shopping Center on its endangered list because of fears that Barnes & Noble would close the Bookstop if it built in River Oaks. Weingarten also controls The Alabama Center.
Responding to questions via e-mail, Barnes & Noble Inc. spokeswoman Carol Brown wrote that the company had "made no announcement of plans to build in the River Oaks Shopping Center." Brown wouldn't say whether such plans existed.
She also said the chain had no "immediate" plans to move from the Bookstop location.
In 1989, Bookstop won national attention for its creative preservation of the Alabama movie theater, built in 1939. Nine years later, Barnes & Noble bought the Bookstop chain.
Houston's historic preservation laws are among the weakest in the country, and the vast majority of the city's historic buildings can be destroyed without even a waiting period for public comment.
Preservationists have responded by mounting intelligence operations to ferret out plans to raze historic buildings.
Those "cloak-and-dagger operations," Bush said, "are sad, but it's what we've got to do if we're going to draw public attention before the bulldozers arrive."
lisa.gray@chron.com
If you didn't see the article in Saturday's Chronicle (shown below), tenants of the River Oaks Shopping Center on West Gray have been informed by the owner of the property that much of the property on the corner of West Gray and Shepherd will be raised in order to put in a high-rise residential building and, of all things, a Barnes and Noble.
They plan to demolish the entire center on both the south and north sides of Gray, including Black Eyed Pea, Three Brothers Bakery and, worst of all, River Oaks Theater, a Houston landmark.
To make matters worse, because Barnes and Noble owns Bookstop, many also fear they will eliminate the Bookstop inside the old Alabama Theater building on Shepherd and Alabama and demolish that as well. That Bookstop won awards for its unique preservation of the classic theater.
Losing the River Oaks Center and the River Oaks Theater is TOTALLY unacceptable. A petition drive has begun at the link below. Please visit the link, sign the petition and pass the information along to as many concerned people as possible. You can also get more information through the links below.
Thanks!
Petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/riveroaks/
Chronicle story: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/printstory.mpl/metropolitan/4064372
Please click on the link and search for River Oaks. This will lead you to the right petition.
July 22, 2006, 8:34AM
ENDANGERED LANDMARKSHistoric theater could soon fade into historyTenants told of unconfirmed plan to raze portions of the River Oaks Shopping CenterBy LISA GRAYCopyright 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.
The GHPA has repeatedly tried to discuss the buildings with Weingarten Realty but has been rebuffed, Bush said.
But a half-dozen tenants of the River Oaks Shopping Center told the Houston Chronicle that a Weingarten's leasing agent informed them of plans to raze parts of the historic shopping center.
The first domino to fall, they said, would be the River Oaks Shopping Center building at the northeast corner of Shepherd and West Gray. Erected in 1937, the curved art deco building is "of national significance," architecture historian Stephen Fox said.
Three Brothers Bakery co-owner Robert Jucker said that when he confronted the leasing agent about rumors the building was to be demolished, she confirmed them, and told him that it would remain standing through the end of this year. "But she wouldn't give me that in writing," he said.
The bakery, located for 17 years in the strip between the Black-Eyed Pea restaurant and Jos. A. Bank clothing store, is on a month-to-month lease, Jucker said.
A number of River Oaks Shopping Center tenants including owners of Archway Gallery, Chase's Closet and Laff Stop said that a Weingarten's leasing agent told them the Black-Eyed Pea building would be replaced with a multistory Barnes & Noble.
Archway is located near the River Oaks Theatre on the south side of West Gray. At a meeting with the gallery's owners in March, a Weingarten's leasing agent detailed the company's plans to tear down their entire building including the theater in early 2008, Archway co-owner Marsha Harris said.
Weingarten offered the gallery other accommodations until its lease runs out in December 2008, she said.
"They're proceeding apace," Harris said. "I think it's real stupid and short-sighted if they pull that theater down."
Harris and other tenants said their leasing agent described plans to erect a high-rise residential building in the theater's place possibly preserving part of the theater's exterior, but none of its art deco interior.
Opened in 1939, the River Oaks is Houston's oldest functioning movie theater.
Bill Banowsky, CEO of Landmark Theatres, wrote in an
e-mail that Landmark is "100 percent committed to the River Oaks Theatre," and that Landmark recently signed a lease extension. Landmark spokeswoman Melissa Raddatz would not say how long that lease lasts.
Celeste Williams, a lecturer at the University of Houston's Gerald D. Hines School of Architecture, has studied Houston's earliest movie theaters extensively, and notes that in many cities the historic buildings still function either as movie theaters or auditoriums.
"There aren't many buildings I'd lie down in front of bulldozers to save," she said. "The River Oaks theater is one of them."
In addition to the two segments of the River Oaks center, the preservation alliance placed the art deco Alabama Shepherd Shopping Center on its endangered list because of fears that Barnes & Noble would close the Bookstop if it built in River Oaks. Weingarten also controls The Alabama Center.
Responding to questions via e-mail, Barnes & Noble Inc. spokeswoman Carol Brown wrote that the company had "made no announcement of plans to build in the River Oaks Shopping Center." Brown wouldn't say whether such plans existed.
She also said the chain had no "immediate" plans to move from the Bookstop location.
In 1989, Bookstop won national attention for its creative preservation of the Alabama movie theater, built in 1939. Nine years later, Barnes & Noble bought the Bookstop chain.
Houston's historic preservation laws are among the weakest in the country, and the vast majority of the city's historic buildings can be destroyed without even a waiting period for public comment.
Preservationists have responded by mounting intelligence operations to ferret out plans to raze historic buildings.
Those "cloak-and-dagger operations," Bush said, "are sad, but it's what we've got to do if we're going to draw public attention before the bulldozers arrive."
lisa.gray@chron.com
posted by Celtic Gypsy @ 19:13
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