Does Houston need a new big honkin’ thing? – Houston Public Media

Florian Martin | Houston Public Media

For decades, of course, the Astrodome was our most distinctive landmark. And technically, the shell of it probably still is, though it mostly reminds us of what Houston once was.

While the city certainly has its fair share of popular local landmarks, like the Downtown Aquarium, the fountain in Hermann Park, and the Texas-shaped lazy river at the Marriott Marquis Houston, we seem to be lacking a big identifiable landmark akin to the Astrodome, that makes people instantly think of The Bayou City when they see it.

With this we ask the question: Does Houston need a new big honkin’ thing? A new, unmistakable landmark or monument? Something definitively Houston? And if so, what could it be or look like?’

We talk it over with Emma Balter, editor-in-chief for Houstonia Magazine, Stephen Fox, architectural historian and lecturer at Rice University and the University of Houston, and Jason Draper, associate professor at the UH Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership, who all weigh in on this question.

Plus, we also hear from several listeners who share their thoughts on whether Houston needs a new big honkin’ thing and what it could be. Here’s what they had to say:

• Jessi: We don’t need a new Houston landmark; we need to strip the Astrodome down to its beams to give it a modern Colosseum aesthetic. It could act as an open-air art installation with ‘astronauts’ and massive astral bodies hanging from the ceiling. With all the recent attention on space travel, Houston should take the opportunity to lean into its role as THE Space City.

• Victor: It could be an iconic building, like the Empire State Building or the Frost Bank Tower. It needs to be unique in architecture to make people go “Wow!” Maybe with a new architectural style that can be uniquely Houston, that can symbolize us and our cultural diversity.

• Eric from Garden Oaks: I think Houston needs something big like an actual Space Needle. We need a Saturn 5 rocket (or an actual-sized model) standing right in the middle of the city, like in the Discovery Green.

• Chris: What about the president heads, the Beatles statues, or David Adickes’ other works? Houston probably has plenty of other quirky, distinctive pieces that would fit the bill; it just needs to work a little more on presenting them properly.

• Mark from Montrose: It doesn’t need to be a specific thing. It needs to be more of a gathering place or an identity like being the place for renewable energy.