The Texas Historical Commission has turned down a permit to paint several giant murals on the exterior of the Astrodome in Houston. Harris County officials wanted to decorate the building to raise awareness of the problem of human trafficking.
The Astrodome has been classified as Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, which means any significant changes to the stadium need approval from the Texas Historical Commission. That group rejected the proposal at its most recent meeting.
"We have concerns about turning the Astrodome into a big billboard," said Texas Historical Commission Executive Director Mark Wolfe. "It doesn't really seem like an appropriate treatment for a historic building that is a state antiquities landmark."
The plan was to have artists paint directly on the exterior of the stadium with paint that could last ten years. The murals would have been 75 feet high and 150 feet wide.
"We had some concerns as staff," said Texas Historical Commission Architecture Division Director Bess Graham. "We preferred that they not paint directly on the Astrodome."
Members of the Commission voted unanimously to deny the permit.
"It proposes to break what is essentially one of the cardinal rules in the preservation of historic buildings, which is you don't paint your existing historic masonry or hard surfaces, in this case concrete, because of the potential damage associated with removing those," said Commissioner Laurie Limbacher. "The building itself and the form of the buildings is fundamental to its significance, and this as a permanent treatment really diminishes that."
The Astrodome is owned by Harris County and the Harris County Sports and Convention Corporation. It opened in 1965 and was for many years the home of the Houston Astros baseball team and the Houston Oilers football team. It was closed in 2008.
