"The latest proposal for the aging Astrodome calls for converting the structure into an indoor park and civic space, including an indoor grassy lawn and an outdoor promenade lined with oak trees. An Urban Land Institute panel, comprised of urban planners, economists and designers from around the country, released its preliminary recommendations Friday at the NRG Center." — Houston Chronicle

TEX-FAB's Plasticity is the fourth annual competition that focuses on connecting experimental design practices with industry leaders, while also promoting innovative research in the architectural applications of digital fabrication and parametric design. Out of four finalists, "Plastic Stereotomy" by Knowlton School of Architecture assistant professor Justin Diles was announced as the winner during the ACADIA 2014 conference at the USC School of Architecture in Los Angeles late last week. — bustler.net

It's been a long time since the Houston Oilers or any other team called the Astrodome home, and voters rejected a bond measure to adapt and reuse this domed cathedral last year. But Emmett's not giving it up. Yesterday, he led the press on a tour of the Astrodome to introduce his own plan to restore it: By creating the world's largest indoor park.

This isn't the first scheme mounted by preservationists who see a future for the dome. — citylab.com

Houston’s Bayou Greenways plan is perhaps the largest active transportation project in the country right now — if residents can actually use it for transportation when it’s completed.

Jen Powis of the Houston Parks Board has described the greenway project as a cross between the Atlanta Beltline and the Portland Bike Master Plan, which “re-envisions transportation” in the city. — usa.streetsblog.org

The Houston Chronicle called it a “departure from what many consider the Houston model.” City leaders in this Texas metropolis want to scale back the space for cars in the central city to make room for wider sidewalks and bike lanes. [...]

Houston’s wide, dangerous roads make it the seventh most-dangerous large city for pedestrians, according to last week’s Dangerous by Design report from Smart Growth America. — streetsblog.net

Since 3xLP by Christopher Romano and Nicholas Bruscia won the most recent TEX-FAB SKIN Digital Fabrication competition, the installation was exhibited at TEX-FAB 5 in Austin and will travel to Houston and Dallas along with the other competition finalists this fall.

The SKIN competition paired emerging design research practices with fabrication industry leaders to create innovative solutions for facade systems using digital fabrication and parametric design tools. — bustler.net

Rice University has picked the New York architectural firm Diller Scofidio & Renfro to design an opera theater scheduled to open in 2018.

The 600-seat theater will stand in what now is a parking lot between Alice Pratt Brown Hall, the home of Rice's Shepherd School of Music, and Rice Stadium. Besides serving the school's Opera Department, the theater will be used for chamber music concerts and other events, Rice said.

Charles Renfro, a 1989 Rice graduate, will be the lead architect. — chron.com

The Modernism in America Awards have announced this year's winners. The national awards program highlights the documentation, preservation and re-use of modern buildings, structures and landscapes in the U.S. or U.S. territory [...] One Award of Excellence was given in the categories Design, Advocacy, and Inventory/Survey. Five Citations of Merit were also awarded.

Winners will receive their prizes during the Docomomo US National Symposium on March 13-15, 2014 in Houston, Texas. — bustler.net

Sharon Johnston, who runs the Los Angeles firm Johnston Marklee & Associates with her husband Mark Lee, told me a couple of years ago that there was one key difference between their work and the mannered, loosely flamboyant designs of Thom Mayne, Frank Gehry, Eric Owen Moss and other famous L.A. architects a generation or two older [...]

Now that the firm’s design for a new building on the campus of the Menil Collection art museum in Houston has been unveiled, it’s easier to see what she meant. — latimes.com

If you're in the Houston, Texas area and want to "add in" some well-in-advance weekend plans, Rice Design Alliance from Rice University will be hosting their 38th Annual Architectural Tour "Additionally" on March 29-30, 2014. — bustler.net

In a city where bigger is better, the endless possibitlies of what will happen to the Houston Astrome were to be expected in the Reimagine the Dome competition. Hosted by The Architect's Newspaper and YKK AP, entrants were limited to only their imaginations on determining how the aging Houston Astrodome will be repurposed. — bustler.net