The Way I See It: Houston public supports preservation of River Oaks Shopping Center, Theater

The Way I See It: Houston public supports preservation of River Oaks Shopping Center, Theater

A report in the July 22 Houston Chronicle by arts editor Lisa Gray ’88 broke the news that Weingarten Realty Investors, a Houston-based real estate investment trust, planned to demolish part of the famed River Oaks Shopping Center at West Gray and South Shepherd. The streamlined modern complex was designed in 1937 by Washington D.C. architect Oliver C. Winston ’26 with Houston architects Stayton Nunn ’21 and Milton McGinty ’27. Public reaction was electrifying.

FOX

Houston’s foremost historic preservation advocacy group, the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance, issued an e-mail alert placing both the River Oaks Shopping Center and River Oaks Theater (1939) as well as another Weingarten property, the Alabama Theater Bookstop at South Shepherd and West Alabama (1939), on its “Most Endangered Landmarks” roster. Preservation Alliance member and volunteer Jim Parsons launched an online petition
(www.ipetitions.com/petition/riveroaks) to register public opposition to the demolition of these complexes. Within two days more than 12,000 signatures were collected. The Preservation Alliance arranged for the office of the Mayor of Houston to link to the petition Web site to track public sentiment. Within four days, more than 20,000 signatures had been collected. Ralph Blumenthal in the Aug. 12 New York Times and Thaddeus Herrick in the Aug. 16 Wall Street Journal took note. At the end of August, Houston celebrity philanthropist Carolyn Farb staged a stylish stand-in in front of the River Oaks Theater to dramatize public outrage over its possible destruction.

What happened? In a city that is notorious for habitually erasing its own past, Houstonians are speaking out. And their message is loud and clear: Don’t tear down our landmarks! The Internet played a key role in providing a site where public consensus could be expressed and broadcast. The pro-preservation sentiment has not been lost on elected public officials. Although Houston remains the only major city in the United States without a zoning code, it has had a municipal preservation ordinance since 1995. (A former director of the city’s Planning and Development Department, which administers the ordinance, publicly described it as the weakest in the nation). Houston Mayor Bill White, who in 2005 launched a public initiative to make history more integral to the ways Houstonians understand and represent their city, put the weight of his office behind negotiations with Weingarten officials to come up with plans that will satisfy Weingarten’s financial expectations by adapting, rather than demolishing, their historic buildings.

Will the River Oaks (and the Alabama) be saved? The answer is not yet clear. But the ability of Houston preservationists to enlist the support and participation of public officials in searching for creative ways to make preservation of historic landmarks financially attractive to dubious owners is a heartening sign that a revolution in Houston civic consciousness just may be taking shape.

—Stephen Fox ’73 is an architectural historian and a fellow of the Anchorage Foundation of Texas. He is an adjunct lecturer in architecture at Rice University and the University of Houston.

“The Way I See It” is a special guest column written by faculty, staff and students at the invitation of the Rice News.