 | |
|  |
|
It is, in Larry McMurtry's words, "a near-perfect symbol of Houston": a huge dome poking "soothingly above the summer heat haze like the working end of a gigantic roll-on deodorant. . . . We needed a Dome so Houston's sports fans wouldn't get so damp and sweaty."
|
Building the Astrodome,
inside
and out. |
|  | The Astrodome is the clearest example of Houston's formula at its most basic: take some notion from somewhere else and make it happen here, no matter the absurdity of the infrastructure required.
For this formula to work, in fact, one of two absurd things must happen. |
|
|
| The settlers either change the ideas they've taken from elsewhere so that they fit into the local environment | |
 |
 |
| . . . or create a shell big and strong enough to insulate their precious transplant from the harsh exterior. | |
|
At the Astrodome, they've done both.
|
Top photo: The line between infield and outfield, Houston Astrodome, 1996. Photo by the author.
Right: Astrodome interior showing original grass and dirt, and Astrodome
exterior under construction, 1965. Both from the collection of Jack Terence.
Used with permission. |
|
r e m o t e c o n t r o l
|