A group of University of Houston architecture students spent the fall semester taking on the unique challenge of reimagining one of Houston’s most iconic and often contentious structures: The Houston Astrodome.
Opened in 1965 as the world’s first indoor, air-conditioned domed stadium, the Astrodome was once celebrated as the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” Decades later, it stands largely unused, its future the subject of ongoing debate among nonprofits and Harris County officials. A new Harris County architecture analysis found that renovating the Astrodome could cost more than $752 million, while demolishing the structure would cost approximately $55 million.
Against this backdrop, 19 students from the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design proposed visions for how the long-dormant landmark could serve Houston’s future.
The beginning
The ideas emerged from a one-time studio design course titled DOMEafterDOME, made possible through a $30,000 gift from Amazon. The company, interested in strategies for reusing large-scale, aging infrastructure, partnered with assistant professor Mili Kyropoulou, who led the course and founded UH’s Building Analytics and Sustainable Environments (BASE) Laboratory.
“This course has become essentially a playground for us to collectively test ideas about architecture, adaptive reuse, and what it means to engage with massive structures that are left to deteriorate,” Kyropoulou said.
Amazon approached Kyropoulou after her professional team won ASHRAE’s 2023 LowDown Showdown design competition, which centered on reimagining the Astrodome. With the company’s support, she partnered with co-instructor Maria Christofi to launch the studio, challenging students to develop conceptual yet research-driven proposals for the approximately one million-square-foot structure.
What Houstonians want
Public interest in the Astrodome’s future remains strong. A recent Hobby School of Public Affairs poll found that 62% of Harris County voters support a public-private partnership to convert the building, last used for a major event in 2002, into an entertainment venue.
“The people in Houston care about the Astrodome because it has been a very iconic structure; however, it is largely also generational,” Kyropoulou said. “With time, people are less emotionally attached, but those that have seen it open have experienced its glory as a representation of Houston flourishing.”
Throughout the semester, students examined sustainability, life-cycle assessment, adaptive reuse, and community engagement as core drivers of redevelopment. Working in teams, they designed proposals based on one of five potential uses: A civic center with corporate offices, a food ecosystem hub combining grocery, production, and retail, a data infrastructure hub, a logistics and robotics center, or a media production campus.
The projects
Beyond conceptual design, the course emphasized real-world constraints. Students assessed structural limitations, navigated dense urban conditions near NRG Stadium, and conducted advanced environmental simulations not typically required in studio courses. In total, seven team projects emerged, each offering a distinct approach to preservation and reuse. Many explored opening portions of the roof to create hybrid indoor-outdoor environments.
One team reimagined the Astrodome as a media production campus and performance venue called Astrostage, blending the site’s entertainment history with contemporary production needs. The proposal includes an omni theater and soundstage and positions Houston as a potential film and media hub, theoretically drawing from the $300 million allocated biennially through Senate Bill 22 to support Texas’ film industry.
Seniors Ashley Gonzalez, Taylor Henderson, and Erada Zeyna said the project forced them to balance the Astrodome’s monumental scale with the political and public sensitivities surrounding its future.
“Honoring what it was is super important,” Henderson said. “The many opinions that will come out of any proposal are just a part of it, but I hope that it doesn’t just sit there devoid of energy — it’s the Eighth Wonder of the World.”
Another team, led by seniors Linzhen Chew and Alfred Rivera, designed AD-002, an automated logistics and robotics center that supports the Texas Medical Center and the Houston Ship Channel. Their proposal preserves much of the interior while adding a fabrication lab, prosthetics center, and Astrodome legacy museum.
“We wanted not just a warehouse but an interaction between the Houstonians and people outside of Houston to see this Astrodome and be able to interact, be able to feel what it once was, because we didn’t change much of the interior,” Chew said.
The semester culminated with students presenting blueprints, simulations, renderings, and short videos to college leaders and industry alums. All seven projects will be on public display at UH’s Mashburn Gallery from Dec. 17 through Jan. 29, with select works potentially featured in a 2026 exhibit by the American Institute of Architects Houston.
Regardless of which proposals move forward, Kyropoulou said the studio’s greatest achievement was student engagement in an ongoing civic conversation, one that continues to shape the future of Houston’s most enduring landmark.
“They enjoy being part of this conversation in a way that gives them a lot of exposure,” she said.
