Historic gem

Regarding “High Line designer to Houston: Save the former Houston Press building” (HoustonChronicle.com, Thursday), Houston is an extraordinary city, and I am grateful for the role that Chevron and other corporations have played in providing support to the city’s vibrant cultural realm as well as jobs for residents.

Nevertheless, I find it discouraging that we fall so far behind other American cities when it comes to fostering innovative examples of our built environment. Chicago, Los Angeles and New York all offer far richer tableaus of what our world can be. As someone who has made a commitment to ensuring that students understand the role of the past in informing, not restricting, the future, I am saddened that we have so few examples of respected historic structures in Houston.

The Shelor Motor Company Building at 1621 Milam Street is a gem of a historic structure, offering a glimpse into what Houston was like prior to air-conditioning, highways, and stucco. Chevron has an opportunity to reuse this structure in an innovative manner that would also activate the urban realm at the level of the pedestrian (ironically by re-animating a structure built for cars). The essay author, Charles Renfro, makes such a compelling case for why this building matters. I hope that Chevron will reconsider its decision to obliterate this part of Houston’s history. Sarah Whiting, professor, Rice School of Architecture