The Kraigher House Restoration

The Neutra designed Kraigher House sometime in the late '30s to 40's.

George Kraigher was a pilot for Pan American Airways back in the 1930s. When Mr. Kraigher moved to Brownsville, he had the famous modern architect, Richard Neutra (who was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, the father of Modern Architecture) design his house at 525 Paredes Line Rd, which at the time was at the outskirts of Brownsville city limits. What Mr. Neutra created was the first International Style house in Brownsville and, in fact, in the state of Texas. The house may have even have been the first International Style outside of California, where the style first appeared! The two-story house sported large wrap around windows instead of brick for walls. It is not large but feels large inside because of the very large windows that go from the floor to the ceiling. There were literally no covered walls, just glass. Also, contrary to the Spanish-Colonial Style being used in Brownsville in this era, this house did not have any kind of ornamentation that decorated most of the buildings and houses in Brownsville. This house was a radical departure from anything thing before in this area and in the US (other than California).

Today, it sits quietly in what can now be called the center part of Brownsville as it no longer lies outside the city limits as it once did. There is a Bigo’s Restaurant, several medical office buildings around it and is situated very close to the Expressway 77/83. In fact, it sits way into the lot that as you pass by on Paredes Line Rd (between Price Rd & Boca Chica Blvd) that you may mistake it for an abandoned, crumbling house with no glass windows but instead of glass, the house now is boarded up with plywood. The former, radically different, state of the art, modernist style is now gone replaced by a sagging, hole infested roof, which is now covered by a very large blue tarp, with no windows and the interior rotting from the lack maintenance from decades of abandonment.

But there is good news to report. Last night (11/15/05) I went to the City meeting where one of the issues was to agree on signing an agreement with UTB/TSC, which Mr. Goodman (Director of the Downtown District) states UTB/TSC “shall stabilize the structure as soon as reasonably practical” and also that the lease will not go into effect until January 2006. In any case, this is still very good news considering that UTB/TSC has beautifully restored the Alonso Building (c. 1890) and the Andres Cueto Building (1893). TSC has even renovated and restored the campus historical buildings such as the Gorgas Hall (1868), Champion Building (1868), the Regiment House (1868), the Cavalry Building (1868), and the Old Morgue (1868-72) to name a few. TSC has a good history of restoring historical homes and buildings. The Kraigher House should be in very good hands with TSC.

TSC has plans that include turning the Kraigher House into a home for a future architecture program. This is truly a win-win situation for the City, which did not have funds to renovate it, TSC, and the city of Brownsville, which gets to have one of the few rare examples of a Neutra designed house outside of California. I congratulate the City and TSC for this endeavor. This building is sure to attract many Neutra aficionados to our city as well as other tourists and locals. I can’t wait to see this house once it’s been completed. I’ve taken the before pictures. Now I’m just missing the after pictures. If all goes well, the stabilization of the structure should happen sometime next year.

TonyL

Brownsville’s Gain on McAllen and Harlingen

North Brownsville in 2004. This area has experienced so much growth over the last five years that it has helped reverse the trend of people going to shop at Harlingen and McAllen. This picture doesn't even show the new growth that has happened in the last year!

Just ten years ago, people in Brownsville would travel the 20 minutes to Harlingen or even 55 minutes to McAllen to go shop, eat, and entertainment. Harlingen has the Valle Vista Mall that had a food court (something that was sorely lacking in either of the two malls in B’ville, Amigoland Mall & Sunrise Mall) and good brand name store to shop as well as retail restaurants such as The Olive Garden. McAllen, of course is the Mecca for shopping and eating as it has dozens of national stores and restaurants to choose from with more opening almost every few months and not to mention the recently renovated La Plaza Mall with about 120 stores. This mall is the largest of the RGV (Rio Grande Valley) and attracts visitors from Monterrey, Harlingen, Brownsville, and many more cities. It’s so busy, especially on weekends, that finding a parking space is like finding gold in a river; every body flocks to it and fights for that space.

McAllen and Harlingen were profiting from Brownsville because of the lack of choices to go shopping and eating. Brownsville did have two malls, Sunrise Mall and formally The Amigoland Mall (now closed and sold to UTB/TSC). But even with the two malls, there was not much in national brand name stores to attract customers that the two other cities were attracting. Other than the two malls, there was virtually nowhere else to go shopping.

Brownsville was literally crying for more choices in retail stores and restaurants. You could read it in the Letter to the Editor in the Brownsville Herald and people talking about it over conversations as people would go shopping. It was in the air: more stores and restaurants, please. How funny, because Brownsville is the largest city both in population and size. Ten years ago, the population was nearly 100,000 (1990 Census) but the city was not attracting the kind of retail stores and restaurants that people wanted; hence the exodus of people that would go shopping at Harlingen and McAllen. These two cities would even boast how they were siphoning customers away from Brownsville and into their cities. Brownsville was losing the battle and eventually the war on convincing people to buy in Brownsville. There were even campaigns to get people to buy in Brownsville but few listened and continue their weekly trek to Harlingen and McAllen.

This exodus to Harlingen and McAllen began to change in 1997 with the arrival of Target, Applebee’s, Michael’s, and Office Depot that was built in a new plaza on Boca Chica Blvd across from Wal-Mart. Boca Chica Blvd, prior to the new plaza, was the Mecca for eating as there were many fast-food restaurants to choose from. Remember Rally’s, Checkers, Wendy’s, Whataburger, and others? There were few restaurants but even fewer national restaurants on Boca Chica. But with the advent of Target and Applebee’s, people began to wonder if this was the beginning of a new era in new stores and places to eat.

By late 1997, there was something adrift in the air that people could sense. Something very big was coming and rumors began to spread about the impending doom of Amigoland Mall and a new, larger remodeled Sunrise Mall. The thought of losing one of our malls had mixed reaction. Some (such as I) dreaded the idea of losing a mall. I had always and will always prefer the Amigoland Mall to Sunrise Mall because for whatever reason, I had a more attachment to this mall. It could be that the Amigoland Mall opened at about the same time when I was born or that this mall was the first mall that I went to when I was a kid. I loved the architecture and the ambiance. Even when I began to drive I would rather travel the 15 to 20 minutes (or even longer if the train blocked the way) to make it to Amigoland Mall. To me, this was my place as well as to many others. This was also the place where I met my wife. I met her in 1999 working in two stores: ECT (I used to call it ecstasy!) and Her Place. I was working with my parents at The Nut House, just a few steps away from the girl who would become my wife. About one quarter of my life would be erased if this mall closed, I would think to myself. But to those of us who believed in this mall, we refused to acknowledge the rumors. No one in their right mind would let go of this mall. To others, this was necessary and even long past over due because the demographics, the train switch yard, and the long lines to the B&M Int’l Bridge made going to Amigoland Mall difficult, if not impossible. The era of Amigoland Mall had come to an end, critics would say. And end it did just a few short years later.

In late 1998, the rumors were confirmed, The Sunrise Mall would be renovated and expanded to twice its current size from roughly 500,000 sf to 1 million sf and would cost $50 million for the expansion and renovation. This was incredible news because nothing like this had happened since 1980 when the Sunrise Mall was built. Finally, more name brand stores with even a food court! Even better was that another shopping strip plaza would be built where K-Mart would relocate and would be called Sunrise Commons. The promises of new national retails and restaurants coming to town were salivating in peoples’ mouth as the anticipation and waiting was hard to bear. It was like waiting for that turkey on Thanksgiving Day waiting all day smelling the sweet smell of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and everything that came with turkey but having to wait until night to eat. But it would be all worth it at the end when you got that first taste of that turkey.

But the questioned lingered and a new one arose. First, would the Amigoland Mall close? And second, was Sunrise Mall taking a huge risk by investing $50M in a demographically poor and stagnant area where the household income was less than twice the national average? It was possible that we could end up losing both malls if this one became a failure. What national retail/restaurant would want to come to Brownsville? Could the market sustain them and make them profitable? These are questions that every company must ask itself before investing huge sums of money into any market. But people didn’t care, they wanted this mall to hurry with its expansion and fulfill their promises.

When the news of the Sunrise Mall expansion and renovation hit McAllen and Harlingen, it sent shivers down their spines. Could it be possible that the Brownsville mall beat McAllen’s mall by attracting more people to Brownsville? Could the trend of pulling people from Brownsville be reversed? Not by my chini, chin, chin!! Right away, McAllen began looking into expanding and renovating their mall to meet or even beat Brownsville’s mall renovation. Hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars were at stake. The McAllen mall would draw millions of visitors a year from Monterrey and other wealthy Mexican cities and the Rio Grande Valley. The La Plaza Mall was the most profitable mall south of San Antonio and most of the US. McAllen was no longer gloating. This was serious. McAllen could fall behind Brownsville if they didn’t do something. Soon after the Sunrise Mall announcement, the La Plaza Mall announced their intentions to renovate and even bring in a Foley’s store. It would be bigger than the Sunrise Mall expansion. In Harlingen, the city leaders were either asleep, ignorant, or shocked and in disbelief that they did not take any action, such as McAllen did. They figured that The Valle Vista Mall would still be attractive to Brownsville since it had always been that way. Even a few stores began to open. Harlingen remained silent and concentrated its efforts to bring more industry to the region and expand its medical facilities.

Not soon after the Sunrise Mall expansion, other shopping centers and hotels made their intentions of coming to Brownsville, such as Chili’s, Chucky Cheese, Johnny Carino’s, IHOP, Rudy’s BBQ, Marshall’s, Old Navy, Just for Feet, Best Buy, Toy ‘R’ Us, Hawthorn Suites Hotel, Marriott Hotel, and the Red Roof Inn to name just a few that would open or break ground a year later. More announcements were sure to come and did.

In the summer of 2000, the newly renovated and expanded mall began to open its doors to the thousands of people waiting for the grand opening. And boy was it a grand opening. In the first weekend it reopened, there was an estimated 100,000 people visiting the mall per day! Success was accomplished. Fears of failure were diminished with every passing day and months. More shopping centers announced their comings such as the Sunrise Palms and Sunrise Corner. Not far from the Sunrise Commons, on Alton Gloor (Tejon Rd) and Frontage Rd, Wal-Mart was planning to build their first super center along with a larger Sam’s Club. That area then began to attract hotels, restaurants, and other retail stores. Things finally began to look up for Brownsville, a sleepy little town turned into a city practically over night. The 2000 Census showed Brownsville at 140,000 people and growing exponentially and could even hit the 200,000 mark by 2010 (which is very possible as the unofficial population stands at about 160,000 in 2005)

Near the intersection of Paredes Line Rd and FM 802 (now called Ruben M. Torres Bldv), Mr. Hudson had a vision of creating the Paseo del la Resaca 1,000 acres community village that would have residential, retail, and restaurants. It will also include the Village Center that will become the power center that would have over 500,000 sf of retail, restaurants and even a hotel and Mr. Hudson likened it to the San Antonio River Center as the Village Center will be built along some of the seven mile long man made Resaca that will sport a linear park around the Resaca and have bridges and boat ramps. HEB constructed their store on the corner of Paredes Line Rd and FM 802 and the mini mall Paseo Plaza and other stores made their home there. By 2005, nearly 80 percent of the planned Paseo de la Resaca has been completed and only the Village Center, Paseo Real II, and another office subdivision remain to be completed. This whole area exploded with growth where once cattle and even deer roamed. Paseo de la Resaca resides only a couple of miles from the Sunrise Mall via FM 802 and the Future Morrison Rd (will connect Alton Gloor with FM 511 once complete; the section between McAllen Rd and Pablo Kisel has been completed).

Within the past year, newer shopping centers are coming as well as new hotels, office buildings and banks. Just to name a few: Morrison Crossing Power Center (Home Depot and Petco are already open and more to come next year), Las Tiendas Plaza (across from Morrison Crossing and will sport a Super Target, Goody's, Hobby Lobby, Dress Barn, Famous Footware, Fashion Bug, Dots, Office Depot, Petsmart, TJ Maxx, Payless, Radio Shack, Taco Cabana, Payless Shoe Store and a Bank), Courtyard Hotel (broke ground and is under construction), First National Bank (completed), 2 ½ -story Plaza Escondida Office building (complete), South Texas Rehab Hospital (complete), Bed Bath & Beyond, the 4-story Staybridge Hotel, Mens Warehouse, and Carnival Shoes (at Sunrise Palms and others under construction), and really so much more retail, restaurants, office buildings, banks, and others that are too numerous to mention. All this growth within a mile radius of each other. The growth is phenomenal. Just this year, Morrison Crossing developers announced four 4 to 8 story buildings housing a medical center, hotel, offices, and apartments at their location. There was no definitive date as to construction but it will surely come within the next few years. The idea is to have a continuous one mile radius consisting of retail, offices, banks, and more between FM 802 to Alton Gloor. Already, a Super 8 Motel opened a 3-story hotel at the intersection of Expressway 77/83 and FM 511! The Driscoll Children’s hospital also opened between Alton Gloor and FM 511 along the expressway. And if this is not enough for you, how about another 1500 acre planned community village similar to the Paseo de la Resaca on the corner of Expressway 77/83 and FM 100 (the highway to Los Fresnos and SPI)!! This place will include hotels, retail, restaurants, etc with residential housing to go along with it. That’s on the door steps of San Benito and Harlingen!! The city limit ends at the intersection of FM 100 and Expressway 77/83. Now that’s growth! But don’t think that all this growth is happening in the north part along the expressway. No sir, it’s happening all over town with another Super Wal-Mart that opened on the intersection of FM 48 (to SPI) and FM 802 and not to mention all the businesses that is popping up all over this place. Also, there are so many more coming too numerous to list. How ‘bout Hooters? Got it!

You see, Brownsville is no longer this sleepy little town where life would just pass us by. We can truly call ourselves a “city”. We entered the 21st century with a bang and don’t seem to abate any time soon. In fact, it may just get a whole lot bigger and better. Who needs Harlingen or even McAllen? I certainly haven’t been going there as often as I used to and that’s true for the tens of thousands of people who shop Brownsville first. There’s no need to if Brownsville has what McAllen has. I won’t even mention Harlingen as that town is a dud as it continues to lose retail tax base at an astonishing $300M a year (read it in the Brownsville Herald)!! Yeah, they (Harlingen) can boast better and higher paying jobs but where do people go once they left work? Shopping!! Now they come to Brownsville to do their shopping and eating. Ten years is all it took to reverse the downhill trend that Brownsville was headed.

McAllen may still be the power hub of the RGV but I can guarantee you that Brownsville is gaining ground and very fast. Now, Brownsville can boast that it’s attracting retail and businesses first before they open in McAllen. Before the trend was that a national retail store would open in McAllen, then Harlingen, and finally Brownsville (if they even dared to go this far south). Now, it’s beginning to look the other way. Harlingen even gets bypassed altogether now.

One thing is for sure, I don’t hear McAllen or Harlingen gloating or boasting their economies. Instead, I hear the inevitable sound of construction and boom of hammers hammering away building a better, more prosperous city we like to call: Brownsville; “on the border, by the sea.”

Dangerous Intersection

The picture shows UTB (in center) and the University Blvd (taken 2004 and under construction at this time). Below, right shows the problem area with the intersection of Universtiy Blvd/East Ave. and the Expressway 77/83.

I have a comment about an intersection that is very dangerous and have seen many accidents happen regularly and that's not counting near misses (I have been one of those near misses).

This intersection is located at University Blvd and Expressway 77/83. Here are the obvious points that make this intersection dangerous:

1. The highway is raised a few feet above University Blvd and East Ave so that people on this Blvd cannot see the people on the other end. It's basically a large hill that no one can see over unless you have a tall vehicle. Cars go flying thru this intersection and can be dangerous to those turning left from either side.

2. The light at the end of Expressway 77/83. There should not be any lights on an expressway. People are driving 60 to 80 mph as well as semi trucks. When the light turns yellow (which lasts but a few seconds) cars/trucks are forced to either run the red light or stop very rapidly. This can be confusing to those new to the area. I’ve seen trucks fly thru the red light cuz they can stop on time, which can be dangerous if not fatal to those who are turning left from the side roads.

3. The turning lane on the Expressway 77/83 to East Ave. is a miserable one lane, which people are forced to wait in very long lines (seen them go up almost to the top of the overpass during heavy traffic) causing frustration and making people do things that they would otherwise not do, like using the lane that goes towards the Veteran’s Int’l Bridge and then turn left causing cars turning left on the correct lane to swerve to avoid those idiots. This can also be true for cars waiting on University Blvd to turn left onto the expressway.

4. Accidents can and have been very severe on this intersection. I’ve seen cars smashed to tiny bits because of the velocities that are involved. Talk about a car doing 60-70 mph hitting a car turning left doing 15-20 mph. Ouch!

Solution:

Create an overpass on University Blvd/East Ave. This will eliminate the hill in the middle of the expressway, lights at the end of the expressway, horrible accidents, long lines, and other issues caused by the present situation. This is a terrible situation and needs to be remedied soon. I don’t want to become a statistic as I sure others will feel the same. Let’s fix the problem before someone dies. Money should not be an issue when it comes to people’s lives.

TonyL

Keeping Downtown Clean

Picture at left is Elizabeth St facing east.

For all its splendor and architectural beauty, downtown Brownsville has something working against it. Trash! It’s interesting how the city of Brownsville markets itself as a historic city with many dozens of registered historic buildings but when you actually walk the sidewalks, which by the way looks very nice with the colored brick, there is trash to be seen. Not in huge amounts but still present.

One site in particular that does have me worried is the water fountains located on the corner of Elizabeth St and International Blvd right in front of the Gateway International Bridge. The last few times that I walked that area I noticed diapers, leaves, and other trash accumulating inside these broken, waterless fountains. It was pretty much a dumping place for all kinds of trash. What kind of message is the city trying to convey? What if you went to say Chicago, Dallas, Houston, or any other city for that matter and saw trash, broken water fountains and/or benches? What would be the first thing that comes to your mind? Certainly a bad image if nothing else. A picture is worth a thousand words and is true for any city with a trashy, dirty downtown. Tourists and locals who go to downtown do not want to see diapers on the floor or trash flying about your head in gusty wind. Locals and especially tourists want to see a clean place to go shopping without the worry of stepping on something less desirable.

Fortunately, I e-mailed Mr. Camarillo (City Commissioner for District 4) about the situation with the broken water fountains and the trash dumped inside them. Mr. Camarillo returned my e-mail the next day and told me that he would call to have this situation remedied as well as fix some broken lights in the area. I’m glad to see that something action will be taken but there are other areas that need remedy.

This other area is the little plazita with benches that are located right in front of the Gateway International Bridge. People use this area to wait, rest, and play and are in bad shape and need of repair. The benches are drooping as well as the tables. There is trash and often time smells awful (last time it reeked of urine. Yuk!). Not to mention the ungodly amount of bird droppings caused by pigeons who use the trees above the benches. You’d be lucky to find a bench free of the sh!t. It’s just a depressing area and needs to be cleaned up and new benches and tables put in. But before doing that, the trees need to be trimmed and maybe adding roofs over the benches and tables to keep the bird crap off. New telephones are needed as most are not working. Is this the Historic Brownsville, Texas the city wants to portray? I hope not and certainly do hope that the city invests a little more in the downtown area. I mean, com’on, City Hall is but a few blocks from the Gateway Int’l Bridge. The city leaders must have at one point walked through this area. There is no excuse for this one. Tourists must leave with there noses closed and complain to their friends and neighbors about our city. When I visited Dallas a couple of months ago, it was clean and little if no trash flying about. The parks are clean and very beautifully kept. Why can’t Brownsville be clean like Dallas?

There is a lot of work to be done and hope that our city leaders read this and take action. And I do hope that our city leaders do not take this as a direct criticism to them but as a concern that has existed for many years. I’m tired of waiting for someone else to complain. Most times, people don’t complain about this and nothing gets done. So, if anyone of the City Commissioners and/or Mayor reads this, please take a walk around downtown and take note of the things that I mentioned. There maybe other problem areas that I may have not covered but doesn’t mean that these areas should not be looked into and remedied as well. If the City of Brownsville wants to market itself as a historic city with historic sites, don’t let the site of trash be the reason that people leave disappointed and with their noses closed. Image is everything in this world and the last thing our city needs is to have tourists picturing trash in their minds when they think of Brownsville; On the Border, By the Sea.