Renaissance Revival hits a snag

Put it on the CultureList: Will anyone even try to save the imperiled, olddowntown YMCA building?

The 1941 YMCA building at 1600 Louisiana
"A Home away from home is provided at the Y.M.C.A. for young men." (HoustonChronicle, Jan. 23, 1955)

Editor's note: CultureMap recently debuted a new feature that highlights some of the best, most interesting or unusual things in Houston in list form. You'll find everything from Cool Hotel Pools to Fab Farmers Markets on these curated CultureLists, which are featured in the far right column of every CultureMap.com page.

In this article, Steven Thomson shines a light on a building that belongs on the Imperiled Architecture list, one whose expected impending demise has almost already been forgotten.

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It's been a good year for Renaissance Revival architecture in Houston: the gallery space at Isabella Court is occupied and the Julia Ideson Library's original vision has been fully realized. But with the opening of the new Tellepsen Family Downtown YMCA at 808 Pease, its original historic building a short stroll away at 1600 Louisiana faces a precarious future.

Before this month's unveiling of its new digs, the downtown YMCA operated at 1600 Louisiana. When the $1 million-building that housed the Y opened in September, 1941, it stood as a testament to the United States' emergence from the Great Depression and commitment to strong values in contrast to the political turmoil in Europe. Once in operation, the Y was a beacon of wholesome Christian values in what was still a residential neighborhood southwest of downtown.

The architecture is attributable to the MIT-educated Kenneth Franzheim. A native West Virginian, Franzheim was stationed in Houston during World War I, where he married the daughter of a local oil tycoon. He was later commissioned from his New York office by Jesse H. Jones to design a coliseum for the Democratic National Convention and the iconic Gulf Building. In the early 1930s, he collaborated with John Staub, the architect of countless River Oaks mansions, including Bayou Bend.

With the Downtown Y, Franzheim broke with the Art Deco motifs of the age, looking back to America's fascination with Renaissance Revival architecture, which reached its height in the latter half of the 19th century. Through thoughtful variations in brick color, he produced the effect of quoins, lintels, arched entryways and other traditionally stone details. The 10-story building was topped with historicist roundel windows.

While Franzheim organized the building around a traditionally Italianate patio, cloister and loggia, the stepped-back massing reflects building techniques of the time, as seen in Houston City Hall.

Chevron has already bought the land the old YMCA building occupies, which sits in the shadows of the oil giant's current headquarters in the former Enron towers. The historic structure is expected to be torn down to make room for the oil company's plans.

The YMCA has estimated that renovating the 1941 structure would cost $15 million, a figure that might be unfeasible for a non-profit, but a manageable sum for a shrewd real estate developer. The pedigreed historic building seemed like it would have been ripe for redevelopment as residential lofts or office space for creative businesses.

The old downtown YMCA stands as a candidate for the CultureList of Imperiled Architecture.

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pet protection

What Texas pet owners need to know about the dangerous New World screwworm

Photo by Helena Jankovičová Kováčová/Pexels

Make sure these guys are up on their flea and tick meds.

Two New World screwworm cases in dogs are among more than 30 confirmed instances in Texas and New Mexico, prompting warnings Wednesday, July 8 from veterinarians and humane societies that pet owners need to remain vigilant to protect their animals.

The parasite reappeared in cattle in the U.S. in June, more than 50 years after it had been largely eradicated from the country. The pest is actually the larvae of the New World screwworm fly. It eats live flesh and fluids rather than dead material, as the larvae of most fly species do.

Here is what to know about the parasite, the threat it poses to pets and how to protect them:

Screwworm fly larvae can infest any mammal
The fly's migration north from Panama starting in 2024, and through Mexico in 2025, has agriculture officials warning that it poses a threat to the $113 billion U.S. cattle industry, but the larvae can hatch and breed in any mammal, including wildlife, dogs, cats and occasionally humans.

The problem develops when a female fly lays its eggs in open wounds and mucus. After the eggs hatch, the larvae feed for about a week before maturing, dropping to the ground and continuing to develop into an adult fly.

The American Veterinary Medical Association says newborn animals and animals with open wounds or who have undergone surgery or other medical procedures recently are especially vulnerable. Even a tick bite can host an infestation, Aaron Grady, executive director of the Houston Humane Society shelter, said during a webinar on the screwworm.

Screwworm fly The goal is to stop these flies from successfully breeding.Photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture

Infestation signs include restlessness and bad smell
Animal health experts say pet owners in areas where the screwworm is present — southern and southwestern Texas and southeastern New Mexico so far — should watch their animals closely and examine them for wounds, cuts and bites regularly.

Pet owners should look for any maggots or movement in a wound. Other signs include a foul smell and restlessness or anxiety in an animal, or an animal “hyper-fixating on looking or chewing in a certain area of the body," said Melissa Stansell, a veterinarian at the shelter Austin Pets Alive!

Any one of those is reason enough to go to a veterinarian. The affected animal is likely in a great deal of pain, and that can cause death from shock. The larvae also can cause death if they move into vital organs or by causing infections that turn deadly.

Flea, tick medications can stop an infestation
Humane society officials and veterinarians said shelters across Texas are trying to prevent infestations in animals by giving them prescription flea and tick medications. They recommend that pet owners do the same.

“It will kill the larvae as they ingest the blood and tissue,” Stansell said. “The chemical compositions of those products are what kill the actual larval stages of these flies.”

Veterinarians also can treat infestations and animals can recover if pet owners contact them quickly. Stansell said the treatment could include antibiotics.

“It is only fatal if left untreated,” she said.

An effort to eradicate the fly again is underway
The New World screwworm fly is a tropical species and decades ago would disappear each year when colder weather arrived with the fall or winter.

But state and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials aren't waiting for the weather to turn. They've returned to an eradication method that worked decades ago, breeding sterile male flies and releasing them into the wild. The female New World screwworm fly mates once in her monthslong life, and if her partner is sterile, her eggs won't hatch — causing the population in an area to drop and then disappear.

For years, the only factory breeding sterile flies in the Western Hemisphere was in Panama, but the USDA invested $21 million to convert a site in southern Mexico from breeding fruit flies to recently start breeding screwworm flies. The agency also plans to spend $750 million on a new fly factory in Texas, set to open next year.

screwworm fly pets