The distinctive "curved section" of the façade is finally gone, taken down with great efficiency by the crew. Have no fear, though; it will be recreated as part of the renovation and will be the home of two new exit doors: one door from the "West Lobby" and one from a new stair coming down from the second floor. This part of the building simply wasn't sound enough to support our new second floor so steel beams will be set in place to handle that load.

Our architecture firm, Studio RED Architects, has designed a clever and attractive way to subtly connect these two parts of the building and they've also sourced new brick to match the existing (too much of the old brick was in a poor condition to reuse).

Note: the hand-drawn rendering below is by famed architectural rendering artist Jack Hanna, who also happens to be a professor at the University of Houston. He graciously donated two beautiful renderings to MST that have greatly helped us see what the new building is going to look like.