After setting up at the Art Market, I wandered off again to capture some more pics of buildings and such downtown.  Early Saturday mornings still project a eerie ghost town feel, the only exception being the shopfronts that are readying to open for the day.  The lone Starbucks downtown is closed on Saturdays so, NO LATTE FOR YOU!  I did notice that one building on Mills Ave, that used to house Arby’s many years ago, now has a new facade.  It’s a bit disappointing to see the owners went with a mirror treatment and not something more in keeping with the architecture of downtown.

I guess it will make it easy to keep clean:) The Banner Building next door still has it’s period  charm though:

The Banner had a McDonald’s in it, like.. forever! I guess once the buses got moved from San Jacinto plaza, there was a big drop in business and they have since vacated.  The Banner is interesting because it has a lot of little office spaces in it, mostly vacant now:

There’s a large notification that the Banner is getting remodeled, maybe timing for the re-opening of San Jacinto plaza.  It would be cool to see it return to a hub of activity, with lots of neat little shops and offices or something.   Hopefully they will retain some of its old timey aesthetic.

 I passed a closed jewelry/ watch repair place but i’ll save that for another post…

Heading up Fred Wilson Boulevard, there’s an entrance into Fort Bliss for William Beaumont Army Medical Center.  What’s interesting is a large collection of largely unused old barracks and a lone empty chapel, baking in the west Texas sun.

The first 3 easily accessible buildings are right across from a parking lot, making it easy to check out.  Given that this is an active part of base, I heeded all trespass warnings and didn’t check to see if any of the buildings were open.  Plus who knows why these aren’t in use, there’s probably all sorts of contaminants like lead or asbestos inside.  At the very least there were large piles of nasty pigeon poop all over the place, so I stuck to the dirt.

The 3 barrack buildings were all the same construction in various states of disrepair.  It’s too bad they can’t be used for some more interesting purpose.  Donald Judd’s Chinati comes to mind. Down the way was a small boarded up chapel.

Upon closer inspection, the front door that was boarded up had been kicked in, exposing the interior:

Looking in, you could tell it was completely empty so I didn’t venture any farther than my lens would go.  A curious feature was the bridge to the entrance which I guess in the past would have had water.   There were probably lots of past marriages here with lots of photo opportunities.

I didn’t want to get stopped and asked  a bunch of questions, so it was time to bug out.  After grabbing a few more shots, I headed out.  The full set can be seen on flickr here: Old Barracks on Fort Bliss

While heading down Texas street I stopped to grab a pic of a probably post-prohibition era sign, painted on the side of a building:

 There are a few of these old wall signs left scattered around downtown and this one advertising Bevo makes it especially unique.  Not far from it is a large wall mural by Tino Ortega:

The piece is pretty impressive, easy accessible while driving by.  Most street art is best viewed by pounding the pavement and walking up to it though.  The scope is always more impressive from the sidewalk level.  One of the benefits of seeing it up close is you will will notice a nice companion piece nearby that would be easily missed in a passing car:

Sugar skull, guardian of the alley. Forever watching…waiting, what have you seen?

I’ve been helping set up at the Downtown Art Market and after finishing up I headed out to get some pics of some outdoor art around the area.

First up is a piece by EXIST1981. Its tucked behind a building off of San Antonio Avenue:

The Mandala Mural was created in honor of the artists son and was created entirely by spray paint.    Not far from it is another mural by Federico Archuleta:

This piece is a joint commission between Juaritos and Amor Por Juarez.  Both murals sit in choice locations for viewing and add some great color to the often forgotten backsides of buildings.  With so many industrial warehouses in the neighborhood, more murals such as these would really go a long way in helping establish the area as an art district.

Further down in the Union Depot area I found a couple of small paste/poster pieces:

As I continue to wander around downtown, I’ll keep posting up what I find.  There’s a lot out there waiting to be found.

Just a few shots from a quick hike up a ravine on the northeast side of the Franklin Mountains