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Photo: Russell Hancock Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Image 2 of 9 Photo: Russell Hancock Image 3 of 9 Photo: Russell Hancock Image 4 of 9 Photo: Russell Hancock Image 5 of 9 Image 6 of 9 Photo: Russell Hancock Image 7 of 9 Photo: Russell Hancock Image 8 of 9 Photo: Russell Hancock Image 9 of 9 New pics from inside the Astrodome surface 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

Local photographer Russell Hancock was able to get inside the Astrodome late last month to snap a few photos of the stadium after large sections of seats were removed. All that remains in some sections are concrete steps.

Likely, many of these missing seats are now sitting in man caves and on back porches across the region .

Hancock said that his newest photos were taken a couple of weeks after the second seat sale.

He took a handful of Astrodome photos in early 2012 which ran on real estate blog Swamplot in a blog entry titled “What I Saw When I Snuck Inside the Astrodome”. Hancock was awarded Photo Of The Year honors a few months later in the Houston Press’ annual Houston Web Awards issue. Hancock was initially anonymous, but at the awards event he made himself known.

The photos lead to a renewed interest in the plight of the structure and began a year of heated public discussion on what to do with the former home of RodeoHouston, the Houston Astros, and the Houston Oilers.

On Nov. 5, Harris County voters rejected a $217 million bond to turn the Dome into an event and exhibition center. The future of the structure is still in limbo.

Like a great deal of Houstonians, Hancock hopes the Dome gets re-purposed for future generations.

“I am all for the preservation of it. I liked the idea of the redesign and redevelopment of the Astrodome as a multipurpose special events center,” he said.

You can see Hancock’s Dome photos and more of his shots from around Houston at his Flickr page here.