City Shaping VII: Connecting San Antonio
Parks and open spaces are taking center stage in North America鈥檚 urban renaissance as multi-purpose catalysts and vital connective tissue. The reuse and rehabilitation of extant infrastructure is creating innovative and inspiring new sites, and spurring a renewed civic aspiration for design excellence. As noted in previous City Shaping articles, consequential and noteworthy work is molding Houston, TX, Toronto, ON, and many other places with projects of varying scale that skillfully achieve ecological, social, and cultural objectives.
On a recent tour of San Antonio, TX, it became clear that the city best known as the home of and is creating a significant and brilliantly interconnected system of parks and open spaces. , at a March 2016 conference organized by 独家爆料 about landscape architecture and urban planning in Houston, outlined an ambitious goal: 鈥淚n San Antonio, as we approach three hundred years of existence, we鈥檙e trying to ... create [an] emotional relationship between place, history, ecology and people.鈥 Based on the variety of projects I toured in San Antonio (some still underway), it鈥檚 clear that civic leaders, design and planning professionals, foundations, conservancies, and other agents involved have ambition, vision, nerve, and, it appears, well-conceived game plans. The significant difference between the approaches in Houston and San Antonio is the depth of commitment from private philanthropists, which is considerable in Houston but noticeably less so in San Antonio, where, instead, a significant player is the and its non-profit partner, the .
The presence of Mayor Taylor and so many San Antonians at a conference focused on Houston was no surprise given the importance of rivers and associated waterways in each city. As : There鈥檚 a 鈥渉istory of flooding that drives a lot of the infrastructure investments.鈥 In fact, water management has long been part of San Antonio鈥檚 history. When a group of historic missions along the San Antonio River was declared a in 2015, the UNESCO designation highlighted 鈥渢he substantial remains of water distribution systems鈥 that linked the missions. As Mayor Taylor noted: 鈥淭he natural environment is why San Antonio is where it is ... the river ... is central to our understanding of our shared history.鈥
The San Pedro Creek is an omnipresent waterway in the city鈥檚 history. The proposes to replace parking lots and derelict land along and proximate to the creek with four miles of trails that will bring nature into the urban environment, spur economic development, and provide flood control.
and the , in coordination with the , are working with lead architects and lead civil design engineer on the $175 million project. The waterway will also serve as a cultural lifeway linking neighborhoods and landmarks such as the (a National Historic Landmark), , and the (one of the last grand movie palaces built in America and the largest ever dedicated to Spanish-language films and the performing arts).
The intelligently designed , by , will transform an industrial laydown yard into an interactive learning and recreational space with hiking and bike trails, and ample opportunities for families. An elaborate network of pipes and cisterns will facilitate stormwater management, and the River Foundation will implement educational initiatives that connect people with the park and instill a stewardship ethic for the area鈥檚 waterways. As noted in the , the authoritative and meticulous chronicler of the city鈥檚 activities and development, 鈥淭he impetus and ethos behind the park鈥檚 design is one that is less visible to the families: water and its critical relationship to ecosystems and the people that inhabit them.鈥
The , which operates under a public-private partnership with the city, is engaged in a $22 million expansion lead by ; and, importantly, it will be transitioning full management from the public to the private side, the first public park to do so.
The completed project will include a culinary garden to promote health and wellness, a family adventure garden and a new visitor center focused on the iconic Emilo Ambasz-designed glass conservatory. In addition, the conservation-minded project will help tell the story of water, a critical challenge for the region, and a story made more compelling by the existence on site of the 1870鈥檚 Brackenridge Waterworks reservoir.
The Area Redevelopment Corporation (HPARC), formed in 2009 and charged with transforming the site of the 1968 World鈥檚 Fair, is aiming high. Believing that great cities have great downtowns and great downtowns have great parks, HPARC wants Hemisfair to be San Antonio鈥檚 Central Park, and they鈥檝e hired to realize their vision.
To make the park financially self-sustaining, they plan to lease fifteen acres of public land to private developers. The lease fees would go to Hemisfair鈥檚 budget and operations, and the project鈥檚 advocates say it will bring in thousands of new residences and a pedestrian-friendly environment, along with tens of thousands of square feet of space for commercial use.
An exceptional example of rehabilitation and design excellence is the complex. Established in 1881, it became, under the leadership of Emma Koehler, the state鈥檚 largest brewery by 1916. Following its closure in 2001 and subsequent sale, the site underwent reinvention (, landscape architects; , early master plan architects, with , landscape architects; , historic preservation architects) and today features hundreds of apartments, as well as restaurants, retailers, and a farmers鈥 market.
What distinguishes the Pearl is the attention to detail. As Bill Shown, managing director of real estate at the equity investment firm Silver Ventures, stated: 鈥淭here is not one piece of memorabilia that has been put on display. Everything that appears has been given a purpose. It is functional.鈥
What鈥檚 happening in San Antonio indeed reminds me of what鈥檚 happening in Toronto and Houston, where new parks and open spaces are being built to a high level of design. But there are also heritage spaces, which, in San Antonio, includes Brackenridge Park, that are integral to city鈥檚 identity. My tour through San Antonio was organized by the , which manages the 343-acre park on land originally donated to the city by George Washington Brackenridge in the late nineteenth century (with a subsequent donation by Emma Koehler). It鈥檚 a significant cultural landscape with a layered history, including an early-eighteenth-century Spanish colonial settlement and archaeological evidence of human habitation dating back 11,000 years.
As San Antonio moves forward, it has the opportunity to leverage its rich past and its unique cultural palimpsest. We鈥檝e seen what some entrepreneurial San Antonians have done with major projects in New York City: Betsy Barlow Rogers, founder of the Central Park Conservancy; Warrie Price, founder of the Battery Park Conservancy; and Robert Hammond, co-founder of the High Line. The good news is that city boosters have opportunities to find similar success at home. San Antonio鈥檚 World Heritage-designated missions could become the jewels in the crown of a congressionally designated , which would be a first for Texas.
This article originally appeared in the on May 9, 2016.
