11) Gte Spring 1986
Caution, reader. If you want the dispassion of scholarship or the investigative scrutiny of journalism, look elsewhere. This is a lover's lament.
Above: In tide and outside: Portales ol me Spanish Above: Urban development clustered around open Top: Good pedestrian environment design: a Governor's Palace, 1749, restored, 1930 spaces: Main Plaza section ol the River Walk built in the 1930s. Bottom: Woeful neglect: Brackenrldge Park Some Straight Talk
Sherry Kafka Wagner
To me, San Antonio is, and always will be, array of irregularly shaped lots and 1 speak, of course, of the central city, that San Antonio urban design. The last a special place. Thar is why I find this convoluted streets, visitors tend to part contained within Loop 410. For the example of this principle was the piece difficult to write. Perhaps my vision experience the city as haphazard and parts of the city presently being created development of the Pasco del Rio, San is clouded since I only light in the city unplanned Not so. This settlement site around and beyond the loop in the Antonio's famed River Walk. The design from time to time. Perhaps circumstances was chosen by the coot and practiced eye familiar urban sprawl, there is no and development of the River Walk is in San Antonio are better than I think. I of Spanish missionaries who understood meaningful planning. It is happening as it actually an example of communal folk art, hope so, for as I perceive it, the city's that only cartful planning and building happens, without guidance and direction the result of contributions by many minds, present condition is sad. San Antonio would ensure survival in this semi-arid and only the barest minimum of standards talents, and crafts over a number of years. matters ro me. Although I no longer land so distant from the supply centers of and controls. These new suburbs have Perhaps that is why it conveys the reside there, I have an immoderate Mexico. The Spanish chose this place little in common with the older city from environmental sensitivity so conspicu- devo'fon to the place, deep gratitude for because there was ample water and a which they derive. They are simply ously absent in city development during all the city taught me and the pleasure it terrain suitable for a gravity-flow another manifestation of that the last 20 years. has given me, and a serious concern for its irrigation system. "Here,'' Father Antonio monotonous and predictable American present and future. Olivares wrote, "and nowhere else."" landscape Steven Spielberg uses for the Not only has this urban design principle setting of his films about exploding been lost, but the urban spaces that exist San Antonio is a city with character. As Following the land contours that slowly houses and alien infestation. Today's are, for the most part, woefully neglected southwestern cities go, it is an old town. dropped from litile hills in the north and suburb-sprawling San Antonio looks on Brackenridge Park, a splendid, heavily- While Texas noisily announces its 150th west to the flat lands of the east and planning as antithetical to growth, a used, 370-acre city asset, is heartbreak- anniversary this year, San Antonio is south, the colonists laid out a water rather ironic situation considering that, ingly tattered and strained. Not only is quietly celebrating its 268th birthday. It is system that, when completed, consisted of without careful planning, there would be the city failing to perpetuate the tradition a century older than most Texas cities, seven canals and a number of dams and no city to grow. of good urban design, it is, through and the difference does not end there. aqueducts. It watered several thousand neglect, eroding the quality of the good What makes the place distinctive? For acres. The land was divided into long Spanish city-making skills extended urban spaces it has inherited. me, the answer lies in three elements and narrow lots called merles, which ran beyond the water engineering learned their pattern of continuous interaction: between the canal and the river or creek. from the Moors As designers, the The River Walk itself is in danger of the physical form of the city, its history As a property right, each suerle carried Spanish were particularly sensitive to the being loved to death. Now that it is and heritage, and the fact thai its with it a water allotment to be used in a integration of the natural and built recognized as a priceless asset, it is being population has always been diverse, never designated time period. The watercourses environments. This principle of a exploited without mercy or thought. First, homogenous. influenced the land patterns, and the planned, harmonious, interactive a pond-like extension was made into the irregularly shaped lots resulted in relationship between inside and outside, HemisFair grounds in 1967. Devices To discuss San Antonio, one must always winding, twisting roads In San Antonio, between what is growing and what is installed to keep the water moving go back in time. In fact, it sometimes the grid pattern of Spanish colonial towns built, has continued as a motif in the through this still channel either do not seems that the past is the best thing about was modified by the primacy of water design of San Antonio residences from work or there is no money to maintain the city. San Antonio has a rich and varied needs. the earliest houses to the most recent. them. Hence the natural movement of the history, the stuff of song and myth, and This same principle is apparent in the river's current has been slowed. Soon after traces of those lost days still linger in the From the city's founding in 1718 until city's early urban design where this construction, a flood retainer gate was streets. It is possible to sit on a river bank 1899 when the city abolished the office of development was densely clustered around reltxrated so the tourist boats could make a that looks as it did when nomadic Indians canal commissioner and established the large open spaces. This design concept complete loop without turning. This camped there; enter simple houses built office of street superintendent, the has endowed the city with a number of resulted in more slowing of the river's and used by the first settlers; worship in canals - together with the river and creek plazas and parks in the downtown and movement. Famed for more than 200 old Spanish missions; explore the fort that fed them • were the most prominent center city. Downtown contains Main years as a source of clean water, the river where Geronimo was held prisoner; visit physical feature of the city. Except for a Plaza. Military Plaza (although City Hall now moves too slowly to cleanse the a parish church which Colonel Robert E. few stray remnants around town, the was built in its center), Alamo Plaza, water as it once did. And this is occurring Lee helped to build; stroll through the canals are no longer visible, but the city Romana Plaza, Travis Park, Milam Park, at a time when urbanization and ever- plaza where the first cattle drives were form still reflects their existence. Columbus Park, and Maverick Park. The building river use is increasing the dirty organized; see the spot where barbed center city has additional open space in runoff into the river Recently, a teacher wire, the invention that would change the Because of this unusual development King William Park, Mahncke Park, showed his seventh-grade class a river face of the west, was first demonstrated; concept, San Antonio is not an easy city to Madison Square Park, Crockett Square, film made some years ago. The youngsters order a beer where Teddy Roosevelt comprehend. It is physically complex, and the larger Roosevelt and were convinced the filmmaker had ' drank with his Roughriders; and gaze revealing itself in stages and providing Brackenridge parks. doctored the film. "The water looks too down on the river from a bridge that unexpected vistas, arresting spatial clean," they protested. served O, Henry as the setting for a story. sequences, surprising points of visual While the design principle of contextual The city's history cannot be denied. terminus. It is a city of complexity, and environmental integration has At this moment, another pond-like ambiguity, and subtlety, attributes that endured in the design of residences, it extension is under construction, financed When first confronted with San Antonio's derive from its original plan. seems to have been abandoned in recent by the city through an Urban Cite Spring 1986 11
JBBffiT * n • uz... 1 ••••• •••••[•••«"•• mi . pn ALAMO FABRICS .' .,,.. ..•«•! •••-,>•• TtPB: DfcT ^£,^,7. ™ III"" FABR.C5 A GIFTS III UK
_——- ~~ «-B .tf»
li U II HHH HUH 000 nun ODD
0 fl li l> >l I - I I . I :i; |
,iu.r
Top: Sleeh suburbs and glass lower*: dell) Houston Street vignettes, clockwise from lop: Reunion Square, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, RepublicBank Plaza incorporating lacade of 19S6 and (right) Airport Center. Harwood K. Smith demolished Texas Theater. Ford. Powell and and Partners, 1986. Bottom: San Pedro Avenue Carson and Fisher and Spillman, 1985; view Irom and Loop 410. (center) Two SASA Cenler, Lloyd Houston Street Bridge toward River Walk and Jones Brewer and Associates, 1983 and (right) Holiday Inn construction site; view south on SASA Cenler, Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum, SI. Mary's Street toward octagonal Smith-Young 1980 Tower; and Frost Brothers, Harvey L. Page, 1930 • It lit the Old Town
Photography by Paul Hester
Development Action Grant from the Convention and Visitors Bureau says that The story goes on. But the national sins of neighborhood was horrified when Trinity federal government. This extension will the number of hotel rooms in the city will Urban Renewal are so numerous, so Baptist Church, grown into a mega-sized serve as the centerpiece for Rivercenter, a double, spilling twice as many visitors obvious, so often recited, and so sad that it operation, decided to tear down nine shopping mall being developed by onto the River Walk. Poor little river. It seems pointless to recount the particular houses and build a parking garage as an Williams Realty Corporation of Tulsa on has gone through hard times before, but San Antonio transgressions except to say addition to its already sizeable real-estate a multibluck site east of Alamo Plaza and this is the first time it has been a victim that San Antonio, like other American holdings. The neighborhtxxl fought back, designed by Hellmuth, Obata and of success. cities, suffered from the very mechanism and the mayor and city officials negotiated Kassabaum and Ford, Powell and Carson. that was designed to help it. In San a plan for seven of the nine to be What effect will the new extension have Throughout its checkered history, San Antonio, the besetting sin is not that destroyed. The neighborhood took its case on the river? W i l l the current move even Antonio has drawn considerable strength many good buildings were lost, although to the city council and lost T h e church more slowly? And who will pay the from the fact that it is a city of diversity. that is certainly true, but that so many will spare only two houses and build its considerable expenses for maintaining the When it was a tiny wilderness outpost, it functioning neighborh
v ii
"n, , n i " i • .'-'• in XIJiiii
wi!im.j&im
2*1» v~^ v ' -*- *•
Top: Contemporary public design: Midlown Top: Past public design: (left) U.S. Pod Office. Top Cily center housing destroyed: view Garage. Ford, Powell and Carson. 1985. Bottom: Paul Philippe Crel and Ralph H. Cameron. 1937. southwest Irom Market Square toward land Old neighborhoods: King William Street Borrom: Under siege: housing demolished lor a cleared by Urban Renewal and Interstate highway church parking garage In Monte Vltta construction. Bottom. Central city fabric now unraveling: Fiesta Plaza. Richard Moore. 1985
cleared land on rhe western edge of Sometimes this good old city reminds me The San Antonio Conservation Society tlie parts ol that past: principles, downtown, is intended to serve tow- of an aging actress prattling on about her works at keeping the city's decision- standards, practices, as well as buildings income shoppers from the West Side. glorious past and waving press clippings making processes ever-mindful of the and events - is too meaningful to be Market segmenution according to the in the air, oblivious to the fact that her values espoused by Miss Emily Edwards exploited only for the sale of hotel rooms "targetting" of defined class and income good looks are tarnished .itul faded, and her tn-founders. Their successes have It is living heritage: to be protected, groups is complemented physically by the becoming a memory. At other times I benefited the city greatly. Think of a San learned from, built on, extended. T h e creation of self-contained, enclosed, imagine the city as the heir to a fortune, Antonio without the river, the missions, success of any part of the city, even those suburban malls constructed on the sites of blithely spending his inheritance without the King William neighborhood, and all slick suburbs and glass office towers in the former, central-city neighborhoods. once considering that when it is gone, it is the many other buildings and amenities northwest, is linked to the destiny of San Meanwhile, Houston Street, downtown's gone for good. These thoughts make me that the Observatio n Society has helped Antonio's historic heartland. As the principal retail corridor, is dying. sad, downhearted. T h e n 1 remind myself to save and maintain. The city simply center city goes, so goes the entire that San Antonio is the home of Emily would not be the same. It would tack the community - eventually. Recently San Antonio received a $20 Edwards and Ernie Cortes. That means it environmental character and ambiance million Urban Mass Transit has a chance. chat have burnished its image throughout San Antonio cannot afford to stumble on Administration grant to deal with the the nation and made it the number-one with no effective planning, no effective transportation problems of downtown, It is fitting that a San Antonio family visitor destination in Texas. design standards, no effective environ- including the impoverished pedestrian gave the word "maverick" to the English mental controls, no effective mechanisms environment. 1 have my fingers crossed, language. Because the population has Ernie Cortes is another of the city's to encourage housing development in the but optimism is restrained by the fact always been so various, the city never has benefactors. In the early 1970s he saw the center city, no effective protection for the that, for the last 20 years, the quality of lacked for outsiders who speak up, Emily needs of the central-city neighborhoods river, for downtown, for neighborhoods. San Antonio's public design projects has Edwards and Ernie G>rtes are two such on the south and west sides continually There is too much at stake to let this good been mediocre at best. In the past there leaders. I was fortunate enough to know ignored. Good solid neighborhoods of place slide into environmental mediocrity was fine public architecture in San both of them, and they continue to inspire hardworking people were neglected while for the short-term economic benefits of a Antonio: the Bexar G>unty Courthouse by me. public funds went to benefit development single generation of entrepreneurs. James Riely Gordon; the Municipal on the north side and the suburban Auditorium by Atlee B. and Robert M. In the early 1920s, Emily Edwards and a fringes of the city. To correct this Perhaps my hoped-for leaders will bring Ayres, George Willis, and Emmett T. handful of her women friends saved the situation, he organized San Antonio such a message and turn around the Jackson; and the U.S. Post Office by Paul San Antonio River from being paved over Communities Organized for Public Service present situation. It has happened before. Philippe Crei and Ralph H. Cameron. for a thoroughfare or a car park (the (COPS), a group that is fueled largely by San Antonio is still a special place. W i t h When these are compared to such solution offered by a firm of professionals the energy of women, a trait it has in leadership and commitment, it has a contemporary efforts as the Arena, from Boston hired to advise the city common with the Observatio n Society. chance to stay that way.* Convention Center, and Lila Cockrell government). The women accomplished By diligence, persistence, and Performing Arts Theater; Riverside, this important task by mean, of a puppet confrontation, this group has made the Market, Midtown, and Convention Center show. They then formed the San Antonio community aware of the importance of garages; and HemisFair Plaza, one Gmservarion Society, an organization that human needs and has established itself as wonders how the standards for public has continued to insist on articulating the a voice in the city. Because of COPS's design have become so lax. values expressed by Mrs. San Antonio in efforts, life has improved in the once- that first puppet show: a concern for neglected neighborhoods, and COPS is Just as there was good public architecture aesthetics and design quality, for the helping to keep the central city from in the past, there has been good natural environment, for tradition and being completely forgotten. pedestrian environment design in the history, values sometimes pejoratively past. The River Walk sets a high standard labeled "feminine" in our society. It was Few cities have more effective activists for the new work to follow. While the Miss Emily's contention that these values than Ernie Cortes and Emily Edwards, street-environment design should not - should be considered as important in persons outside the power circles who are and could not - be the same, it certainly public decision-making as the "masculine" not afraid to fight on behalf of the city. should be as good. That is a tall order, one values espoused by the Mr. San Antonio Such leaders are needed today to declare that will be satisfied only if the quality of puppet: economy, efficiency, expediency. that the economic dynamics of a city that the design is made the foremost (That Mrs. San Antonio and the women is a historical and cultural center are consideration, ahead of politics, cronyism, who invented her won the argument to different from those of cities that are individual preferences, institutional and save the river is fortunate, for time has commercial, banking, industrial, or department rivalry, lobbying, egotism - proven their solution to be of much transportation centers. Maybe those new all those factors that have played a role in greater economic benefit to the city than voices will point out that the economic reducing the city's design record from the short-term economic advantage development in such a city must be good to dreadful. offered as a solution by the professional approached differently from those other consultants.) models. The city's past - and I include all