Sweeping changes for Alamo Plaza were presented to City Council on Wednesday, including permanently closing a portion of Alamo Street, replacing the entertainment businesses across the plaza with a 120,000 sq. ft. high-tech museum, moving the 1930s Alamo Cenotaph, creating a single entrance, and enhancing two public green spaces to strengthen the site’s physical connection with its past and San Antonio’s future.
George Skarmeas, design director at Preservation Design Partnership (PDP) hired for the Alamo Master Plan, said these “preliminary concepts” will let the plaza tell visitors a more accurate story about the events that took place here over the course of more than 10,000 years.
The proposed ideas represent “a dramatic cultural change here,” Alamo Endowment Executive Director Becky Dinnin told the Rivard Report.
Should these ideas make it into the final plan – which is slated for completion in late May 2017 – the plaza would be closed off to functions such as Fiesta events, parades, protests, and other public gatherings that currently take place on the grounds, allowing for a more solemn, revered site. That also would mean an end to the tradition of erecting a large Christmas tree in the plaza every year.
The project as a whole will cost between $200-300 million dollars, according to Alamo Endowment Board member and Alamo Management Committee Chairman Gene Powell.
If the schedule holds, Alamo Plaza will be redeveloped by 2024. The master plan is an effort by the City of San Antonio, Texas General Land Office, and the Alamo Endowment to jointly fund and plan the redevelopment of the Alamo complex, plaza, and surrounding downtown district.
Master planners want to close off the plaza to major events and traffic to conserve the sanctity of the church, arguably the plaza’s most significant asset. The Alamo is the “the guiding light of our plan,” Skarmeas said.
“It’s deteriorating before our very eyes,” he said. “(We need to find out) if there are vibrations that are being created (by traffic and other activity) that are being transferred to the building.”
Through orthophotography, which uses high-resolution digital cameras to record the building, and the use of black paper on the church floor, the design team discovered a “daily loss of fabric” in the limestone walls.
“White dust and little chunks of stone (are falling) on the floor,” Skarmeas said, calling attention to the fact that air conditioning and added moisture have contributed to the structure’s deterioration.
“We need to think about it carefully and (use) the best experts in world to protect it for the next 300 years,” he said. “It’s essential to the city and essential to history.”
Master plan officials said that state law requires that access to the Alamo is free to the public. However, admission could be charged for the new Alamo museum, which will be located in the state-owned historic buildings across the street.
Returning the Alamo to a sacred state by closing off streets is pivotal to reestablishing the dignity that the site deserves, Powell said. He and Skarmeas mentioned other battleground sites such as Gettysburg, Valley Forge, Vicksburg, and the beaches of Normandy to emphasize that everyday or celebratory activities are not conducive to the preservation of historic locations.
“It’s too busy down there, we see too much,” Councilman Mike Gallagher (D10) said. “The plan to clean this up and recapture the historic courtyard … make it more historic and take away some of that distraction that exists right now … is absolutely what we must be doing.”
In its current state, visitors come to the Alamo from many directions, Skarmeas said, making it “a porous site with no sense of place.” He added that directing all visitors to the site through the south gate entrance would enhance the experience and make it more authentic.
Skarmeas and the master plan team also proposed turning the garden behind the Alamo into a public park, restoring several acequias around the site, building a restaurant and a reception space on the roof of the new museum, and repurposing other buildings to accommodate events.
“I can’t think of an adjective to describe how important this is for our state and nation,” Mayor Ivy Taylor said. “(The Alamo) is a national treasure here in our backyard and investments are needed to preserve it and capitalize on its presence.”
City Manager Sheryl Sculley and Assistant City Manager Lori Houston are working on relocating businesses across the street from the Alamo to a new “entertainment district.”
“Lori (and I) are in conversation with the Alamo Endowment and those who own businesses so that they know that we care and are willing to work with them to relocate them to an appropriate place,” Sculley said. “We are creating an area where they can conduct their business and service the community.”
The City allocated $17 million for the project last year, with another $19 million pending in the 2017 municipal bond. The design team will meet with leaders in Austin during the next several months and request an additional $75 million from the Legislature, Powell said.
“The Alamo is one of the most iconic sites in America, and there is layer upon layer of history at this site,” he said, adding that the 1836 Battle of the Alamo was not the only important event in the site’s history.
“Indigenous people were born here, lived here, and died here … around 1,500 are buried here,” he added. “Then the fathers went home to Spain and turned over the building to indigenous people … then came the defenders of the Alamo seeking liberty and freedom … then the city (we know today) grew up around it.”
Councilman Roberto Treviño (D1) and Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran (D3) agreed that embracing a new mindset with the Alamo master plan is instrumental in changing the way people experience and understand the Alamo.
“(These are) transformative opportunities … it’s positive development,” Treviño said, adding that the Alamo and all its layers “will be brought to life in a new way.”
Viagran emphasized the importance of telling a holistic story and recapturing this new “reimagining.”
“This will require a paradigm shift for all of us that have only known one thing this entire time,” she said. “(We’re) just scratching the surface right now.”
Skarmeas and Powell spoke about utilizing new technology to produce a unique visual representation of the site and its history.
Powell described an experience where tourists would come to the museum in the Crockett Building, look at the Alamo through a window, and see its history being told through a “hologram” or some kind of digital projection.
“We start in 1700 with indigenous people camped in a compound, then walls start to come up, and a church goes up. Then defenders show up for the Battle of the Alamo and Santa Anna’s troops tear down the walls,” Powell said. “Then comes modern San Antonio and it’s 2017 – in 20 minutes with the whole site in front of us.
“We can tell that 300-year story with technology to help everyone understand what happened here,” he added. “(It would provide) a better appreciation about what this site is all about.”
The Alamo master plan team plans to hold a public meeting in 2017 to present these concepts and additional strategies.
The public is invited to provide feedback by visiting the master plan website or via email to info@reimaginethealamo.org.
Does anyone managing San Antonio planning have a brain when it comes to traffic? The city has already closed off Main Street as a north/south artery. That leaves only 3 north/south arteries downtown–Alamo Street, St. Marys/Navarro, and Flores–to connect the south side of the city with the north side. Cutting off Alamo would leave only two. If they want to make Alamo Plaza glorious without hurting the city, they need to plan for a multi-million dollar Alamo Street tunnel to go under it all!!!
I think the proposal to close Alamo Street (and parts of Crockett) to traffic – car and bus – from at least Commerce to Houston is one of the best elements of the new plan. It is consistent with preservation aims as well as a past study of Alamo Plaza by Project for Public Spaces or PPS (July 2012 – ‘Second to None: Finding Alamo Plaza’s Place in the City’).
Far from ‘dramatic’, some of the key recommendations coming out of current draft planning (including moving the 1936 Cenotaph and pedestrianizing Alamo Plaza) were offered by PPS well over four years ago, – n a document that was made public by the City as part of a recent RFQ: https://webapps.sanantonio.gov/bidlistingsnew/uploads/RFQ_2534_201504151115460.pdf
The article above highlights some of the deterioration being witnessed at the Alamo and suggests the obvious – that at least some deterioration can be linked with heavy traffic on Alamo Street.
This includes the recent introduction of 40-foot VivaVIA buses to the plaza that run frequently and use the Alamo as one of the only transfer points between all four lines: http://viainfo.net/BusService/VivaMain.aspx
VivaVIA seems to be struggling to attract riders since its launch this summer, and the problem seems to be routing – missing connections with Travis Park, Main Plaza, Centro Plaza and the new HEB downtown as well as potentially endangering the Alamo.
Any traffic-related damage to the Alamo since the PPS recommendations in July 2012 is on the City. Alamo Street – already one-way except for VIA buses between Houston and Commerce – should be closed immediately to car and bus traffic per past studies and the latest recommendations, and to allow visitors and locals to enjoy this district without concerns about car and bus traffic.
Related, VIA should honor recent studies and recommendations as well as concerns about traffic-related damage to the Alamo by re-routing all four VivaVIA services immediately – including to improve services for current bus riders and to popular destinations like Travis Park, Main Plaza, Market Square and the new HEB downtown. Minor changes to existing VivaVIA routes could also help serve new hotels, housing and offerings orientated to Frio Street, North Flores/Five Points, South Alamo Street and Probandt where VIA bus services are currently weak.
They better get this new “entertainment district” going first or very quickly along side this project to get a lot of the public on board. Yes we all love the Alamo and want to see it preserved but other than the Riverwalk this is basically the epicenter of entertainment in SA.
Most of downtown San Antonio is “boring” enough as it is, taking away the primary area that registers as fun and social is a hard pill to swallow without another area that caters to everyone looking to venture downtown and find entertainment, food, shopping, etc.
Just because the Riverwalk is amazing doesn’t mean the majority of the rest of downtown has to be so bleh. There are other areas that offer some incentive like the market etc but let’s be honest they are old and run down and not up to par with modern expectations outside of the little remaining historical charm.
Pretty much every idea is terrible. Just cut out the heart of the city and wreck its traffic a little more by shutting off a street.
Gettysburg etc are not valid comparisons…they are not in the center of a city. These people want to kill the city to make the space “sacred?”
No. Being part of a vibrant, active city makes it more sacred.
Throw this plan in the garbage, fire this design group, and hire some people who actually live here.
Take over and redevelop the buildings across from the Alamo. Reinforce, repair, and restore the remaining original structures. Beyond that, LEAVE IT ALONE! The open courtyards and the area in front of the entrance to the church do not need to be enclosed or changed in any way. If visitors can’t handle the heat tell them to go back north and come back in the winter. And leave the Cenotaph where it has stood since 1930. The Alamo is not a tourist attraction to be updated according to the latest trends. It is a shrine to be held in reverence by all true Texans and should be maintained as it was left to us by the brave men who shed their blood on that hallowed ground.
I agree 100% with Mr. Griggs. This is NOT an entertainment area! In FACT this is a BURIAL GROUND! The bodies of the Alamo Defenders were piled up and burned in this area. Their ashes left to blow in the wind!