The City of San Antonio has shared plans for a new aquatic center near Mission San Jose that includes a 3,020-square-foot pool and a shallow, zero-entry lagoon for children, as well as future space for a slide tower and lazy river.
The aquatic center would cost just over $5 million and be set for completion in the fall of 2027, according to the city’s website.
The site for the project is between the Mission Marquee Plaza, the Harvey E. Najim Family YMCA and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9186. The Mission Marquee Plaza is a community event space that was formerly known as the Mission Drive-In Theater.
City officials included plans for the aquatic center in a proposal to the Historic and Design Review Commission, which will conduct a final review of the project at its Jan. 21 meeting.
The aquatic center was designed by Rialto Studio, a landscape architecture firm that operates in Austin and San Antonio. Rialto Studio also worked on Confluence Park, San Pedro Creek and the Witte Museum, according to the company’s website.
A project description from Sep. 25 said the aquatic center is in the Mission Historic District, but post-war suburban development has removed mission-period history from the site.
That description said the new aquatic center will draw inspiration from surrounding buildings, like the Mission Marquee Plaza, and include a sandstone entrance and wood beams.
“The building layout is intended to evoke a compound-style common to the missions with buildings and fencing providing a secured perimeter allowing water play activities to leisurely occur in the protected interior,” read the description.
Construction will be funded using $5 million set aside for parks from a 2022 bond and $173,600 from the tree mitigation fund. The project will include at least 89 trees being planted.
The site is meant to serve as an anchor facility with space for future uses like a splashpad, lazy river or other outdoor activities. Those additions have yet to be funded.
