San Antonio argues over plan for the Alamo
But how? San Antonio argues over a new master plan.
A new plan aims to restore conditions of the mission before it was mostly destroyed in the 1836 battle, highlighting it as a place where indigenous families lived and worshipped for centuries, as well as the site of the siege.
AFTER the Battle of the Alamo, Mexican Gen. López de Santa Anna ordered his troops to destroy as much of the mission as possible.
When I visited the Alamo recently, this destruction was evident. The site retains few of the original features that would have made up the 18th-century Spanish mission, except, of course, the iconic chapel and the long barracks.
But these buildings seem curiously out of place and ignored by the high-rises and parking lots of the modern metropolis that grew up around them.
I texted my co-worker: “I don’t get the Alamo. There’s so little educational information here. It refuses to teach me about itself.”
There are a few commemorative signs that reference the famous Texas revolutionary battle — including a gold line on the ground where, legend has it, Col. William Travis drew his saber through the dust and asked every man willing to die to cross — but otherwise I was lost. A new master plan aims to restore, at least in gesture, conditions of the mission before it was destroyed, highlighting it as a place where indigenous families lived, worked and worshipped for centuries, as well as the site of the 13-day siege.
After several years, the Alamo Master Plan Committee has released detailed renderings of a proposed new plan for the Alamo Complex. The team is led by George C. Skarmeas, AIA, of the Philadelphia-based firm Preservation Design Partnership (PDP). His previous projects include restoration work on the U.S. Supreme Court Building and the Virginia Capitol.
The last of five public meetings to discuss the plan took place on May 2. On Thursday, it will go before the San Antonio City Council for conceptual approval.
Archaeological research conducted in the summer of 2016 helped to provide a basis for PDP’s master plan. The site has often been criticized for failing to represent the true historic identity of the Alamo, which began to lose its integrity after Gen. Santa Anna exacted his vengeance on the mission.
The plan addresses four main aspects of the site: the historic structures, the courtyard, the 1936 garden and a museum to be established in the Crockett Building across the street.
This would necessitate closing the portion of Alamo Street between the Crockett Building and the historic buildings to traffic. Skarmeas proposes creating a large plaza where the street is today, connecting the monument to the museum and restoring the acequia that historically ran through the mission.
PDP also proposes enclosing the plaza with a glass wall that approximates the location and height of the mission’s long-ago demolished stone wall.
“The glass actually does not make any representation that it is the actual wall,” Skarmeas explained. “It is an element that says, ‘Here’s where approximately the wall was. Here is a sense of enclosure.’ And that will allow us to tell the story and allow people to imagine some things.”
Authenticity is a key element in Skarmeas’ plan. “When we started the project, we started talking about doing this based on actual evidence and based on fact; based on scientific research and historic research, not fiction,” Skarmeas said. “And there are a lot of myths about certain things. We wanted to figure out ways of organizing the site, providing some clarity, so people can understand where the historic site was, what happened, and so on.”
“The other part is there is a unanimous view that this site has suffered a lot of indignities over the years. And one of the things that we need to do is restore the dignity, the reverence, the seriousness that needs to be attached to a site such as this one.”
The archaeological investigation revealed that the ground surrounding the mission was originally 2 feet below the surface level today. Accordingly, the proposal lowers the level of the street at the site. Even the central building, the Alamo chapel, could have as much as 18 inches of its facade buried beneath pavement and gravel.
Reaction to the plan has been decidedly mixed, if not outright hostile. A group of prominent San Antonio architects from firms like Lake|Flato, Alamo Architects and Overland Partners have signed an open letter, calling for the planners to rethink their design. The letter decries the removal of heritage oak trees from the plaza (Skarmeas announced at the most recent public meeting that the plan will keep the trees) and condemns the glass wall, pointing out that it would close off the space to the public.
“On May 11,” the letter states, “we hope the City Council will approve the master plan conditional on the need for a continuing process that keeps the plaza as a connected civic space rather than a controlled-access outdoor museum. The plaza must be a welcoming and integral part of our city, balancing the historic aspects of the Alamo with the civic needs of the plaza.”
Ann McGlone, AIA, a preservation architect and a former Historic Preservation Officer for the city of San Antonio, also voiced objections, namely that the plan is motivated more by politics than by design, stating, “I think George P. Bush has some very high political ambitions, and this might be part of that.”
The Alamo has a history of inspiring controversy and passion. When the Alamo Cenotaph was proposed in 1936 and constructed in 1940, there was an outcry about its design and location. Legendary Texas folklorist J. Frank Dobie described it as “like a grain elevator or one of those swimmingpool slides.” The mission’s designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with San Antonio’s four other missions, inspired protests and a bill in the Legislature called “The Protect the Alamo Act,” which never gained traction.
PDP’s master plan is merely another chapter in the Alamo’s storied history, which has occasionally been more mythical than historical. “We cannot destroy the real McCoy to build a representation,” Skarmeas said, citing movies as a primary source of the public’s ideas about the site and the events of 1836. “We were forewarned before we took this assignment that passions would be very high, and, literally, multiple lines on the sand would be drawn here.”