Historic board OKs new park plan
A conceptual plan for a new city park by the historic Hays Street Bridge has been approved by a city panel, but it will be a while before the work begins, including reassembly of a 1976 bandstand recently removed from Alamo Plaza.
The Historic and Design Review Commission last week approved the plan for the 1.7-acre park at 803 N. Cherry St., but bridge advocates are concerned that the bandstand might not fit in.
In another park-related case, the commission delayed action on a request for signage and art installations of giant animal figures on a parking garage near the San Antonio Zoo in Brackenridge Park.
More than a dozen citizens and community leaders raised concerns about the signage on the garage, which is intended to serve all patrons of the popular, historic park, not just visitors of the zoo.
The planned park by the Hays Street Bridge will be named after Berkley V. and his brother Vincent M. Dawson, officials of beer distributor BudCo, who donated land by the bridge in 2007 to the city.
In a seven-year legal fight with the city that went to the Texas Supreme Court, members of a group that helped restore the late 1800s bridge prevailed, clearing the way
for the park project to move forward, rather than a proposed mixed apartment-retail complex.
Gary Houston, who grew up on the East Side and was a leader of the Hays Street Bridge Restoration Group, submitted a statement that the proposed design, which also includes a skateboard park, restrooms, a playground, tree plantings and walkways, incorporates “too many distinct functions with a space that is too limited to accommodate them adequately.”
He said community meetings concerning the design did not include the bandstand until late in the process.
Others have raised concerns about placement of the bandstand where it might hinder views of the bridge against the downtown skyline. The Conservation Society of San Antonio said the bandstand would function better as a performance stage than an open pavilion for gatherings. The group suggested it be used as a “focal point for park entry, perhaps as a storytelling plaza,” with a separate pavilion for events.
“The bandstand at the entry plaza would perhaps provide much-needed shade and create a special sense of entry into the park,” Conservation Society president Patti Zaiontz said in a letter read at the meeting, which was held via teleconference due to COVID-19 restrictions.
San Antonio Parks Director Homer Garcia III said his department will continue discussions on placement of the bandstand and other elements of the park, which may require funding from a future bond issue.
“We want to make sure that we get the development of this park done right,” Garcia said. “We don’t have money right now to fully develop the park.”
With that caveat, the commission approved the park’s conceptual plan.
Parking debate
But the panel voted to postpone action, at least until mid-June, on the proposed aluminum parking garage sign and animal figures, to allow for more negotiation and input from neighborhoods surrounding Brackenridge Park.
Commissioner Curtis Fish questioned why the panel was hearing a case on a “highly visible, publicly funded project,” with an application dated May 1, that he said got “rushed to the front of the line,” ahead of “so many citizen applications, some of which have been filed…before the current crisis began.”
The city-owned, five-story garage, which opened in October and is run by the zoo, would be adorned with two brown “Brackenridge Park” signs totaling 160 square feet and two light green “San Antonio Zoo” signs totaling 580 square feet. An 80-by-36-foot tiger and three giraffes up to 52 feet tall and four butterflies are the images depicted in renderings submitted by Alamo Architects.
Local historian and author Lewis F. Fisher supported the Brackenridge Park Conservancy’s pleas for compromise on the size of the proposed reverse-lit channel letter signs, comparing the zoo to New York City’s Central Park Zoo and other urban park zoos.
“The San Antonio Zoo was best known as the Brackenridge Park Zoo for almost half its history. That symbiotic relationship continues,” Fisher said in a statement read at the meeting.
Parks director Garcia said the city has worked with the conservancy to include Brackenridge Park signage, “so that we can have a project that offers signage not only for the zoo but also the park.”
On the other concern, about whether the animal figures are aesthetically appropriate for the park, he said the characters are not public art but visual improvements, along with star jasmine and crossvine plantings to cover the structure’s mesh facade, “for something that is a lot of concrete.”
“We’ve made it clear that this is just a design enhancement or a wrap for the garage,” Garcia told commissioners.
Commissioner Gabriel Valasquez asked his commission colleagues to view the art installation design “through child’s eyes” and consider what the zoo contributes to the park, without getting involved in an “unnecessary controversy.”
“It could be argued that without the zoo, Brackenridge Park would not be Brackenridge Park,” Velasquez said.
But commissioners said the community and stakeholders should have more time to consider and discuss the proposal.
“I think an equitable solution can be found,” HDRC Vice Chairman Scott Carpenter said.
Joe D. Calvert, board president of the Brackenridge Park Conservancy, said after the meeting that the voter-approved 2017 bond issue included construction of a garage “to service Brackenridge Park and San Antonio Zoo patrons.”
“The BPC has and will continue to advocate for equitable signage that promotes Brackenridge Park as well as the zoo,” Calvert said.