I still don't understand why they thought it necessary to pull away from the Riverwalk with nondescript, shapeless space and a zigzag PoMo podium behind an arcade screen with grated window security bars. Pulling back from one of the most successful pedestrian river fronts in country, and for something ultimately so
banal! Yes, its nicer than the old retaining wall, but that was a low bar.
Stone arches and some pretty plantings are not enough, and this is what I though of after seeing the latest overhead:
(Photo from
Davis Kane Architects)
We'll have to give the river level arcade wall and its plantings time to grow back in and see if plantings in combination with the pedestrian density of the Riverwalk can hide the architectural failings, but the danger is that it could easily end up a nice-but-scripted dead space like this:
(Photo from
NACE - Alamo Chapter)
That is was what happens when "nice" and "okay" are the standards and we are desperate for anything new, even if it is pigeon-holed from standard design manuals of cheap suburban motels. Ironically, that dreary scene is just a few minutes walk upstream. They should have looked more downstream, where the inspirational models of the classic Riverwalk look like this:
(Photo by
Greg L. Jones on Flickr)