Quote:
Originally Posted by JRG1974
This is a blatant attempt by Zachry Hospitality to protect their asset, the Hilton Palacio del Rio. Most design proposals (even theirs) called for a large, tall hotel on the Northwest corner of the property. This would have obscured the view of the Hilton, not to mention the ability of people to see it (red and green lights at Christmas). Now this revised design comes out. The building is shorter, and the massing is moved to the south, and it is bent back away from the street on the north end. I am sure that this will ensure that most, if not the whole Hilton will continue to have a view of the tower and the park for events like new year's fireworks. Zachry also owns the tower life that is so prominent in the main picture. I had hopes that the selection of Zachry would be a good choice. I am sure that the office space that was shown on the north end, as part of the future development, will end up being shorter than was originally indicated to protect the view of the Hilton as well.
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I'm making inferences here--but the biggest complaint I hear (and have personally) about the Grand Hyatt is that it is a giant wall blocking the Tower of the Americas. It's also ugly, but I digress... If the buildings on Hemisfair were all high rise, it would create a wall around the Tower and Park from the North and West.
Consider this: the developer is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build this project. Maintaining the view of the Hilton not going to be a driving factor, that would be incredibly irresponsible of them. But, making sure they are building a project that is viable and can get financed is an important consideration and could be why the buildings aren't 30 stories high. While I would love the buildings to be taller, at this height, I THINK there might not be a shadow covering the Civic Park in the afternoon, which is cool.
This is a skyscraper forum, so it's on topic to be concerned with the height of new development, but the ground level is what we are going to experience as visitors/residents and from what I've seen the ground level is going to be interesting and vibrant, with a lot of paseos and TREES and more ground level retail than anywhere else in San Antonio. And can we talk about the fact that parking will be UNDERGROUND?!?! That's major.
I also really like the curved hotel design--it doesn't feel like the Grand Hyatt "wall" and it looks like it visually pulls you into the park.
Typically, I'm pretty pessimistic about developments in San Antonio, but I really like this one and am looking forward to visiting once it's finished.
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