SAN ANTONIO │ San Pedro Creek │ 2-Mile Redevelopment │ Under Construction

[kornbread]

http://www.therivardreport.com/the-s...ting-it-right/
7 August, 2015 at 09:00
Authors: Robert Rivard and Iris Dimmick

Robert Hammond, the co-founder of Friends of the High Line, the catalyst for development of New York City’s celebrated High Line Park, was invited back to San Antonio, his hometown, earlier this year to speak about the celebrated linear park built on an abandoned elevated railway once slated for demolition in lower Manhattan.

While he was here, Hammond was taken on a tour of San Pedro Creek, which today exists as a concrete ditch, a largely invisible flood-control channel with few remaining signs of a living waterway. He then visited the offices of Muñoz & Co. where his tour guide, Muñoz Principal and Architect Steven Land Tillotson, showed him the preliminary design plans for the $175 million San Pedro Creek Improvements Project.

This first phase of the San Pedro Creek Improvement Project extends two miles, starting at IH-35 at the flood tunnel inlet near Fox Tech High School south to the confluence with the Alazan/Apache Creeks at IH-35 near the former Union Stockyards. Bexar County has dedicated $125 million to the $175 million-project, with the City of San Antonio contributing several million dollars in downtown creekside property, and the San Antonio River Authority managing the project.

Robert Hammond. Photo by Liz Ligon.Robert Hammond. Photo by Liz Ligon.
“I was very excited as we toured San Pedro Creek,” Hammond said. “My Dad used to take me to the San Pedro Springs. I loved it and it was a very powerful memory. The opportunity is huge to do something different than the River Walk, knitting together the neighborhoods, making it part of a greater loop that connects to the San Antonio River and the Springs. The possibilities are big.”

Then Hammond looked at the design work and had concerns, the principal one being the absence of a noted landscape architectural firm in the project. Instead, Muñoz has hired a landscape architect, Todd Brant, to work on the project full time...

It's an article about the direction of the project. The idea that it might have too much of an architectural influence as opposed to a more natural setting. I kind of of agree that it should be scaled back and have a more natural feel (in certain areas for sure with a kitsch feel [tree of life]) and link to neighborhoods. I'm not too concerned about developers concerns, they should work around a park designed for residents to enjoy.

Thoughts?