July 18–Plans for a $325 million Convention Center expansion are “remarkable” in blending old and new, but still need clarity on how the revamped center will interface with HemisFair Park, members of a city review board said Wednesday.
A west entry next to the Convention Center Lagoon will be “the hometown face of this building, which it severely lacked previously,” said Tim Cone, chairman of the Historic and Design Review Commission, which gave the project conceptual approval.
Commissioner Michael Guarino said Populous, the national firm that designed the project, made great improvement in circulation and function of the building, and found “remarkable” ways to incorporate murals and other ornamental features of the HemisFair era into its design.
He and other commissioners had concerns about the building’s southeast entry, wondering if it is too small to accommodate foot traffic from a revitalized HemisFair Park and the Alamodome. But they said that element is contingent on plans in development by Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation, or HPARC.
A final design and public art component still must be reviewed by the commission.
Other concerns of commissioners and City Council members who saw the plans in June are aesthetics of the center’s east fa?ade facing Interstate 37 and use of art and landscaping to make the building attractive and distinctive. The city project is in a historic district and river overlay district.
In other business, the Commission:
Approved a three-year display of a large outdoor mural facing Main Plaza. The 2,500-square-foot abstract mural will be based on a wall drawing by Venezuelan-born artist Arturo Herrera, a former San Antonian, that is owned by the Linda Pace Foundation.
The red-and-white mural, more than 25-feet high and nearly 98-feet wide, will be painted on a wall of the Frost Bank parking garage at the northwest corner of Commerce Street and Main Avenue. In a project narrative, the Pace Foundation said the mural, approved by the city’s Public Art Board, will add color, vibrancy and “great artistic value” to the plaza’s periphery.
Sent expansion plans for Taco Land, 103 W. Grayson St., to its design review committee. Plans for the site include an elevated deck surrounding a heritage live oak.
Two residents spoke of concerns about noise, parking and scale of the expansion of the landmark music venue, which originated as a restaurant in the 1960s. Commissioners said they wanted more time to study the site changes.
Postponed discussion of a church’s plan to raze a 1950s structure in Monte Vista, one of the nation’s largest historic districts. Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church wants to demolish a 1951 rectory at 223 E. Summit Ave. and build a faith formation building. The structure now houses church offices and no longer is used as a residence for clergy.
The Monte Vista Historical Association opposes the project. The group’s board passed a July 9 resolution saying it would negatively impact the residential integrity of the neighborhood and “destroy the park-like nature of the site.”
The proposed two-story structure is more than three times the size of the existing building, association leaders said.
City officials said the church requested time to prepare its presentation to the commission.
shuddleston@express-news.net
