Category: San Antonio Parks

Worst Urban Front Door Award: Alamo Plaza Hall of Shame

postcardsfromsanantonio1 Comment

Didn’t really want to go here again. Blame it on the Downtown Alliance. The organization has added a Best Urban Front Door category to its annual Best Awards. “Best” is important in this category, and I only wish they had established a “Worst” category as well to underscore just how important. Recognition in this category could be used to shame property owners into cleaning up their acts, similar to the strident efforts in Webster, Massachusetts, discussed on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation today.

In an earlier post (Okay, in post after post), I identified some of the welcoming signs and entrances found within the Alamo Plaza Historic District.  The “Welcome to the Basement” sign setting the upscale fashion tone for the club was my favorite for the opposite effect it has. The Basement now has added a second ugly, illegal sign that should make it a logical candidate in a rather competitive environment for the ugliest entryway (Please refer to earlier posts to view additional possibilities around the plaza.).

But its neighboring shop on the other side of Fuddrucker’s frontage absolutely blows away the multitude of contestants around the plaza seemingly vying for the Worst Urban Front Door award (The wart built to hawk audio tours at the Alamo does not count because it is not the Alamo’s front door.).

Nominations for the Best Awards are closed, but nominations for the Alamo Plaza Hall of Shame remain open until no qualified candidates remain.

Just when I thought it could not get any worse update at 9:58 p.m. on March 8, 2011:  Sarah forwarded photos to me of hawkers lurking around the entrance of the Alamo to solicit business for the Alamo’s new green screen.

Being squawked at by hawkers promoting fake Alamo photos at the door is a new low. Of course, one of the reasons you need to pose in front of the Alamo on a green screen is that is the only way to take photos out front without having them include Alamo staff at tables selling audio tours and, now, the hawkers. What is the selling point? “Hey lady, if you want a photo without me in it, you have to come pay for it around back?”

The year 2020 is another 22.5 million visitors to the Alamo away…

postcardsfromsanantonio1 Comment

But with much of the “visioning” aimed at reinvigorating downtown, it would be a shame not to take on a challenge that has bedeviled local visionaries for decades:  Re-thinking Alamo Plaza.

Specifically, the tacky atmosphere that prevails across from our city’s most famous landmark cries out for another look.

In the January 7 edition of the Express-News, Scott Stroud urges city leaders not to forget Alamo Plaza in its visionary focus on downtown.

He continues:

But the carnival atmosphere poses peculiar challenges.  These are private properties and successful businesses, and it will take a lot of creativity — and maybe a lot of money — to alter the feel of the area.

Further, there are aspects of the current atmosphere that have value.

“There’s something nice about all the animation and activity, and the fact that people are there,” said Xavier Gonzalez, former HDRC chairman and the design director at RVK Architects.  “But once you think about it, you begin to say this is kind of cheap, and not really its highest and best use as far as history is concerned.”

DiGiovanni thinks re-zoning and other changes could be put in motion gradually, partly by involving property owners and the citizens of San Antonio.  He said a master-planning process aimed at “restoring the reverence” of the plaza could lead to a grander vision with broad public support.

Imagine if the plaza’s carnival atmosphere gave way to sidewalk cafes and art galleries, with apartments looking out on the Alamo from above. Imagine also a day when every first-time visitor to San Antonio wouldn’t gaze up at the iconic wall, then turn around and go, “Ugh.”

Start now, and maybe in a few years you’d have something — by, say, 2020?

While the vision Stroud lays out is great, there are major improvements that could be made at virtually no expense today. 

Just because buildings contain junk does not mean they have to appear junky (Have I written these exact words before?).  If the city merely enforced the ordinances governing the Alamo Plaza Historic District currently on the books, all of the tacky illegal signs cluttering the plaza (see examples) would vanish, including the sandwich boards the Daughters of the Republic of Texas place in front of the Alamo itself.

The city needs to act today.  Inaction until 2020 means another 22.5 million visitors to the Alamo will emerge from the Alamo and say “‘Ugh!'”

March 5, 2011, Update:  Scott Stroud recommends keeping “rethinking Alamo Plaza” simple in his Express-News column:

A more dignified plaza doesn’t have to involve removing buildings across from the mission. They’re historic in their own right. But we do have to dial down their garishness.

And David Phillips, a major investor in businesses on Alamo Plaza, offers a well thought-out response to criticism of the businesses around the Alamo.

Update on March 6: The Express-News Editorial Board weighs in on the plaza and historical accuracy.

Tried to Forget the Alamo….

postcardsfromsanantonio3 Comments

Have kept my lips zipped for a remarkable amount of time, but find it frustrating everyone ignores the fact there is such a thing as the Alamo Plaza Historic District.  And in this district, sandwich boards are not allowed. 

One would think the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, as custodians of the Alamo, would be zealots about complying with the signage codes designed to protect the integrity of the area.  But no.

As for the ice cream and sandwich signs on the opposite side of the plaza, code compliance already has notified this business the signs are illegal.  City staff leaves, and the signs come spilling right back out onto the building’s facade and sidewalk.  Couldn’t they just be confiscated?