Category: San Antonio Parks

Convention Center Space ‘Growed Up’

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Things sure have changed since the last time I was here. It’s all growed up.

Woodrow Call riding into San Antonio in Lonesome Dove

Anyone who has ever tried to stage anything festive in a meeting room in a Convention Center knows the difficulty of creating atmosphere without spending major amounts to dramatically alter the decor.  On my morning walks, I have discovered that deep under the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center is a new space that is a party waiting to happen.  Planners need only stock the bar and pass the hors d’oeuvres. 

While I concede the room’s Lonesome Dove theme is a bit hokey for a spot in new construction overlooking the manmade water feature linking the Convention Center Lagoon to HemisFair Park, it is so refreshing to see something that doesn’t scream “you are about to be imprisoned in a stark meeting room for several miserable hours.” 

There was no one to let me in for a closer look at 7 a.m., but the over-sized prints on the wall appeared to be copies of Bill Wittliff’s photos from the film.  Cowhide rugs are scattered on the carpeting, overstuffed chairs beckon people to sit a spell and horn chairs are scattered throughout  (Don’t think this photo from the city’s website actually does it justice.  Maybe it was taken before all the furniture arrived and artwork hung.).  As far as Convention Center space goes, this place actually looks downright hospitable.

Currently, the river level of the adjacent Lila Cockrell Theatre is masked for a fashion makeover.  The pleasant surprise of Lonesome Dove makes me eager to see just what is going on under Miz Lila’s skirt as well. 

Update on November 11:  The Lila Cockrell Theater redo complete.

Seesawing Signage Issues: Take three baby steps forward and two giant steps back.

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Update on September 3:  Oh my gosh!  Some of the window-covering signage in the Crockett Block has disappeared.  Is there some powerful new enforcer at work?  Is there hope Shamu will be chased back to SeaWorld soon?

Originally, I added that optimistic update to the bottom of an older post, “Slip-Sliding Backwards on Alamo Plaza Signage.”  I need no longer be Alamobsessive about the plaza, I thought.  Other people care and are enforcing the regulations spelled out in the Unified Development Code.

Unfortunately,  the Express-News’ Scott Huddleston quickly jerked the rug out from under me,  suggesting I go back for a closer look. 

Encountered the usual irritating distractions on the way, such as the banners and goods spilling out of the basement on the Commerce Street side of the Dullnig Building.  One shop in the Dullnig still had sandwich boards outside on Alamo Street, but Best of Texas removed its sandwich boards, actually advertising sandwiches, from the sidewalk – only to suspend them illegally overhead now.  Some of the “everything changes color in the sun” banners have indeed been removed from the Crockett Block, unfortunately leaving Alfred Giles name carved in stone next to a window full of boxes. 

But what I really came to see was the replacement for the pop-up tent the Daughters of the Republic of Texas previously used to hawk their audio tours of the Alamo.  Like the other hundred or so people on the plaza disappointed to find the grounds closed at 5:30, I had to be content to peer through the barred gateways.  (An aside, but wouldn’t the Daughters be able to rake in more dollars from the sale of coonskin caps and snow globes if they kept the Alamo open later than 5 p.m. while the days are so long?)

A beautiful arcade leads from the Alamo to the library on the grounds.  But… there it is.  A tacky banner suspended from a cedar beam (the flag still waving “proudly from the walls” referenced by William Barrett Travis?) guides you right to the new tour store.  A wall painted a depressing shade of brown now fills one the arches.  A window permits rental of the audio tours with a shelf attached by some cheap metal hinges. 

Banners promoting basement shops proliferate along the Commerce Street facade of the Dullnig Building.
With prices this low, surely a shop needs a second banner.
The Armadillo banners set off a t-shirt price war with its neighbor.
To comply with requests to remove sandwich boards from city sidewalks, Best of Texas hoisted them up on the building.
Some of the illegal signage on the Giles-designed Crockett Block has been removed from the windows facing the Alamo.
Stripped of illegal signage, the window reflects the facade of the Alamo silhouetted against stacked storage boxes.
Alfred Giles deserves apologies for the appearance of the Crockett Block.
A graceful arcade added to commemorate the Texas Centennial links the Alamo Library to the Alamo.
The Daughters of the Republic of Texas seem to have adopted banner marketing techniques from their neighbors.
That open archway was just wasted space anyway.
Sarah Reveley shared this photo with me of the audio-tour booth fully staffed.
Nothing but the finest hardware used for the addition.
Contrasting paint colors help make the adjacent utility closet stand out.
Sarah contributed this photo showing the juxtaposition of the architectural wart with the southern wall of the Alamo Chapel.
And I just threw in this San Antonio Tea Party logo because it scared me.

No one could accuse the Daughters of over-spending on this fine architectural addition to the hallowed grounds.  The budget was extremely frugal according to their reports:

Estimated start up cost is $8,000 to be covered by Allies of the Alamo.  The start up costs are:  portable building to house equipment and sales, part-time, no benefits staff, four credit card machines, signage, cash register, air conditioner, and miscellaneous items such as stickers and printing.

The investment apparently is paying off:

…Tour Mates is now up and running.  They had 201 customers on their second day of operation.  It is in a good location and customers have had good comments.  They are pleased with the charge.  There is a sign that reads “Admission to The Alamo is FREE.  Enhance your visit with a $6 audio tour.”

At this rate, the Daughters’ initial investment will be paid off in about a month.

Huddleston questioned the architectural merits of this low-budget addition in his online blog:

Since it’s on state property, the booth and the banner didn’t have to be presented for approval by the city’s Historic and Design Review Commission.  If it did, I would hazard to speculate that the commission would allow the banner.  But I think commissioners might say putting the wooden booth right up against the outside edge of the 1937 Arcade was “not respectful” to the historic structure.

It’s time for the Historic Design and Review Commission to call for reenforcements.   Send a messenger to Austin to alert the Texas Historical Commission:

in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & every thing dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch.

William Barrett Travis

February 24, 1836

Note Added on September 11: 

“I don’t claim to be a historian, I’m just an English drummer who loves the Alamo.”

If only Phil Collins would rally the Texas Historical Commission.  The commission devoted two full pages in The Medallion to Collins’ presentation on “his notable Alamo Collection.” 

But where did he make his presentation?  Dallas.  How about a walking tour around the plaza? 

I’ve issued a pitiful blog-plea before, Phil, but, please, “come to our aid, with all dispatch.”

Note Added on October 28:  Please join me in submitting the audio rental booth addition to the Centennial Arcade at the Alamo to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Yikes’ postings of inartistic alterations to historic structures.

Note Added on December 20:  News from London is that Phil Collins himself might try to broker peace at the Alamo.  Sounds dangerous for someone Rolling Stone describes as having suicidal thoughts.  But maybe he can summon up the heroism from whoever he was at the Alamo in a former life:

Collins has noticed glowing, semitransparent light orbs in a series of photos he took at the Alamo. “It’s paranormal energy,” he explains, noting that a psychic recently told him he fought at the fort in a previous lifetime. “I don’t want to sound like a weirdo. I’m not Shirley MacLaine, but I’m prepared to believe. You’ve seen the pictures. You can’t deny them, so therefore it’s possible that I was there in another life.”

Max and Minnie Voelcker left more than their farm behind

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Front Cover of "Last Farm Standing on Buttermilk Hill: Voelcker Roots Run Deep in Hardberger Park"

 

Never realized how much virtual travel it would take to get a book to press. Certainly, Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker could not have envisioned their story would do the amount of traveling it has done this summer; of course, they would be shocked to find their story told at all.   

Editor Lynnell Burkett of LBJ CommuniCo of San Antonio found our book designer, Amy Layton, in Sanger, Texas. The indexer (I never had given any thought at all to how indexes arrived in the back of books.), Sherrye S. Young, PhD, of RedLine Editorial Services worked from her home in White Bluff, Tennessee. I tracked down Char Miller in Delaware.  He read Last Farm Standing on Buttermilk Hill while relaxing on a beach, then wrote the blurb for the back of the book when back in Claremont, California, where he serves as director and W.M. Keck professor of environmental analysis at Pomona College.   Former Mayor Phil Hardberger docked his sailboat at some unknown port to email in his blurb.  And now Last Farm temporarily has moved to the offices of Four Color Print Group in Louisville, Kentucky, before its journey to somewhere in China.   

Back Cover of "Last Farm Standing on Buttermilk Hill"

 

 
And then we wait.  And wait.  While Max and Minnie were doing all of this virtual travel with the click of a send button, that is not how they will return.  Their journey back to San Antonio actually will be aboard a proverbial slow boat from China.  Their story will arrive, no longer in only a virtual state, at the end of October.   

As I packed up the pieces of paper and photographs documenting their lives that have encircled my desk for so long, I wondered what good the couple has accomplished posthumously since I completed writing the manuscript more than a year ago.   

The Max and Minnie Tomerlin Voelcker Trust has announced their Scholar and Young Investigator Awards for 2010.  The Young Investigator Awards are designed to support young scientists conducting medical research to find cures for cancer, heart disease, arthritis, muscular dystrophy, retinitis and/or macular degeneration of the retina.  Recipients are provided $150,000 per year for three years ($450,000).  The Scholar Awards provide a one-time award of up to $500,000 to each recipient and are intended to foster development and productivity of outstanding, established scientists conducting medical research to find cures for the same diseases.   

Investigator Award recipient Alexander Bishop, PhD, of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) is striving to determine cisplatin survival factors to augment ovarian cancer treatment.  UTHSCSA’s Doug E. Frantz, PhD, is working on the development of novel stem cell-based therapeutics to treat heart disease and cancer.  Lorena M. Havill, PhD, of the Southwest Foundation for Medical Research, is studying genetic contributions to knee osteoarthritis risk.  Sunil Sudarshan, MD, PhD, of UTHSCSA is delving into the metabolic links to renal cancer.  Scholar Award recipient Tyler J. Curiel, MD, MPH, also of UTHSCSA, is devoting his energies to the development of effective and tolerable age-specific tumor immunotherapy.  

Pretty amazing that the frugality of two former dairy farmers with little formal education is contributing so much to the advancement of medicine.  Makes me even more proud to have been privileged to get to know them, if only from the scraps and traces they left behind, and to preserve some remnant of their lives on paper.    

Bon voyage Max and Minnie, and, as I resume my other writing projects, I already miss your presence in my study.   

Note Added on September 15:  The Twig Book Shop, 200 East Grayson in the Pearl Brewery complex, will host a book-signing welcoming Max and Minnie back from China from 5 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 16. 

November 17 Update:  Gifts with enduring ramifications….