Tag: Conservation Society

Postcard from San Antonio, Texas: Time to toast the Alamo Trust

postcardsfromsanantonio3 Comments

Above: Rendering of plans for the Alamo Visitor Center and Museum from the Alamo Trust

Recent international trends in museum design and development have emphasized the reuse and transformation of historic industrial and commercial buildings for interpretive programming, providing stronger links between complex layers of history and dynamic visitor experiences. Through the historic preservation treatments of exterior restoration and interior rehabilitation, these three buildings on Alamo Plaza can provide the opportunity for a unique twenty-first century museum experience that is innovatively housed within some of San Antonio’s most historically significant commercial architecture of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

“Historical Assessment of a Trio of Historic Buildings on the West Side of Alamo Plaza,” John G. Waite Associates’ study commissioned by the Alamo Trust, 2020

The Crockett Block (1882); the Palace Theater (1923); and the Woolworth Building (1921). All three recognized as significant historic landmarks in San Antonio and nationally. The 2020 evaluation by John G. Waite Associates let preservationists breathe a bit easier.

A cause for celebration: The block is no longer in danger of complete demolition to make way for a new museum directly across the plaza from the Alamo Chapel. The rendering at the top of this post is the current one espoused by the Alamo Trust. Most of this complex on the west side of Alamo Plaza will be transformed into a handsome museum and visitors center designed by a team of architects and designers from internationally renowned Gensler and San Antonio-based GRG Architecture.

In addition to private donations, the overall Alamo Plan is receiving an amazingly generous boost in the Texas State Budget – a whopping $400-million. In other words, the museum, preservation of the Alamo itself and redo of Alamo Plaza are all moving forward.

Continue reading “Postcard from San Antonio, Texas: Time to toast the Alamo Trust” →

Biannual survey of what you are reading on my blog

postcardsfromsanantonio1 Comment

You, one of the few who actually reads this blog, have failed me. As usual, the subject matter of the most-read posts is all over the map, providing me no guidance of where to head.

gun-posterExcept guns at the Alamo. And I really prefer not to write about guns. The popularity of those posts rose because they were circulated widely among those who want to brandish arms publicly, so much that I felt compelled to move away from the window while typing so not to serve as an easy target.

Drummer Phil Collins’ promotion of Two Roads to the Alamo* and the Conservation Society Book Awards on his facebook page kept it hovering near the top. People from all over the world clicked on his link, disappointed to find out it was mainly about me.

The number in parentheses represents the rankings from six months ago:

  1. Please come and take them away from San Antonio, 2013
  2. Two Roads to the Alamo* and the Conservation Society Book Awards (1), 2013
  3. George Hutchings Spencer, 1923-2013 (4), 2013
  4. The State surrenders the Alamo; Run for Cover, 2013
  5. Library Foundation flapping red cape for the bullish on books (6), 2013
  6. The Memorable Mary Denman (5), 2010
  7. Processing Art through Public Filters, Part Two (7), 2013
  8. Richard Nitschke: Seeing Agave in a Different Light, 2013
  9. “Nuit of the Living Dead” (8), 2010
  10. Please put this song on Tony’s pony, and make it ride away (11), 2010
  11. Sarah’s faces more than a thousand times better, 2013
  12. Cheez Doodles as Art (2), 2011

Don’t blame me if you don’t like where I head next. You have left me totally perplexed. But thanks for trying to hang in there.