Proposed Design Interventions

Our vision of Hemisfair’s future builds on the elements that make the focus area special within Hemisfair Park. The area contains the largest number of fair buildnigs buildings on the site including San Antonio’s iconic tower, popular water features, and extensive surface parking lots, which can be redeveloped. Hubs of activity will also surround the focus area once Civic Park and Yanaguana Garden have been completed, while fronting Cesar Chavez Blvd and the Lavaca neighborhood. With this in mind, we developed two concepts that build on the area’s assets while tying it to the rest of the park and the community. We follow these with a financial feasibility test of the reuse of mid-twentieth century fair pavilions.

Design Constraints

There are several design constraints on the Hemisfair site that should be taken into account when developing the new plan. Of particular concern is the Tower Park area centered on the Tower of Americas; as mentioned above, this area contains more historical buildings than any other area in the park. Therefore, new designs must complement the outdoor environment when reusing these buildings. Identifying ways to revitalize and reuse large open spaces with these sizeable historical buildings poses a challenge for development.

In addition, park identity has also been another factor for consideration. There are multiple identities for the southern portion of HemisFair Park. One is a tourist park, as many visitors consider the Tower of Americas to be among San Antonio’s primary landmarks, and tourists from Civic Park can walk easily to Tower Park. However, this southern portion could act as a neighborhood park as well, serving the local population from adjacent residential and historical neighborhoods. Due to its convenient location situated between the new convention center and the King William and Lavaca historical districts, there is a significant opportunity to develop new connections and access points to surrounding areas.

As there is already an existing Master Plan for the redevelopment of Hemisfair Park, our design intervention takes into account the plans proposed by HPARC and uses HPARC’s framework as a guideline. We have integrated our interventions into the existing park Master Plan along with Civic Park and Yanaguana Garden.

Concept 1: Peaceful Sculpture Park

As both Civic Park and Yanaguana Garden are planned as active and lively spaces, they may be well served by an adjacent area that is quieter and more peaceful, such as a Sculpture Park. An example of an existing park that is similar in concept is Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park (Figures 14,15). This 9-acre park has become one of the city’s most beloved attractions due to its engaging public art and tranquil atmosphere, and the same concept could be applied to Hemisfair. Sculptures may be supplemented by using existing historical buildings on site as cultural attractions such as theaters and museums, which would also benefit from a quieter environment.  New water features would contribute to tranquility of the space as well.

Due to proximity to existing historical buildings and the Tower of the Americas, the sculpture park could promote more local and tourist visitors to Hemisfair year-round. Key elements of this plan are: cultural activity reuse of Historic buildings from the mid-20s, public art areas, multi-level landscape design creating flexible use spaces such as event spaces and underground parking, water features, trees and greenery, pedestrian walkways, and mixed-use infill development.  As well as serving as a place for local culture, this concept could also include an international competition for sculptures, which would further enhance the site’s appeal to visitors.

As well as serving as a space for quiet physical activities such as meditation, yoga, and tai-chi, a landscaped sculpture garden could serve multiple uses. With varying levels, this type of space could provide underground parking and sunken indoor spaces opening out to the landscape for outdoor events and concerts. There is also potential for an outdoor amphitheater space to be utilized as a multi-functional space.

The view of the sculpture garden from the Tower of the Americas would be an added attraction for tourists visiting the observation tower, especially if sculptures were designed with viewers from this height in mind. If structural and financial feasibility would allow, a glass skywalk in the Observation Tower with a view of the Sculpture Park below could be an additional attraction.

While designing for the sculpture garden, the following points must be considered:

1. Central areas for the sculptures.
2. Paths and planned routes for a walking tour of the sculptures
3. Flexible infill spaces

Situated in the eastern part of the Hemisfair area, this park would lead visitors to this section by creating an interesting focal point in conjunction with the observation tower. The popular Riverwalk could be conceptually extended further inside Hemisfair by connecting water features culminating in the reflecting pond in the landscape feature inspired by the Hemisfair ‘68 logo. The overall landscape design would incorporate multiple levels, allowing flexible use of spaces such as underground parking and event spaces and varied uses would keep the area busy throughout the day and into the evening (Figures 9, 10).

 

The sculpture park concept faces several challenges, especially in the reuse of extant buildings, described in the figures below:

 

 

In conclusion, a sculpture park would create a point of focal interest and lead the visitors to the eastern portion of the Hemisfair. It would act as an extension to the cultural aspects of the reuse of the buildings and would provide an area with contrasting use to the other park areas.

 

Concept 2: Lively Fair, Lively Neighborhood

Our second concept is a lively neighborhood park to reference the vibrant characteristics of the area at the time of the World’s Fair. In order to accommodate the high demand for housing, retail, and office spaces in downtown San Antonio, the site could be developed into a lively mixed-use neighborhood, with infill development built on the site of current surface parking.  Mid to low-rise buildings will add the density required to sustain commercial activity, ground-level shops, outdoor patios, and cultural institutions will be placed in repurposed buildings to create a vibrant street corridor. Finally, plazas and courtyards will provide public gathering spaces for residents.

This concept is more in line with the 2011 Hemisfair Park Master Plan that envisions this area as a mixed-use neighborhood. One difference in our design concept is incorporating the reuse of these historic buildings into the mixed-use neighborhood. Key elements of this plan are: mixed-use infill development, complete streets, plazas and courtyards, outdoor patios, cultural institutions, World’s Fair atmosphere by preserving the memories of the past, and parking.

The first step involves breaking the existing large street blocks into blocks of smaller sizes, which will aid in creating a more cohesive community. The historical grid maps also show a much different layout than the current site, referencing that we propose a part of the historical grid be incorporated. As seen from the map shown in Figure 12, in the 1920s block volumes were smaller and the building density was higher. Therefore, creating inner and outer paths will promote connectivity that incorporates pedestrian paths and streets and make the entire neighborhood feel more human-scale.

This concept also incorporates some of the design features seen during the original Hemisfair in 1968. As shown on the map in Figure 13, at the time of the fair there were pedestrian paths with water features around the Tower of Americas. Most pavilion structures were temporary and small but also high in density, and the park was relatively pedestrian oriented. In addition, historic grids and Hemisfair’s 1968 layout will be incorporated into the lively mixed-use neighborhood concept plan detailed above. The huge blocks will be minimized in scale and be broken down into smaller sizes. The base of the Tower of Americas will be the central open space in the park, and the water feature will be extended from the River Walk to the park fountain (Figure 14).

 

 

 

 

 

The concept plan is divided into three areas of focus: new development, connecting water features, and temporary creative uses. The first focus will be the infill new development. (Figure 15). The development pattern focuses on smaller blocks with courtyard-style mixed-use. Building facades will be extended out to the streets so pedestrians can easily access first floor retail spaces, yards in the middle can be turned into public space and provide open areas with water features, seating, and cafes or restaurants. A new mixed-use building is proposed on the current site of the parking lot adjacent to the Federal Building that will be no more than 5 to 6 floors. The first floor will be used as commercial space, with condominiums above. The building would feature small-sized apartments and building amenities to attract a younger demographic to live in downtown.

Our second focus will attempt to connect the water features in the park. Although the River Walk ends at the convention center currently, we propose it to be connected to the Hemisfair Plaza, where new wall fountains and water features will be built in the courtyard area. Finally, congruous water features will be connected to the water display at the Institute of Texan Cultures as a culmination of the walk, however, drought issues must be addressed before the water features can be extended (see figure below.)

Our third design addresses some of the temporary creative uses for the site, intended to take place before the redevelopment of the park. Currently there are many areas in the park that can be quickly transformed to serve the community in cost effective and exciting ways. A temporary shelter structure could be built atop the round circular footprint of the former Coca Cola Pavilion thereby creating a flexible outdoor public space, public art with different amenities could be temporarily installed in these parking lots and open spaces, the area next to Yanaguana Garden could be turned into vendor stalls with food trucks or craft-carts, and parking lots in the southern neighborhood area could be used in a similar fashion, or even as market spaces during the weekends (Figure 17).

 

 

In summary, a peaceful sculpture park and lively neighborhood park are two different scenarios, which could be combined and integrated with the existing 2011 Master Plan (Figures 18, 19). For example, the open spaces among large building footprints could feature sculpture parks and public art installations, while the mixed-use infill could still be brought into the smaller blocks in the middle of the site. The success of redevelopment of the park will depend heavily on the appropriate reuse of Hemisfair’s existing buildings. While these two concepts provide possible reuse scenarios for the park, making progress on this project will be subject to financial constraints. In the next section we will explore the financial feasibility of this plan by considering the many economic factors necessary in the decision-making process to carry this project forward.

 

 

 

 

Adaptive Reuse Strategies: Envision Tomorrow

 

Our focus area contains the highest number of buildings remaining from the time of the original Hemisfair. Most of these buildings, such as the former US Pavilion’s Confluence Theatre and Exhibit Hall, have been repurposed for office and institutional spaces. The large former Texas Pavilion (presently the Institute of Texan Cultures) has also retained its use as an exhibit space. However, most of the smaller buildings such as the six historic pre-Hemisfair houses and the Women’s Pavilion are now underutilized. While redevelopment of the land on which they stand may have been possible in the past, these buildings should remain in place as at this point they have gained historical significance as relics of modernist and pre-modernist architecture.

The intention of preserving these buildings is not to preserve them as abandoned shells appreciated from the outside, but reinvigorate these buildings for active public use.  With the upcoming land swap of the US Pavilion site between its current tenant, the US Government, and the City of San Antonio, these buildings are poised for reuse.  Additionally, given the level of activity that Hemisfair Park will produce once redevelopment is complete, we believe these buildings should also not be used for institutions that leave a dearth of activity outside. We propose the adaptive reuse of all buildings in the Tower Park area for uses that will generate activity throughout the day and evening in order to make Hemisfair Park an attractive place to be at all times, not only for its green space but also for the activities it offers.

To determine economic feasibility of the adaptive reuse of buildings, our research employed the use of Envision Tomorrow’s Return-On-Investment (ROI) tools. Envision tomorrow is a suite of urban planning tools designed to get financial estimates of real estate projects and their impact on jobs and the environment. For each historic building, a ROI model was created using the building’s dimensions and real estate data specific to San Antonio. In the model, all buildings are reused to be mixed-use, with a high amount of green infrastructure incorporated into them including green roofs, bio swales, rain gardens, and rainwater harvesting.

 

 

 

During the fair, the Confluence Theatre was a specially designed 1200-seat movie theater that was complemented by an exhibit hall and a public plaza in between. Today, the federal government has reused this complex of buildings. The institutional nature of the building has created an outdoor atmosphere that is inactive and stale, largely unused by anyone except employees working there.

An anticipated land swap between the federal government and the City of San Antonio means that the site can be reused in a way that will complement an active and lively redeveloped Hemisfair Park. To that end, we propose two possible reuse scenarios for the US Pavilion buildings:

1. A fiscally prudent and possibly revenue generating reuse scenario is the conversion of the current buildings to high-end offices with retail and/or cafes at the ground floor. Retail and cafes will invite visitors to enter these buildings and make use of its outdoor spaces every day, while offices of a non-institutional character will provide weekday 9-to-5 activities. With the location of two universities on-site at Hemisfair Park, regular offices could also be mixed with educational spaces or a business incubator, which will provide activity for longer periods of time.

A building design strategy to accommodate all of these uses inside former Confluence Theater might be the approach used by Central City Shopping Center in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada. This shopping center has a floor-to-ceiling atrium with retail on the first floor and university classrooms and offices along the perimeter of the upper floors; this strategy would highlight the majestic height that the Confluence Theater offers. The US Pavilion Exhibit Hall, with its less welcoming front, would be best suited as primarily office space.

According to the Envision Tomorrow ROI model, reusing the Confluence Theater as a three-floor retail/office/educational complex would cost $13.2 million including landscaping to the immediate green space and have an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 14.2% with a target rate of 12% (the default in the model) when it is fully leased. This assumes that primarily because parking is decoupled from the improvements and must be built away from the site. Similarly, reusing the Exhibit Hall as offices would cost almost $7 million, but have an IRR of 17.8% with uncoupled parking.

2. Another possible reuse scenario of these buildings would be to return them to civic use. This option would probably not generate profit, but would be most complementary to the civic use of the park. To that end, the theater could be converted into a public library, with community rooms and some leasable office or business incubator space on the upper floors (Figure 21). Having a physical book collection at this library may not even be necessary; just as Hemisfair ’68 looked to the future, this library would as well. San Antonio is a leader in digital libraries, evidenced by the BiblioTech library on the outskirts of the city. A second, larger BiblioTech branch at Hemisfair would provide constant daily public use at this site. Alternatively, the building could be reused as a stage theater, which would provide an evening use for this area of the park.

A public library concept photo. ^[2]

 

 

The Exhibit Hall, lacking windows, would be ideally converted back to its former use as an exhibition space. The lack of windows helps prevent damage to delicate materials due to exposure to the elements, and not all of the building would need to be open to the public. A museum could store its archives in a part of the building, and could use additional administrative space. This could help reduce the size of the exhibit areas of the building, making the museum more accessible to visitors.

Primarily civic uses of the two buildings means that the reuse will not be profitable. However, adding more amenities to the park, which attract a constant flow of visitors, is not without benefit. Additionally, adding amenities may increase the land value of the surrounding land, which means that there would be a possibility of funding renovation projects through tax increment financing. Nevertheless, using the Envision Tomorrow ROI model we estimate that the cost of reusing the theater would be $13.3 million while the Exhibit Hall would cost $7.9 million.

 

The Federal Building.^[3]

 

 

The Federal Building is a 6-story modern building built after Hemisfair ’68. Due to its height and institutional character, the building has a significant presence at the Tower Park site although it is relatively inactive on the outside as it is also surrounded by large surface parking lots. While the building is not included as part of the land swap between the federal government and the City of San Antonio, changes to the building should be incorporated in order to make the building and its surroundings match the character of a redeveloped Hemisfair Park.

This building is not currently considered historically significant. If a land swap were to occur, the option to demolish the building and redevelop the land in a way that will match the vision of Hemisfair may be considered. Alternatively, the building could be kept and converted into a mix of rental apartments, offices, and ground-floor retail. An Envision Tomorrow ROI model conducted for this mixed-use reuse option estimated the cost of the reuse to be $29.3 million with an IRR of 10.1%, which could be addressed with subsidies. To accommodate these uses and bring the existing building closer to the street, a new building that envelopes the existing one may be necessary.

Alternatively, if only the parking lots may be swapped, they could be redeveloped into mixed-use apartments, a surface parking lot, or additional parkland. In that case, the building would be left untouched, but the City should encourage the federal government to make changes to the landscaping around  the building and its ground floor to make it more inviting for visitors, such as incorporating retail or adding high quality, sustainable landscaping and public art.

 

Currently owned and underutilized by the University of Texas at San Antonio, the Women’s Pavilion was a heralded modernist exhibition space during the time of the fair. Its small footprint and large open rooms make this building one of the most adaptable on site. For its reuse, we envision a mix of retail, offices, and exhibit or civic spaces. In the future, this may be the appropriate space for the administrative space of a non-profit organization. Envision Tomorrow analysis estimates the renovation costs to be $2.9 million with a 6.8% IRR if 50% of the space were market-rate leasable office space and 25% was for retail.

There are also six 19^th-century homes on the Tower Park area and they are currently being restored with funds provided by the City of San Antonio (Figure 25). Our proposal recommends HPARC to keep the homes and continue pursuing either retail or restaurant tenants for them. However, we also recommend installing a beer/wine courtyard within a cluster of historic homes next to the Women’s Pavilion, adding nighttime life to the outdoor area (Figure 26).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently the Texas Pavilion maintains purpose as an exhibit space now as the UTSA has become its tenant. However, as it is, the building’s imposing character makes it uninviting to visitors. While changes to the building envelope would disturb the historically significant structure, changes to the exterior landscape might make it more pleasant as an outdoor space for visitors and staff. There can also be better maintenance of large pieces of public art (preferable of Texan origin) and Xeriscaping could be incorporated to draw the attention of visitors on their way to the Tower of the Americas or any future amenities at Hemisfair Park. Additionally, outdoors fountains at the pavilion could be in operation and lighting may be incorporated into the fountains and the building to make the site more dramatic.

New additions to the building could be solar panels or a green roof, as long as they are removable in the future. A green roof accessible to visitors adapted to San Antonio’s hot weather could provide additional parkland for the site and make it more attractive overall. Changes to the interior of the building could also allow space for uses other than exhibitions, which could serve as an additional draw.

 

Adaptive Reuse Analysis Estimates

 

Project	Reuse Function	Cost	Profitability	Social Impact
Confluence Theater and surrounding greenery	74% Public/Edu20% Office8% Retail	$13.4 Million($1.8M for green infrastructure)	No, will need funding	100 jobsCommunity space
US Pavilion Exhibit Hall	65% Public/Edu20% Office15% Retail	$7.9 Million($664k for green infrastructure)	No, will need funding	65 jobs
Federal Building	49% Rental Units34% Office17% Retail	P3: Give land	$2.8M subsidy	200 jobs16 affordable housing units
Women’s Pavilion	50% Office25% Retail25% Public/Edu	$2.9 Million($961k for green infrastructure)	6.8% IRR	34 jobs

 

 

Conclusion

 

In this section, we have proposed two scenarios for the possible redevelopment of the site and reuse options for the historical buildings. Both the Peaceful Sculpture Park and the Lively Mixed-Use Neighborhood scenarios take into consideration themes of sustainability by adopting the framework suggested from the existing Master Plan. By not only taking into account the environmental aspect of sustainability but also touching on the social sustainability aspect, we have emphasized the importance of preserving the historical and cultural memory of the past World’s Fair. In addition, we have also examined economic sustainability by conducting a financial feasibility test using Envision Tomorrow to complement our proposals. Although the results indicate that reusing existing buildings for a primarily public use may not be economically sustainable on its own, we hope that our recommendations and discoveries will nonetheless open up discussions on possible redevelopment and financing opportunities for the Tower Park site and reuse options for the historical buildings in sustainable ways.

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Footnotes

^[1] UTSA Center for Cultural Sustainability (2011) Inventory, Assessment and Evaluation of Historic Resources in HemisFair Park, San Antonio: UTSA Center for Cultural Sustainability.

^[2] Florida Polytechnic University. 2014. The Reveal Web-5-3 (IGT Building Opening Day). Photo. Used with permission. All rights reserved. https://www.flickr.com/photos/flpolytechnic/14713327467/.

^[3] Gary Easter. 2009. Federal-Building-San-Antonio. Photo. Used with permission. All rights reserved.