Inside San Antonio's Plans for a New Civic Park

Construction is expected to begin in 2016 on a new 16-acre park in San Antonio designed to embody all of the public amenities that make the city unique.

1 minute read

April 15, 2015, 1:00 PM PDT

By James Brasuell @CasualBrasuell


Aaron Seward provides the design and planning details of a new civic park, part of an upcoming overhaul of San Antonio's Hemisfair Park, site of the city's 1968 International Exposition. The article focuses especially on the civic park designed by Seattle-based landscape architecture firm Gustafson Guthrie Nichol. "Inspired by the city’s tradition of public gathering spaces and intimate relationship to its eponymous river, the 16-acre park includes plazas, plantings, and promenades, as well as a meandering water feature," writes Seward.

As for the park's relationship to the larger project of overhauling the 90-acre Hemisfair site, "the project integrates six new buildings, totaling over 600,000 square feet of mixed uses, and provides direct connections between San Antonio’s resurgent core, River Walk, and historic neighborhoods like Lavaca and King William."

Seward also reports on the research that went into creating the new civic space in a city already famous for its outdoor public spaces.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015 in The Architect's Newspaper

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