 as Spanish translation, service available here in the back or to the site, if you need that service, please go here to the site. I'd also like to ask Lori to come up or just a minute to talk about the process of how we're gonna attain some of the input and we can go over some of that as well. So Lori Houston, our Assistant City Manager. Thank you for the big Council Member. As Council Member Trevino said, I'm Assistant City Manager, Lori Houston and this is our fourth positive meeting. We've had the same format every night this evening, Wednesday or Tuesday, Wednesday, with tonight's being the last meeting. We are gonna be collecting input in several ways this evening. You can text your comments. You should have received a flyer on how to do that. You can go online and submit it in your website or we also have comment cards. This is a way to maximize the input we receive. We are gonna be gathering all of that and then we post in all of those questions we received at all public meetings, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and the answers to those on the website, which is www.thealamo.org. At the end of the presentation this evening, we will have Council Member Roberto Trevino and Alamo Advisory Committee Member Forrest Byes moderate what we're going to buy. He should be categories that are submitted. So if there are questions regarding the site plan, if there are questions or comments regarding the site plan, we'll be going through those. We will look at each of them. If there is something that's missing, we're happy to take that to the floor. However, we're gonna categorize all of them and then go category by category. Site plan, send us half, Alamo Plaza, plus Naval Barrel. So we're going through those. That's a way for us to be able to gather as much input as possible so we can respond to that by Wednesday of next week. Now this is the first of several drafts that we are sharing with the public. So the first draft we've been sharing all week, we are going to send our design team back with all of this input. It will come back with a second draft in July. We will meet with the Alamo Advisory Committee that meeting will also be public. We'll be presenting that to the committee and then we'll have four more public meetings. It will be sharing the second draft with the public. We will receive comments and we will go back again for another round. There is no part of fast deadline from when this we presented to the city council. What the mayor and councilman Jovainio and the city council has said is they have asked the advisory committee and yours a plan before it goes to council for any consideration. We do not have that scheduled right now but we do have scheduled this three rounds of public input. This is the first draft of many drafts to come. So I want to make sure that you understand that we are listening, we are collecting input. In many ways, if you are not at this meeting you can submit questions on the Alamo.org website as well. But we will be responding to those questions by Wednesday of next week and we're posting the locations for the next public meeting since July and the coming weeks. So with that I'd like to pass it on to councilman Jovainio who will be doing a brief presentation before we hand it on to our design team. Right of applause for Lori Houston our assistant city manager, thank you Lori. So I also want to thank some citizens and advisory committee members that are here tonight. We have, of course you already know, of course, Vice, who's here. We have Sharon Svorsak, Aaron Bowman, Ramon Vazquez, Marcelo Baipinas, and Phillip Batten. So thank you for being here. I think it's a pleasure to work very hard to really work with the design team and the management committee. So I'd like to provide some background and information on the Alamo Mash plan and project. And as you know in 2014 the Senate of the City Council established the Alamo Plaza advisory committee. It was made up of 21 members appointed by the mayor and city council, held 14 public meetings and in December 11th of 2014 got the division and guiding principles and they were approved by the mayor and city council. Of course the division, the guiding division, of course it's talking about engaging the local residents and visitors in ways to personally connect to the Alamo experience. And as you can see, there's a lot to this vision. This is something that the citizens of action may work on very, very diligently. Every word, every sentence was very, very important to them. So we adopted this for this project. The guiding principles, the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, the most widely recognized event will provide the portal in which we enter the project and how you can begin the preservation and interpretation of the site. Of course we want to make the site an intellectual experience. This, we want to provide some physical accessibility that isn't there right now. We want to balance the scholarship and historical context. And of course creating a previous visitor experience along with that embracing the continuum of history. So the master plan in 2015 was created in cooperation with the state of Texas, the city of San Antonio in agreement with the general manager of the Alamo and Alamo adopting the vision and guiding principles how to start a master plan that we're working on today. May of 2017, the city council took action, approved the Alamo master plan and the five key concepts as you can see here. Restore the Alamo shirts and longbearers, reestablished clarity in order through the delimitation of the historic footprint, recaptured the historic mission plaza and created a sense of reverence and respect on the historic battlefield, repurposed private block, Woolworth and Palo Palos theater buildings into a world-class visitor center museum that tells the story of the battle and over 300 years of later history and created a sense of arrival to the site and enhanced connectivity between the site and other public spaces. The conference and the terrific language we are in to this stage. So the last summer, the management committee put out an RFQ. We got seven responses. And from that, we narrowed it down to four, PGAD, Destination, Rebuild the Brand and most innovations were selected from that, those four interviews. As you can see, they've done extensive work and this is a well-qualified team that's working on the interpretive plan in this stage of the project. It's an all-you-plan and the comprehensive interpretive plan builds on the match plans by key concepts to develop an interpretive plan and site strategies. So we're in the public feedback stage and we're looking to engage the community. As Lori said, we will have many, many more meetings. Of course, it's an all-you-plan and of course, opinion is very good. Build stone walls, build structural glass walls. Don't build walls. Repair the center tap, disassemble the center tap, relocate the center tap, do not relocate the center tap, add more shade to the outlaw, close streets, do not close streets. This is really important and we're listening and you can see that there's some things that we've responded to already. So what's the process and the next steps? The first draft was presented to the Alamo Citizens Advisory Committee. The public hearings began this June and of course, the public meeting will continue through July of this summer and the Alamo Citizens Advisory Committee's committee will continue in the office of the Harris and as Lori said, we're going to continue this. We don't have a hard deadline. We want to make sure that we get this right. As I mentioned, what is so important here is that we have something that has a vision, we've got new principles, guiding all of this and the scientific opportunities and site planning strategies are very important to us. So we're very happy to have the design team or the public members from the design team here to present. We have John and Doug from the design team and now I'll have John come up here and begin the presentation and afterwards we'll begin the input process as Lori described. Thank you. My name is John Gassman. I'm with PGAD Destinations. Low-level introductions before we get into the chapters that are out there. As you know, with the PGAD Destinations out of St. Louis, Missouri, we are fortunate and we specialize in destinations not just nationally but internationally. It has to do with everything from national parks to museums, Niagara Falls, Grand Canyon. The Alamo we know as we throw this project with the Citizens Advisory Committee and really hope with all of you that we fully understand this is not just the project that touches the city of San Antonio and we understand it's important to the entire state of Texas. We understand the impact it has on the country, on the world and the national crowd. Most importantly, we also understand that it's why you guys are all here. It's a story of families. It's a story of generations. So we do understand from all the impact we've had, all the listening we've been doing for all the sessions. So this is advisory committee. All these public sessions we have with you. So we want to understand it's an honor and a privilege for us to work on this with you with the Citizens Advisory Council. So with that, we want to share our progress by what it's worth to your people. I'm going to start, I thought I was going to follow. I want to understand just a little bit of the introductory chapters. We're going to talk about the vision and the guiding principles. Roberto already went through. There's a certain words on here that's spoken to us when we talk about personally connecting with the animal experience. For all of us, not just the visitors, but the residents, we talk about some memorable experiences. And really a lot of all of these guiding principles are all of these vision statements really combined to that. We all want to create memorable experiences for children, for your children's children. So we take that, we take these guiding principles and we use them in different ways, really. The same way that Roberto started to bring back key words, we started to take these and we're going to see a few slides that follow that talk about how we've interpreted them into goals for ourselves, kind of measures of success, if you will. And the first one is our one goal that's spoken to us is changing the understanding of the Alamos building to the Alamos place. And doing that, we think about how we're going to tell the stories throughout the site. Roberto has spoken to the museum and we picture the site also as an open-air museum. We think about indoor galleries and outdoor, but also we think about all these stories, all the depth of stories that we're going into playing to their strengths. Some will be perfect inside the museum galleries, other ones that you'll see will explain. We're going to use to tell the stories in the places where they occurred and the visitors and putting the visitors in the shoes of people that passed. We're going to step just for a few moments in introduction. A lot of this presentation is really focusing on site planning and site planning strategies. We'll talk a lot of details. A few slides of introduction. This one starts to talk about the collections and talking about how we plan on revealing that deeper story in the museum itself. And the inside of the galleries, so you see on the top a thought of a chronological approach that covers all factors of history. When you think about the mission period all the way back to the 1519th, think about a gallery that starts in that mission period telling those stories and focusing on that story. So a little separate from a separate gallery that would focus on the penalty animal and the benefits of relation to the overall Texas Revolution story. Third, it's not only by this period also talking about the relatives of the animals today. That was called the animal ruin to icon. There's also a notice in the fog talking about the legacy of the legends of the animal. That's a separate gallery to admit that there's stories of the animal that aren't just keeping them in history that become part of our culture. So understanding those stories as well and understanding them separately from the chronology, the chronological story of above, it's important as well. Important to note when we put it on there, think about the pervasive field throughout this project, right? Alamo is a special place through time. It's a layered story throughout multiple periods of history. With that, we want to get a little step of some of the collections. And so up there, we organize these slides when you think about it into the separate galleries. When you think about the mission period, we have items that are subject to Spanish point in the upper left-hand corner, but also the Native American pieces. Texas Revolution. Think about Crafts and Spring. Think about some pan and smarts, Hillary, a lot of documents that we have that tell the stories and rid the stories all the way from back to the animal. How do we think about word that I can't think about? Not only documents, but periods through time. Always maps, but also there's things you think about, the photo, the matter, family. All those stories that continue on through. We'll speak a little bit. We know the Woolworth building story is important to the line. Folks will see that photo in the bottom right-hand corner to remind themselves it's some very important things happen on that side as well. So we're also talking about the extensions for today. Think about the Legends Gallery. It's not just about a mix of the video and of the movies. There's also some very impactful pieces that we can use in that Legends Gallery that tell the stories whether they be paintings or other archival pieces that come that relate back to the Native crowd. Those pieces, when you think back, the great stories for the museum itself, we also have to think about how the stories are told outside on the site. So you'll see there, it covers all the factors. You'll see I was number two and I just sat up there talking about Native American burial grounds. At the same time as other stories, Long Bear and Church and the Forks, but also the story of the Sake Hill. Main gate, you'll see up there, as well as the Mission Fields and the Gardens. Each one of these areas of the site have unique stories that you'll see as we start to use these stories. You'll see when Doug gets up here and talks about the site design. All these layers are important to us and they really guide our site design. They're not just something that is held in the museum. This image is important to us as well. When you think about how we think about the museum, you think about layers of story over time. We also think that same approach outside shows how the deeper story of the 16th century all the way through today, those stories are layered throughout the site for the mission period all the way through today. Finally, it's important to note that we are deeply understanding the archeology that's happened already. And it will help to continue as this process evolves. So this also has been a huge factor in the way that we have dealt with our site design. So with that, I'm gonna hand the controls and then put them around Doug. We're gonna go deep, send a section by section to some of our site's gradants. So this is all I've read over here. I'm a security officer to be here tonight. I'm the reed of the N.C. Park project. I practiced here in San Antonio area for over the last 18 years and it is indeed a privilege to be back to work on what we know. It is not only one of the greatest missions you could receive, but for probably the most important cultural site in this country. Thank you. Last night, I opened with a story, a personal story, because I thought it reached into the crux of what this project is about. I grew up in Southwest Louisiana, I'm a K-Gym and we came to Texas many times. San Antonio, I visited as a child. I came back here as a student of the last department at the Louisiana State University. I returned as a practitioner many times. I visited the Alamo each time. It wasn't until I returned, and here's the story that I'm a little embarrassed to say, and shame on me, but I returned here for an event at Bracken Ridge Park a year and a half ago. And I visited the Alamo and visited missions and it was the first time in my 60 years of coming here that I had learned the story that the Alamo was more than two buildings. And that it was in fact the largest mission that reaches so deep in their history and that it was more of a series of missions along the San Antonio River. And so I think this is really the crux of the issues of my year. How do we make this place tell more of the rich and complex stories of the legacy here, which is so deep in the family? And so really tonight I'm gonna focus on strategies, ideas. It's taking a look at this for almost 10,000 feet. So it really began to seize the opportunity here of the aspirations for a museum for educational purposes to reinterpret and mark the great events of the past year. So these were the two over our team goals for us, the team and the committee. I should say that we were showing tonight the determining process which still in the planning stage we're getting ready for coming back to you in July or July. And it reflects the work with so many constituents and stakeholders and the advisory committee and just a lot of great work over the last few months. But this is the overarching goal for us that make the Alamo place of reverence and learning at the same time as we approve the Alamo course to be a vital, passionate, friendly and comfortable civic space. I should explain this. So we were charged with not only looking at the Alamo site, which is defined as the historic mission program, but to also look at almost four or five blocks of the surrounding areas that could be improved and become part of telling the story and setting up the experience of arriving at the Alamo. So there's quite a lot of ambition to this plan. And we know that it was both about the experience for the everyday citizens and all visitors who come here. So I want to go through how we make the Alamo place of reverence and learning. Do you think there are five things? We think there are five key points here in achieving this vision. One is to clarify the period of historic significance. So that anyone that comes here understands what they're looking at, where it has come from, what is the sequence of events, so that there's real clarity, reveal and delineate the mission to the print. This is one of the gotten principles and everyone has to rally around the importance of understanding this not as two buildings, but a place. Express the significance of water in the site's history and for that matter, in the history of the city. We're going to graph the approaches to the historic site and develop an accessible unified and coherent place. This is the view of the project area that we're going to be using tonight and that we've used in setting it. So we'll see this over and over again, illustrating the ideas just a little bit more. So we're in Achievement Street that's toward the north and the Thomas Street is at the south just being the first apprenticeship and the alumnus there that's represented in brown. One of the ways we've studied this and begin to explore how we achieve this vision is to acknowledge the importance of the original artifacts that remain. So here we're saying that we must emphasize them in this design, but we also have a conservation work to do on the base and reconstructural a derivation that has happened over time. This also includes the fact that the Alamo originally was some 21 inches lower than what it is today and through settlements which happens a lot of emissions and through the city growing around it that 21 inches we need to deal with because that is one of the problems that moisture actually working at the building and compromising the summer. We know that we want to try to recapture every cover, the emissions, the pushed footprint which is shown here extending under the federal post office and along the buildings on the west edge. We were interested in this in the goal to recapture the emission footprint that what if we were to remove the 20th century elements of the city? By that I mean all of the curves and islands and traffic lights and signs and things that were really designed for the vehicle over which very impressive and all of the artifacts that were there or what were made. And so it was interesting to us that you began to see that you could achieve this feeling of the original emission footprint by doing this. It also pointed out to us that the synodtath while it's a very helpful and important significant market and monument that the idea of that clarifying history here in making the emission footprint convey the 17th and 18th, I mean 18th and 19th century artifacts inherited that it was an opportunity for relocating it in order to make for a very significant place in Plaza de la Liga and here to relocate it to the top and become a centerpiece of the new and you can imagine, quite simply, we'll get into this little bit and I wish now a passion about it. So we're showing this idea that it could become the focal and a very pivotal point of a new civic space of Plaza de la Liga. Didn't we know we want to recapture the significance of water in the science history and we want to address the West edge which we are saying are non-contributing features to the emission footprint, but we realize there's a lot of opportunities and issues here. These buildings are currently being fully assessed in terms of their historic integrity and significance. We have more to do on that. What we're going to explore tonight is just what are the pros and cons for the trade-offs and the opportunities of this Western edge that were now occupied by buildings from the 19th and 20th century. For this part it was said, here's what it looks like if they weren't there and the emission footprint itself had remained returned and we thought this was very interesting to see and it in fact opened up not just opportunities for the emission footprint but connections of our city and to the river wall and so we were compelled by how emission footprint could become more of a figure or an object in the space which is now covered over by a number of things. And so this project area has turned into something that we're defining by as three components of the city's experience. One was the mission footprint shown in red, the 1930s garden which has significance of its own and its components and this gold area that is the opportunity to create a new plaza to the railroad that is not only covered by the vehicle and that can become a major city space for the people. But the road runs around it again. But the idea of improving the Alamo district we realize must be about its vitality that it can be pedestrian friendly and it must all be comfortable to have people return and to be a great place for visitors as well. So there were a number of things that we have done here that are important to achieve that vision. Want to reduce the number of access and increase public safety. Second to connect to the river wall and to other reference other San Antonio cultural assets to provide a generous area for gathering of expression to catalyze future downtown development and to cool the plaza with no other areas of shade. So here I want to, this is explaining the idea that this part of downtown can actually become part of the entire cultural fabric of the downtown area. That we were interested here in the study of the Alamo positive day, which is about 1.9 acre site. But that really recognition footprint recovered it would be a three acre site. They would then join with the three acre garden and then the fact that the area south of the mission is three and a half acres. So we're getting a nine and a half acre of civic space here. And we're also just showing you the residents around San Antonio here from the furthest farm market which is only made of acre and the main plaza which is three acres. We'll show a number of images tonight about how we achieve comfort but certainly through shade and plantations and trees. And we only have to look at the original walk to understand the benefits of shade and how to provide a comfort and a whole host of other climate issues. We're preparing this to the condition right now of North Alamo Street as it exists today. And so here is an illustration of this vision that these nine and a half acres of the city all revolving around the Alamo and extending out the stories of the Alamo from the mission footprint to a bigger area. So we're just walking through and just showing the way this family experiences might feel as you move through this part of downtown. This is the walk up from Thomas Street which is headed north toward the Alamo. The idea that this is a progressive planting of trees that would bring shaded areas or not only walking but spilling out of Catholic terraces and a host of other events. Here we're showing the location, proposed location, one location for the summit app that is the centerpiece of a new plaza. Here is moving around the corner of the river center and showing this view of the summit app with this direct connection to the front of the Alamo. This is a view of the Alamo that you have today. So really it's compelling to partner with Alma in the whole project. You don't have this view today but we realize that in the removal of the Ripley's building that this view, I have my back toward the river but this view from LaSoya Street. No, we don't care about historic buildings in San Antonio. This is the remarkable view of the Alamo. It also reveals the southwest corner of the original Mission footprint that is now no longer available. What's shown on the left here is just an indication of the new museum and that this would actually be entrance area to the new museum. Here is Houston Street that is pedestrianized but offering to this particular view of the barracks and the Alamo of fully revealed and on the opposite side in front of the Emily Morgan Hotel this is showing how the hotel moved out from its restaurant area and that this is actually expanded in this case and becomes larger but as you can tell from this image that the masonry wall that exists there now from the 19th century. This is a ray of actually sanding again of the recovered Mission footprint where the church and barracks were fully revealed and as the idea of populating the edges of this great space would give or trees would give shape for educational programs and school boards to gather and everyone to go through the interpretive programs that are proposed for the closet. So I want to talk about what it takes in this case to achieve the Mission footprint. This is a really key thing because we frankly didn't know whether we could convincingly do this could be given the charge within this context and so we identified four things here that we tested and we believe makes for the case that this can be retrieved. The first one is to eliminate a zone for reverence and learning. This is where all the educational programs that move out from the museum galleries would take place and so this idea is to lower the ground and planes in inches protecting archeological layer but removing really the 20th, 20th century interventions of the streets and traffic. The second is to reveal as much of the Mission footprint as possible and wherever we do this we're proposing here that we unscribe the architectural footprint in the ground. There are no walls proposed we're not recreating anything we are just interpreting the architectural form of the Mission for everybody to understand as they move along both sides of the footprint and look at the ground. Then there's this idea that trees can help assert the original volume of space of the Mission and by that I mean of course it was out in the open at the time now the city has grown around it and how do we bring kind of internal focus so that people are held within the Mission footprint and one way to do that is to actually populate the edges with informal plant trees and in a way block or stream of the city and bring focus to the footprint and the last thing is to tell to all the stories which we've described really about 500 years history that could be a layer through the site. This is just from explaining the idea of lowering the ground planning with 6-16 inches per second and that this kind of urban fill layer that has happened over the last 100 years is what's really being removed and that the potential archeological site is protected and also really all of the site in making any of the experiments is approached as an archeological site and future archeological digs the blue area is showing the footprint of the artificial architecture that is inscribed in the ground this is a view from the on the color of the Mission compound report a plaza looking toward a new plaza to the narrow and how that edge becomes the place for entry and for seeing and for walking on both sides of the mission to the ground. This image shows the approach from Houston Street so this gets into the really the issue of the west edge which I want to put through with y'all very carefully this is showing the four options that are being considered and they go to full range here from the upper left retaining the block the architectural block that it is and making it converting it or somehow incorporating it into a museum all the way to retaining the crocodile as a certain component of the museum and removing the other buildings No I'll go through it Historic buildings There are some points of these different options this is the one that considers retaining all of the block and what is noticeable here is that as you all know the western edge of the mission is underneath this so that would not be able to be interpreted but the idea showing in gray is that the museum could be adapted to this facade and that could be from a plaza or a familial one that is the set of the building this is an idea I'm working with committees that retains the facade of the building lower the side please retains the facade of the building from the pocket to the wall work on the corner but allows the reading behind it sets the museum back to the west the reason of the west edge of the footprint I didn't mention that I don't think I did the west edge of the mission footprint actually holds some of the most significant stories which is why we wanted to be very careful about how we consider this west edge the great interpretive model is here and I think we'll do that later so this is another option and then the third option in what this does which we were very pleased about is that a problem 9 could be created along the full west side of the Alamo the mission footprint outside of its edge so that this traffic or the pedestrian movement north south would move along and would have these views of the historic site this is the view that you would have from the mission in the middle of the puzzle where we're showing the facade retaining but the promenade behind and the museum behind understanding the west edge which is the black blue line that moves along that promenade in between the facade and the museum this was another idea that came out which was that the wall work and plus palace, facades and buildings that are bonded actually interpret that this has been done in a number of places where the actual you mark the edge of the 20th century building and then reveal the layers that are under the ground there behind it and so this is not a design at all we're just trying to indicate here that there's a way to create a kind of scaffolding that evokes that thought and that the museum at this west edge should be fully interpreted and then this is this is the one that shows the lease of the building along the west edge it preserves Crockett, it uses Crockett as both the main entry from the museum into the historic site it is sort of a shoe port for the museum it allows the north-south promenade of the promenade open 24-7 to move all along that west edge and then for the interpretation of that west edge and here's the view looking at that where the Crockett facade is preserved and then the promenade with what we're just going to see as a museum building kind and then we turn into the feeling of this in this plaza of the museum footprint fully revealed and the views of the album on the vera the plaza this is for this intensive use of the plaza for programming school for three and a half months and on so then I want to mention here the big issue of access and how we have been thinking about this as a way of balancing and reconciling what is a museum what will be an open-air museum that will have all these artifacts and stories for the visitor and the everyday citizens use as they refer to this area of the city and so there's several thoughts here on this and this is one of them sorry I missed one opportunity here which we've been thinking about there's so many layers of history this is one that just interprets that's its corner which we know is very important interestingly we're showing on the right that it could both reveal the platform moving around but it could also reveal the mission era for an architectural footprint so this is a good real compelling thought that we could show from the battle time that the weather construction materials and techniques were for the trans platform but this is the one area where we think it's possible for the public to get to the level that is actually the height of the original mission which of course was used strategically in the battle this is another idea for the west edge this is if it is revealed where all this significant events like Travis's writing of the victory or death letter could be understood as part of the mission building and then all together this layering of interpretations I'll just show a few of these from the name of the American Vigorial pronounces we know are learning to be more about their locations under Houston street and North Alamo street the path say south of its corner the main gate Mexican caloric positions the understanding of the importance of the north wall so this is just part of the interpreted possibilities here to tell the full 500 year story this introduction into the issue of access and organizing the visitor experience we're showing here the possibility of seven let's say openings that would be used to allow the public and research through this enclosure and what the larger reference is the idea that the main entry to the historic site is through the project building that is directly to the museum galleries and the promenade on the west side of the Alamo and so the diagrams here is talking about during the museum let's say on the days the museum is open that there is this flexible option to bring everyone whether you are a visitor or a citizen it's open and free but everyone moves through the main entry to the historic site this will be very much dependent on programs with the interpreted programs and special events that are particularly intensive this would be perhaps an option we're really looking here at addressing the flexibility how the museum can function and protect things and do their programming and social work on this plaza co-meanable with citizens and so one of the alternatives is that these other openings can be open for both times outside of the museum hours and if the museum program is not particularly intensive there's flexibility here and how this can be organized and then with the museum it's close at 4.10 am and half to 5.00 pm all of these openings will be open and the blackout of the line is just showing that we know that we would have to have some similar reports there today of a listening chain situation that is how the rangers protect the artifacts all through the night now I want to talk about this edge and it's pretty important because this edge really changes all the way around it and we think that the idea here is to let this edge be informed by its adjacent conditions so I'm starting on the south side with the idea that there is an extension of the 1930s garden that would move across the south defining the edge 2 of the population footprint and if those openings would occur in that planting and they would have gates and so this is one of about 4 openings there but you need to have a new positive alert and the historic site then as you move along the west edge with the new museum and that long coming of it is open at all times as part of this city that the 42 inch rail much agency and any public place about an edge or a set it is for people to lean against and then look back both the footprint and back to the other one there and so here that I showed you earlier just to emphasize how that edge would be formed and then this is the view from Houston street you're seeing glass breaking there that is keeping at that edge and then time to move the museum with the flexibility of all things that's up for Houston street the vestiges to flow down into the plaza and up on the other side of the rail for the hotel and the morgue then as you move to the normed edge, the hotel and the federal post office this is showing the idea of keeping a very generous sidewalk for all the commercial interests there and that you are looking down on the lower ground and in this case on the normed edge marking one of the most important events of the battle and then as you look around the garden I already addressed the idea that the fence a fence would be used instead of the mystery wall to provide the protection of the garden and the artifacts and spread through a garden this you've seen and so I'm going to move a plaza with an arrow which I think is one of the most typically one of the most significant civic spaces here so I'm now moving south from the historic site and showing that it is defined by the centerpiece of the cemetap and this pervasive planting of trees for shade and comfort so this is the five steps that we've been looking for here restoring the large gathering of expression and activity activating the space all the time day and evening and the plan for the pervasive growth of the shade trees we think these are five things that were really established very powerful of so here 0 a.m. on the plan and then just revisiting these images here that are shown now in the evening with the people gathering we think it is an opportunity to fully interpret the cemetap much as it is used today for I want to talk a minute about the importance of reconnecting this project in the project area to the river wall and here is an idea that in looking at the large piles over here the furniture exists as you know very large surface area at the grade of the city streets here we're saying the opportunity is to make a more efficient intersection to open up the level of the river to the city side wall so as you move along commerce, as you move along the extension of Bessori history you will be looking down into the river and those folks coming up from the river will be able to get up on the wall to the north to the outlaw and then those coming from the new hemisphere and those south will take this bridge over the river and also join up with the outlaw there's a lot of traffic study and data that has been collected has gone into this study and understanding how this would really work out of the impact of the transportation routes release the floodgates for the historic site to become Bessori nice I'm not going into this in depth but I'm trying to proposal making Bessori a two-way street it's going to be a surprise to find that Bessori is actually street right away as much wider than one thing and making Bessori a two-way what it does in the larger picture here is show that this could become a major more south route connecting Broadway and to the inner city we note that the grays are very significant part of this and we also note that they reside very deeply in the memory here and so we're showing you as a part of this study we it is actually important thinking about the greater and just keep this in mind as you look at the the alternates here that we're just exploring and we've had with the great group and to review there's a recommendation an alternative for the great route would be to go this is a solid red line it would go around the east edge of what we have identified here with this view from Bessori of which people found very compelling and that would also be a potential route for the parade and that would be this key moment where you view the alamo in between the river walk and the mission footprint could be a place where the parade turns and moves up to the alamo and it turns down Alamo street so that is what is shown in this diagram so all together there's three or four options here that are possible this is the opportunity we came to provide for the ceremonial rituals that bring the wreaths to the we just want to acknowledge how important this is the day at the evening and that the light at night will be important we're showing here how the mission footprint could be as a very powerful element during the evening and really bringing a kind of dignity and solemnity and reverence that is part of the whole goal here here's that view again at night from the Soria street and this is returning to the reports planting and grow shape trees and then ending here on again this vision of bringing this part of the city to hopefully tell the stories of 500 years of your heritage and so I'm just returning to these three ideas that are the measures of success understanding down low, not as a building but rather as a place making the place of reverence and learning and then improving the whole district to be vital, pedestrian friendly and comfortable we think if we can do this that we will have measures of success thank you all very much so now I'm going to ask Forrest Weiss to come up here he's going to help me go through some of the comments as we get that set right so we're going to set up some of the comments up here we're going to get started here and certainly we want to respect everyone's time so we want to take some time we're going to go over some of the questions that were posted up here and then time at the very end we'll close it up with some discussion as we go through this week we're going to be going through some of the things that were posted the Giant Man Weiss of course if you'd like to introduce yourself my name is Forrest Weiss I'm now a defender descendant from San Antonio here I'll be right back so okay let's start with some of the feedback and questions and regarding the site plan I know this is really times over to repeat the question and then we can have a discussion about that so here we have let's see what is the list of donors to this project and cool detail of the funding plan okay so I think the city of San Antonio partnered with the state of Texas and the animal endowment the city of San Antonio in last year's bond allocated $21 million to the river structure projects as well as $17 million in accuracy for animal repairs and work so that's $38 million total that the city is putting in and we know that the last legislature the state of Texas awarded $75 million towards the animal and some of the repairs to the existing church in Long Barracks total I believe the state has put in about $105 million and as far as they have ordered they're fundraising until we get to a plan so that when we get to the scope then they'll be getting their fundraising so that is essentially the detailed funding plan to date so what we can say actually $75 million that was allocated was to get started on the much needed work at the church the church it is something that needs to take place then when we talked about lowering the sign part of the reason is because we know that the building originally sat about 21 inches lower the fact is the building is sitting well into the ground and the water is causing a lot of damage to the stone because some of the building is in the ground where it's moist and so some of that stone is falling and there's some issues with that as well as other issues that were identified by the original master plan team so there is some work that's getting ready to get started to make sure that we preserve those artifacts and preserve the very historic buildings that we know we have at the Alamo okay so let's see thanks to Centennial Commission consider the registration of the Alamo Museum and the Alamo Synodaph to be one of the most important projects of the Commission to appropriately celebrate the Centennial Texas Independence if the Texas Centennial Commission would have had the opportunity in the 1930s to create an overall Alamo they would have done more than just tear down buildings on the side of the plaza at the great park I think they would have improved your efforts I know I do okay and so that's an important comment that some of the things that happened in the 1930s really were doing today and we know that we have gardens to be something of the Centennial as well and so the part of the planning is showing that there's a lot of things that were done back then that we're trying to adjust today like for example the gardens itself because there's stone walls around the gardens many people are confused and think that that's actually part of the mission that's not the original mission and as you can see in the designs those stone walls around the garden will be redundant sort of walls and we think that that is it's just the stone walls to the site okay so how did this plan remove this thing that you didn't ever create well we definitely respect the site and we want a team of experts we have archaeologists historians and a lot of folks that really work very hard to make sure that we are sensitive to the site and that is important to all of us it's part of making sure that we're setting a table for all the stories at the Alamo site again the Alamo is a place not a building if you want to copy all of the footprint like you say there were no trees that's true part of the discussion that's a great one trees this is part of the response of the last time that there wasn't enough trees in the plaza it was a hot space and we feel that this is an option that's response to part of that as well as trying to create a space they can try to help create a separate space from a bustling downtown it actually helps to sort of separate visually and sound to create a serene place where we're looking to create this is Alamo plaza not a single part it's this for political reasons it's so serene good if I had this is not for political reasons this is really something that we're trying to work in a historic site and we want to tell all the stories and it's difficult and it's reactivist with experts politicians are making these decisions we're going to ask for a step it's interpreted how we tell those stories have to separate back from it and how we can tell policies don't hide the heroes I'm staying expert I'm staying involved putting a story down in one volume and of course the other volume is not that much so lay out at least currently we'll see you on the album he's the same guy that was laughing at you ladies when you were booing too except they were watching it so the restoration plan of Alamo is we've done a lot of assessments as part of the last part of the national play process and what we looked at and that project was we looked at all the stones and what's been leaked into the duration we talked to our conservator who's been studying this structure for 20 years and she can show you you can look at the flag on the table you can see the accumulation of walls and you can call it down we have less of the Alamo every day and our goal is to preserve the Alamo for the next generation we need a fair way to reverse it so our plan is to go through a process that's election I want to ask a question ask who owns the real estate who owns the property the city and the state own the real estate there are private businesses own the real estate the real estate we have there's about 3 owners and dollars are a public attempt they're not 1893 they bought 1893 they bought it belongs to the state of Texas we're in Texas no I'm not going to the Alamo they bought a portion of it the state of Texas got another portion I want to keep the conversation going so what we want if you can ask a question the third restoration project will be in 2020 all the RFQs will be submitted there's been firms that actually applied the process will start this year the process will become an analysis process for about a year and a half because we need to go through a whole year watching what the weather patterns do what the seasonal effects are to determine exactly what's causing the construction and so the process by the year and a half the restoration will start thank you the project bought 1893 by William and Albert Maverick it's been a queen of the Alamo Plaza for 135 years do not destroy or repurpose all the stories of the Alamo the Alamo site and this is one of those we're very sensitive to that we're trying everything we can to make sure that we provide space at the table for all of us I'll go back please be transparent about how my tax dollars are being spent I'll go there site plan I'm a native San Antonio I believe the plan presented so far creates a disrespect to our economy and that is to create more reverence for the Alamo reverence for the site and all the history that is occurring there and so it's important that we talk about this and as you can see there's a lot of traditions of history a lot of things that are occurring so we're trying to improve for all of it and it's not going to be that easy but we're working through it and that's why we're having these meetings I think it's important for us to talk about the inputs we're recording here today part of these questions are going to be up with answers how do you justify plans from Young Texas and non-San Antonio firms to take our money and do what they want without regard for this well we're working on a team that are local and we are trying to find the best experts who can help with our important site like the Alamo that's why we're doing that extra and restoring the Alamo so the original plan you can see there's been some adjustments based on the feedback and comments from before and of course that's what we're doing here again today so we know that we're going to have many more rounds of this so that's why we have some of those adjustments when were the citizens of San Antonio allowed to vote on the issue so we set up this but we also have citizens advisory committee verses that are representing every district of the city also and we have people that have pointed by the general land office because we're a partnership with the state of Texas the city of San Antonio and the Alamo environment and that is an important part of our process as we develop this process the members of the citizens advisory committee really take this responsibility very seriously and we have two members from which is myself City Manager Cheryl Soley who's here tonight, thank you Cheryl for being here two members from the general land office representing the state of Texas and so that's the process we've set up of course that goes up to the commissioner for Steve Bush the Alamo is set to the ground of why am I getting this and it's meant to be I think this is a great and right and so we've got this land in fact it's not a car that I think someone described as a car left and we've balanced a big place that many people will bring other families to to learn about history to to spend some time spend a lot more time than they currently do at the site and so this is something that we're working very hard to do and it certainly do appreciate that this is not a car but it will make that we want to make this a place of reverence, a place of learning and a place of healing but all Texas is the launch to the world is in its heart Okay, are you committed to ensuring your changes to the area will not cast any shadows across the face of the Alamo at sunset? So, yes, that's an easy one commit it, yeah, we can do that From an ADA perspective the ability of limitations to be able to get is it realistic to expect people to walk blocks or mine? When we said we want to be involved inside the site that talks about all the stories and histories of the site accessibility is so important to us we want everybody to get to enjoy this and certainly can tell you, yes we take this very, very serious at San downtown has experienced a real shift in terms of accessibility our site walks are more accessible than ever City mall is being run front steps to City mall to truly be accessible all, I want to thank Board of Partner for that partnership and so accessible to every age range and every accessible person accessibility range that we can Great thing to prevent any shadow across the face of the Alamo so, I'll take one because I do want to make sure we're addressing all these questions so, if we can just make a deal what we'll do is we'll get through these questions and then we'll get to some questions from the audience and we'll go back to some of these questions, is that okay? We can prevent any shadow across the face of the Alamo if it's sunset I think that was part of the previous question of course you don't need to, we're very sensitive to that Where is money coming from? I think I have a few of us on the Alamo classes, thank you for the Indian marriage I think this is here and you know, like I said few things the history that happened on that site that's very important to all of us what's your definition you will deny access to the public so, we're working hard to make sure that the site is open 24-7 of course, as we build a museum we also know that part of the museum is part of an outdoor museum, part of outdoor space and programming and how we make that work is an operational strategy commitment that I lead to the expert but into a space that is open to the public 24-7 and that is something that we have taken to heart Why have guidelines and principles if you don't adhere to them more than the ways to do plans that the public doesn't want so as it is a black committee which created this, you got the principles are helping us with this project and making sure that we are addressing these very things what they're handed in by y'all guys when you say through project law the Alfred Gile's building is an architectural threat you're presenting us not outside entrance how can you have a plan with legal things already in place and not be responsive to your perspectives this partnership with the state of texas and the animal balance and as we're trying to balance the approaches and the balance the next year we'll be building an island but of course this is a vitamin office so the city is well represented and it's planned let's go ahead from the crowd over here that does not close alamo three I feel back years on the citizens advice good evening I don't know that I have to say I have a plan that I have seen other plans that have been flowing by local experts that are well respected in a field such as Madison Smith David Lay Bill Shaw the citizens and the public we will be looking at those and trying to come up with the best path forward okay thank you thank you these troops okay this man he has been voted to tear down the palace theater building but yet your plan is for building a theater why do both don't say he goes first theater in this town yeah the team is currently studying the significance of the space research on this okay Doug likes to answer this the theater part of the palace theater was actually with the height of parking garages so all that was a little bit years ago okay all right yes you know there has been so much dispute about the building the commercial vincers that are packed but you were proposing to take those things and put it in trust with hotels that have commercial buildings that have a hog and dog ice cream which could be in the same situation you have before you're having a private property and having to decide what is appropriate or not so we will be setting up the same situation which is in front of a lot of the carnival atmosphere of the driving lot over to the manager of the hotel which also has some private businesses that may introduce a similar situation so I think it's something that we appreciate but I think that's important to talk about for all those things to that and those concerns as a reminder the battle flowers did not have a seat at the table with the designers so they told you the logistics did not work on those big rocks it's my thing to hold a 27 year old current historic wreck and most of all we will battle with the Alamo and San Jacinto we're doing this plan to enjoy and spend a lot of time specifically our locals we want more of our locals to come down the industry they're just speaking in a nutshell these accommodated routes for the parade and we can all probably agree the route behind the Alamo is absolutely unacceptable it's the one route that was probably the most appealing and I use that term very loosely it came off of LaSoya onto Crockett and then out the Alamo Plaza tonight that point is at least a footfall nearly a way and 45 degrees more or less from the front of the church of the Alamo that just doesn't work the object of the battle of flowers is educational and patriotic it's designed to teach the history of our state and to keep alive the patriotic traditions of Texas and San Antonio one of the guiding principles of the Alamo Plaza Advisory Committee is to embrace the continuum of history to foster understanding and dealing let me underline that embrace the continuum of history curiously where we both should be in sync we're currently at odds we too want to follow that principle of embracing the continuum of history it is at the core of our mission statement the parade is more than things, clowns, floats simple bouquet ceremonies that some people call it's for the people of San Antonio for the people of Texas and even those outside of our great state this is the part of living history it's the way we remember and honor our death every entry to the parade brings a fresh walk each of which is rapidly laid in front of the church it is the very heartbeat the pulse the soul of the parade and it is the reason we gather to honor the fallen heroes of the battle of San Jose and the Alamo and it all began over 127 years ago in front directly in front of the Alamo not behind it not to the side of it not 45 degrees angle but directly in front of the Alamo and that is what we want to say it is historic growth and we respectful ask that you both follow your own guiding principle honor this historic parade and make changes necessary which will allow this to happen with those comments an invertible solution that moves us all forward thank you let's go ahead and propose a museum that is much larger than works some museums where we have been to see processes where it has been bigger, smaller some of the great museums in the country are smaller I think one of the problems with that is the right size of the museum a lot of museums have been built too large this is not that large it is smaller than the boy in Austin we have to enforce the spirituality to exhibit space one thing we are trying to do is maximize the spirituality to exhibit space we are trying to maximize the public space than normal we are not going to have offices in the museum building we are going to put those in other buildings that are a lot less expensive and will work for staff to draw up use existing buildings for the museum where is all the money coming from the museum where is all the money coming from the museum that is the building we can have a simple explanation about where the money is coming from the museum the question is what happens to the money that is collected there today that is the question is that money is all deposited in the state comptor I think we get like 24 hours to transfer all the money to the comptor and this is appropriated by the legislature back to the exclusive use of the alimony that is current revenue and some donations are primarily fund by the alimony state so what is going to happen when the legislature decides to retrieve money let's say it comes from the alimony what is going to happen with that with your plan if they restrict the money does it kill the plan or what does it do it doesn't prevent the overhaul plan we can do it on a legislative purpose so we cannot we are not superior to other senators let me see she's not a senator let her have her I live in district 9 in san Antonio I'm a proud fifth generation taxon and I respectfully state that those individuals who are planning sweeping changes to our downtown landscape including our precious alamo do not understand our history our culture for traditions. San Antonio is a city strong in faith and traditions and I trust that we will prevail in having our voices heard and sincerely acknowledged in a desire for our community to remain what we want it to be. We are trying to make sure that we hear all those voices of many diverse cultures, many diverse histories and we will be sensitive to all of that. Thank you. I wrote 20th century elements that depended on the plan of the Belgian Newer Museum. You were carried with more rules and principles than you were taught. Okay, so that goes back to the museum, I think we're still in the process of how to get that done. Well, the Newer Museum had a Confederate Regalino city guard sitting back on the bridge. It was in the courtyard and it was built as one of the six planes that were captured, and it was built by a stand. Well, the new one. That's not a problem. From 1861 to 1865, there was a Confederate regiment that said Texas-like inventory and artillery that was called Alamo City Guards. They had the museum to be put on display in the Alamo. Where is it now at this new museum? There was a Confederate port and spy depot during the War of Northern Regression. So if you specifically have Alamo's port, and you call it Alamo, the Cape to Texas, the San Francisco to the New Texas, you'll actually see every one of the periods of the Alamo as a port, starting when it was a Spanish port, a Mexican port, it became a Texas port, it became a Mexican port, the Texas port, the New Sardine port, the Confederate port, and then it gets into the Sardine port. So we show every evolution since it was second-vised until when the Spanish Army made it Alamo, it was named by the Spanish Army actually, and we show that all of it grew contemporary until it became a Texas port. Thank you, guys. I'd like to see if we can have all the books brought back. We're taking away from the Alamo and put down there in Texas in the end. He's bringing them back. They were at the Alamo. No, we're not like them. So, okay. Great point. Yes, sir. Yes. Mine is the same word. You may know him from his three years. So I'm glad I'm familiar with him in that way. He actually was born on the Alamo grounds, lived on the Alamo grounds, and he also died at the Chapel at the age of 27 years old. So when you think about what route you want to take for the parade and you want to honor fallen soldiers, his statue is there on La Soya Street, which would make sense if you want to honor a fallen soldier or many of them or all of them. Those Alamo grounds are sacred and should be reverent as they deserve. I have never gone to Arlington Cemetery or the World War I or World War II memorials and ever dealt with peddlers, streetlers, prostitutes, or anyone else like that. I am actually pleased that something may be able to be done so we can have a world-class historical destination for our city. It will bring many things. It will bring many people here. It will bring jobs. It will bring a lot of wonderful things for our city that we finally deserve. I don't know if this will be able to happen again. I have children on my farm, on my husband's side, who are Native Americans. I can tell them about that history. I can tell them about my ancestor that was born, lived, and died on the Alamo grounds. So while you may be opposed to many things, I think there are some compromises that we can all make so that everyone can be happy. Thank you. That's important, of course. We want people to be involved in history so we certainly appreciate that. I'm going to go to this gentleman. I wanted to go back to the criteria for removing things from the Alamo. You all talked about removing the walls. You all talked about removing the walls that the WEPA built because it was confusing. You can't tell what's historic and what was built in the 20th century. But let's say token. Why isn't the roof of the Alamo, the church being removed, now it's built by the WEPA? Or even the Parapent built in the 1840s when it was first removed? There's some taken shoes of what's being removed. I had this question before. It's a good question. Around the 1836 battle, but it is a symbol now that everybody recognizes that there's no roof. What I can tell you as part of the work is being done on the church. There's discussions about what's good for the church itself. It's a concrete roof. Is it something that helps or damages the building? That is being handled by some technical experts right now. We know that is something that is very, very sensitive. I don't think we're picking the shoes. We're trying to be very, very careful with a very significant artifact, which is the church itself. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Why do you want to move it from one side of the closet to the other? I don't understand that. So the original master plan discussed relocating the Santa Fe over to the river walk itself over off of Commerce Street. And now you can see the adjustments have been made to move it much closer, 500 feet away to the south. And so as was explained by one of the reasons was to make sure that we recapture the mission footprint and we can tell all the stories of the album. And so the Santa Fe also needs repair and it's part of the work to repair it that we put. You see a lot of people after all your meetings that you're going to, a lot of people do not like that idea. So if there's just some big reason why you're going to repair it and move it over here, we need to rethink that. So what I think, we've had countless meetings and as you pointed out, yes, in some groups that we have don't move the Santa Fe, in other groups we have move the Santa Fe. So we're taking all that if we can. We're also trying to be thoughtful to all the layers of history. We're trying to be thoughtful to a plan that accommodates all the layers of the mission we have on site. And so, okay. We'll take two more questions and see. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Can anybody's effort to preserve the structure of the Alamo Church? I commend that. However, in looking at the design concept, it neither reflects the culture of San Antonio in our history with Mexico, Spain and the numerous other countries that we have been associated with. I do not see any resemblance there. I also think it looks like any other park that you might see in an inner city. It's really very common looking, I think. And I'm sorry to the designers. I know they have spent a great deal of time on this. But it is common. There is nothing unique about it. Lastly, as a member of the Battle of Flowers, I would like to say 127 years of history has a footprint. And we are here to honor the heroes of the Alamo, as well as San Jacinto. Do not tamper with it. So, can we expect in the new drawings or anything to reflect that? In other words, I might see a drawing that has an option of the Senate tax staying where it's staying. Yes. So, we're going to take all the comments and we're going to be responding to them on the website, yellow.org and so, as we get into the next round, you're going to see that there's going to be some adjustments. Again, some may not be in agreement with how you feel about the Senate tax. That is possible. If you look at this, you ought to see that we're completely opposed to most of these plans. This is a city that's different from Austin and Dallas and Houston because we observe our old buildings. We don't tear them down. You can put them in those old buildings and re-purpose them. There's a lot of use in them in this country. Don't tear those buildings down or leave a facade like a movie set. We want to keep those buildings and keep that issue. So, again, we're out of time.