 if I could get everybody's attention all right we're going to get started so I'd like everybody to get in their seats great to see everybody here tonight I'm Councilman Roberto Treviño I want to welcome you here tonight to this presentation the interpretive team will be presenting the site planning strategies for the Alamo reflective of the vision and guiding principles that the Citizens Advisory Committee created this is the first draft and we want your feedback after the presentation Maurice McDermott will facilitate the discussion we want to thank her for this for hosting us tonight thank you so much we will go around the room and ask each of the committee members to give us their feedback the design team will take the feedback as they work on the second draft plan which will be presented to the to the committee on July 10th we'll return again on July 25th and have meetings scheduled for August 7th and the 21st the plan will will not proceed to City Council until the committee is comfortable with the plan the committee meetings will be open to the public and we invite the public to listen as the committee deliberates and provides feedback there's also a series of public hearings that will be held the week of June 18th throughout the city there is a handout with the with the times and locations at the sign at the sign-in table we'll have another round public hearings and meetings set for the week of July 16th we are listening even though we do not have a public opportunity for tonight we have comment cards for those in the audience additionally the presentations will be posted online I hope you see that we have taken the feedback and we hear we heard through the master plan phase that we have been thoughtful in the proposed site point I would like to introduce John Kosman with PJV who will kick off the presentation and then pass it on to Natasha Waterson with cultural innovations and finally Eric Kramer with Reed Hildebrand John thank you guys how's everybody doing good I have a couple we have a whole bunch of stuff to share with you a lot of slides a lot of content to go through as Roberta said there's we're gonna divide up some of the some of the presentation across the three of us I'll start with a little bit of an intro and Natasha will take it from there Eric will take it from there it's like a couple comments we wanted to get through maybe some introductory comments first before we put all kinds of great stuff up there on the screen like Roberta said we our team has been listening right and hearing for a long time right this is tonight's kind of a great culmination of specifically for this week and the past three days we've had over 20 meetings with individual individual groups over the past three days this is a great way to kind of culminate our our session our time here to review all that with you get all that feedback today also happens to be there's a fifth time we've gotten together with you as a group right with a citizens advisory committee so we're pretty excited about that as well excited to share our progress here your feedback one more time we are also excited for this kind of opportunity because we understand you're not only a committee that's been chosen but you're also a great representation you're a small little microcosm of the public of the citizens of the city of San Antonio so we take that as an important step we also recognize through all of our conversations with you up to this point not only the passion for the vision and guiding principles but we've heard a lot of other individual passion points and we recognize that and so today you're gonna you're gonna hear response from all those right you think about you know we fully understand passion for the reverence and respect right for the mission footprint the telling of a comprehensive story right full spectrum of time and from all perspectives we're gonna touch on that today full accessibility to the site parade routes cenotaph all those things you're gonna see us address those today so that's pretty exciting so we'll touch on all that many of these issues you'll see are related to each other right so you're gonna see some concepts and some some proposed concepts that that take those into account and how they knit together we also realize that a lot of those there may be opposing views and so sometimes with those opposing views we have to look at multiple different options we have to look at some understanding of how they oppose each other and come up with their compromises or adjustments related to that so we're looking forward to that conversation as well one thing that we can agree on right the reason that we're all here right we're all here for all these meetings all this time as well as all the people here to understand is the importance of the project so it doesn't go unsaid right and we're here because the Alamo deserves and preservation and an experience worthy of one of the greatest historical sites in the country and that's why we're here to talk about this right and also the the citizens and the residents of San Antonio deserve an area of their city that also is worthy of that type of that type of respect so with all that today's kind of like Roberto says kind of a status check as a point in time we're sharing our progress with you you're gonna see some proposed solutions you're also gonna see some parts of our presentation go through multiple options and so when you see those multiple options you'll know that we're still considering that's part of the part of the process that's part of the design process so after tonight's we're good I'll get back to hard work I'm ready to take all your feedback and like Roberto said come back with multiple rounds and adjust based on your feedback and conversations so with all that let's dig in a little bit we have a couple introductory slides a lot of the time we start these meetings because the interpretive plan into that it's kind of a term that needs a little bit of description so we wanted to make sure that we or we put down what our charge is as a team right so all of us that are here and all the folks that are that are back in our offices that are working on this great project we talked about a lot what is it was our goal so our goal is comprehensive analysis and a strategic design but it's for an improved public experience right and to us that means you know the physical approaches and site design but it also has to do with the immersive experiences and how those educational experiences can kind of be dealt with the site design at the same time and really what we're after is that emotional connection so you'll see that throughout the day a lot of our site design that we're gonna show is based in content or based on that emotional connection secondly we always like to remind ourselves where we are in the process right we always think about is an interpretive plan we use the word design a lot this is a reminder we're not in design yet right we're still in the planning mode you see that's that screen up there it says there's planning then there's design then there's implementation there's so much great design phases that are yet to come after we finish this planning phase but that means that a little dash line up there that talks about today so that you know we're right kind of at the three-quarter mark of our interpretive plan or so all the work that's preceded us and the vision guiding principles the master plan as a foundation for our work continued research and archaeology so all that comes into play as we're doing our interpretive plan but it does it's a good reminder what you see here today its strategies it's not designed we're not gonna be talking about materials all right what's that exact what do you see that rendering what's that material on the ground that's not the important part right the important part is the understanding of the strategy of what the vision is with that today we're kind of dividing up into three chapters we're gonna talk a little bit about the vision and the principles first Natasha is gonna come up she's gonna touch kind of as a really brief summary of some of the interpretive content so you remember last time we met there was a much longer longer presentation right 50 some slides at all got so deep into the understanding of the content and a strategy of all the stories to share and how we're gonna share them you know within the museum and the outdoor experiences so we'll give you a little summary of that before we dive deep a good part of this presentation really is like planning strategies so that's what we'll go at the end before we get to discussion questions now that's a real summary of what those goals are right our goals we want to explain how our site planning process is really relative to content and public experience we want to show how our site and the context is gonna try to it's going to achieve the vision and guiding principles that's foremost and most importantly we're gonna hear some feedback okay now with that we're not gonna read through every one of the vision guiding principles but you know we start everything keep these in mind it is important to us it's been part of our part of our backbone and foundation of the project we are gonna see this slide every so often and we use these guiding principles and you'll see that we use them in different ways we help these have helped us to come up with succinct ways to think about our goals as a team and so sometimes we use these guiding principles and some are very related to content or or management other ones are related to site-driven experiences so you'll see this come back again but we want to share our process a little bit show how these guiding principles start to form the way we think about about the site strategies so with that I'm gonna hand it off to Natasha I'll come back up when we get to questions so as John said some of these guiding principles really speak to how we think about content and we can summarize them for us with this statement which is that one of our aims is that we want to change the understanding of the Alamo of the building the Alamo is a much bigger place and we think there are four big things that we can do to help achieve that so the first is to create a 21st century museum and heritage site complex with both indoor galleries and as it were like an open-air museum and that we consider both of those places as places for interpretive storytelling but with each playing to unique strengths and character so museum can do things wouldn't leave it at a heritage site can't and vice versa so inside the museum galleries we use the collections so the Alamo collection and the Phil Collins collection to reveal that deeper story all the way from the 16th century to the day and in its regional and worldwide context whereas outdoors on the heritage site we can use interpretation and programming to tell the stories in the very spot where they happen and really help make people feel that they are standing in the footsteps of people from the past so to go into a little more detail about what we're thinking for the museum and I know that some people this is a bit of a recap but we are proposing four galleries and one pervasive field throughout the museum the top line of this diagram shows three galleries that we think are chronological and that explore the story of Alamo from when it was a mission through the battle of the Alamo and the Texas revolution and then take the story from that point when it was a ruin all the way up to the icon that it is today then we explore a thematic topic that we have for the moment called legends of the Alamo and that really explores how this story has become bigger in popular culture than in many ways it was at the time and explores these stories that people know and love and as I've said a pervasive field throughout the Alamo being a special place through time to show you a little bit about how the collections supports these four galleries just gonna show you some highlight images of items from both of those collections that I've mentioned that illustrate this so this is some of the things that support that missions of Valero gallery and this includes some items from the Phil Collins collection too which actually spans all four of those galleries we move on to the Texas revolution gallery it's both documents archives and 3d objects when we move into the ruins icon gallery again it's documents and objects but it's also paintings and actually also heritage photography early archive photography and then when we look at the legends of legends gallery the Alamo collection has a really lovely collection of narrative art that explores some of those stories there are props from some of the movies but also early pamphlets that start to show how those stories periphery almost from the battle itself onwards then as we move out onto the site what this diagram is showing is how that we can pull that storytelling all around the site so not just the church and the long barrack but up to the north wall the main what was the main gate in the southwest corner we can explore the stories of this place through all of those locations and we can explore it through all of those periods of time and really layer history up and tell a wide story and that we can also actually bring that right up today by exploring the archaeological research both that has happened in the past but that also will happen as this project develops and really reveal that historical evidence in place and with that I'll hand over to Eric. As a landscape architect and part of the team our moment of collaboration is the realization of all of the storytelling and teaching that Natasha and John talked about in the physical conditions of this site we also of course begin with the guiding principles and there are a number of those that are really focused on the experience of this place and we've translated that into a different statement it's obviously related to the one Natasha put in front of you. Our measure of success our way of translating those principles is to say that at the end of the day if everyone who comes to this site whether they're a citizen of San Antonio who's been here a hundred times or someone from out of town or out of the country who's never been here before that when they arrive they understand that this is a place of reverence and learning and this is important to say because that is a feeling that is something that is transmitted through the qualities of a place it's not just about a set of signs it's not just about a set of exhibits it's about how a place communicates that to you and as landscape architects that's what we do we communicate cultural ideas through place making so I'm gonna talk about the ways in which we get here we're gonna talk about this really at three levels first we're gonna talk about it strategically what are the big steps the big ideas that we think help us realize this vision then we're gonna talk about and we're gonna show you some images what might it feel like to arrive at the Alamo and this is as John said not design but it's about the quality of the space because that really is what we're focused on right now and then we're gonna step back into some of the hard decisions and the big changes that are required to make this site work and so you're gonna see this in a kind of a layered presentation so achieve that to achieve that feeling of reverence and learning we think there are five key steps first is to clarify the periods of historical significance so this is important when people arrive here they ought to understand that there are different pieces and they have different provenance and they come from different times and they tell different stories and they're not all one thing and actually we believe that the way in which we organize your experience on the site should communicate that we think to tell the bigger story to express the Alamo as a place and not a building as Natasha described revealing and delineating as much of that mission footprint as possible is really critical we think water it's really part of the history of the city it's critical to the life of the mission and of course the quality of water its sound its movement it's a real asset that could be brought to the site and of course it's not just the site itself it's how you get there how you approach it you ought to be learning the whole way you ought to be bring being brought to this feeling of reverence and learning as you approach and of course it should be accessible and this means universally accessible for everyone to use and understand and it should be intellectually and experientially accessible in other words not hidden in part of the city but deeply connected to the city and so when you arrive from any corner you know you've arrived at the Alamo so there are some steps that it might take to get there and this is a diagram that we're going to show you quite a bit tonight so if everybody can sort of orient themselves the cenotaph is here the long barricade church the Hyatt the Crockett the Manger the things that you we hold really as the centerpiece of this of what it takes to achieve these experiences begin with really preserving and emphasizing the critical artifacts of the long barracks in the church and this means stabilizing and preserving them this is work that you won't necessarily see but is critical to the process but it also means giving them space to be seen and understood this idea of expressing and revealing as much of the footprint as possible well most of you know that a lot of that is under the street or it's in the sidewalk or it's in the planters in the middle of the plaza or it's under the buildings that surround the site and so this raises really important and challenging questions about the difference and how we manage both continuity with our history and change which allows some of that history to be told and so we're going to take a leap here and ask a question what happens if we start to pull away some of those layers of the 21st century city the curbs the street lights the traffic lights the cars and we begin to understand that footprint as something that is a space that occupies a larger component of the city and then it's interesting in this idea of clarifying periods of historic significance we see the mission footprint and we understand that that is a footprint that evolved over time into the 18th and not early 19th century and then the cenotaph is there we ask ourselves a question because the cenotaph of course is a 20th century component of the site we wonder what would happen if that moved just outside of the historic footprint so I'm asking you to go on a journey here and understand this as a process and to understand what is possible because we see an incredible opportunity to take the cenotaph and put it in a place of honor and a place of significance we also see within this the opportunity to reveal and express the asecchia as they move through the site so all of this also raises the question about the buildings along the western edge and no we are not proposing necessarily that they all come down but I'm going to ask a question here about what it would be like if they did and then we're going to dig deeper and further in this presentation about the options because it's not a single choice it's a complicated choice there are layers of history that are told in those buildings as well right we're not about stopping the history in 1836 but if those buildings step away again you begin to see that footprint in a different context and you begin to understand that it is something that is related to the larger city as a whole and we think that really enhances the opportunity for way finding and clarity so at the end of the day if all of these operations are undertaken we see the opportunity to have a really clear mission footprint a very identifiable garden and a pervasive and really animated public Plaza de Valero that isn't just a small space but is a space that reaches out around those sites to the north and to the east and to the west and a place for a world-class museum that does what Natasha talked about it having the opportunity to do and this leads us to the second really big measure of success a lot of what I just talked about is really about revealing and telling the history and the story of this place but it's also part of your city we recognize that it has to function on a day-to-day basis and honestly it should function better than it does today it should be the place people want to go and spend time it should be a world-class pedestrian friendly and comfortable civic space so it's going to take some work to get there as well we think we should reduce the amount of vehicular traffic through that site so that pedestrians feel comfortable they can look around they can read this site and understand it without being worried about the car having a place of reflection we think those connections to the river walk and the other community and cultural assets that are so incredible in the city and we've been so really lucky and privileged to become knowledgeable and experience them ourselves as visitors everyone should be drawn and directed to those we think it has to have generous spaces for gathering and public expression and on days like today it needs shade it needs to be a place people want to stay because it's cooler than many other places in the city so how do you do that well we think we hold the vehicular access at the edges we push them to the side so that we have a large pedestrian space that means blocking traffic to the north and south along Alamo and we are also considering Houston Street between La Soya and Bonham as an opportunity to have that sense of the Plaza wrap entirely around the footprint and actually an opportunity to reveal the very north wall of the mission which is in between the Gibbs Hotel and the federal building which now doesn't feel like part of the mission at all again we'll talk more in detail about this but this whole site should have fingers it should reach out it should direct you to and draw you from these other cultural and historical sites it's really interesting to understand the scale of this space because right now the Plaza that we know is really just about two acres but this revealed footprint of the mission could be up to three acres in size the garden is three acres and this expanded Plaza is three and a half acres if you look at main Plaza that's three acres the really active but small less than an acre site at the pearl thinking about these three components of the site functioning together to create a kind of a really rich cultural center is an amazing opportunity for this city and then we don't need to tell you about shade because you know what it's like to walk on the Riverwalk and why so many people spend so much time down there it's probably partly the restaurants but it's really partly the shade it's the quality of being in that space and having a temperature drop we can bring that to this Plaza as well so here's an image of what that Plaza and that space could look like and we want to deep not stay up here we want to get down on the ground but this ought to start to explain to you that the Plaza the footprint and the garden have three different but interlocking characters so here again go on a journey with us and we're gonna have to explain where we are because some of these may not be familiar imagine you're walking to the north from Commerce Street to your right just out of the picture is the river center to the left is the block of buildings and shops imagine those shops in this promenade this pedestrian space having outdoor cafes and as you arrive and come to the north you are greeted by the cenotaph in a place of honor here really a kind of a marker of the invitation and introduction to the historic site stepping a little further to the north you come out into that larger open Plaza again shaded by trees and you see the cenotaph in its relation to the to the church facade you always see this in its relation to its larger historical context there are places for seating and gathering there we think this is an active site at night as well and this is a view you can't have today imagine you're standing at the doors to the Hyatt from on the soya street looking through where the Paseo is now at the grade level so the street comes through you would have views to the church facade the museum building proposed on the left of the image this is a totally transformed experience for people as they move through the city and understand this not as hidden but as linked to its surroundings imagine Houston Street you see the Gibbs Hotel on the right on the left sorry and the proposed museum building on the right imagine a pedestrianized space there where you're drawn right into the mission footprint and you see the garden right there behind the Long Barracks Houston Street on the other side here the Emily Morgan on the right and the garden on the left again a pedestrianized space the scale of that street narrowed down the big stone wall the masonry wall around the garden which is not original to the mission and many people confused as being part of the mission what if that came down and the garden came straight all the way to the street and there were gates there think about how transformative that would be for the feeling of walking along Houston Street and then being within that mission footprint and not worrying about the cars zipping by there's a different kind of intimacy that is able to happen between you and the buildings and the historic artifacts it's still a place for wedding photos and prom photos and to go in the evening and have your photo taken in front of the chapel that doesn't change here this is still the critical and active center of this city so those are what we think might be possible in terms of the quality and the character of the space of the mission and the area around it and it takes some work to get there there are some changes that we think need to be made to realize this vision that you have given us in your guiding principles so we're going to talk about that in some detail I'm going to start with the mission footprint area and then I'll talk about the Plaza de Valera starting in the mission footprint to the north we think there are four primary steps that we should take to create this place of reverence and learning and one is to lower the ground plane and I'll talk more about this but it's and and I'll really get into detail but it's not a deep drop it's about changing it just enough to differentiate it from the surface of the city and make it a place that feels special and different it is to inscribe the footprint on the ground so that you really don't just it's not just about understanding where it is it's about seeing its scale and complexity we also think that this isn't really just about two-dimensional things it's not just about the lines on the ground it's important to understand that this was a space that was bounded but we don't want to build walls we don't want to block people off and block people's views and so we actually think that trees a grove of trees around the edge can create a sense of interiority and scale and it can also push back the some of the very large buildings that are at the edge that distract from the experience of the space and finally all of this is really geared towards one thing which is telling the stories that Natasha talked about and telling them where they happened so here let's talk about this idea of lowering the ground plane it's not just within the footprint it's in an area around it and that allows us to see it what you see here is a drop of about 16 or 18 inches this avoids going down into the area of archaeology and creating any disturbance to the artifacts that may be there think of it as repealing off the pavement of the 21st century city along the edges there aren't walls there are seats and steps and ramps so that people in wheelchairs and with their baby carriages can still get down into that site we show here a kind of an idea that that footprint could be revealed through a translucent surface this isn't a new idea of course but we think that's an opportunity to interpret the surface through marking and information and where there's actual artifacts and archaeology to allow that to be seen this idea of dropping the grade also helps in the preservation of the historic buildings which we know have been had this fill around them is it in detriment is detrimental to their long term this is a view of being within the footprint looking to the south you see the manger and you see the proposed cenotaph location there imagine a shady place all the way around this site where people can sit and contemplate what they're experiencing you also see here that that grove of trees creates shade so people might really want to spend time here it's important that while we lower that ground plane to create differentiation that we also maintain connection that's why we show those broad stairs here on Houston Street the image you already saw we see the opportunity that that might be not steps but a big broad sloping plane a ramp that would allow people to just kind of come and and walk right off of the Houston the pedestrianized Houston Street into that mission compound now here we want to talk about this idea of revealing the footprint and this is one of those areas that John talked about where there's a lot of complexity a lot of nuance and there are still a lot of choices we showed you what it's like to think about making adjustments to the site to start to peel back and see more of the footprint and we think there are a couple of strategies because removing those buildings is a big choice they have history certainly the Woolworths building we are very conscious of the history of desegregation and civil rights and the desegregation of the lunch counter we recognize that that is a story that has to continue to be told here it cannot be erased and removed if these buildings change and so part of our process is to figure out how to continue to tell all of these stories but there's also a value in revealing that footprint and understanding the wholeness of the mission and so these are things we're still discussing part of this process is going to engage a consultant to assess the significance and integrity of those buildings so from an evidence-based approach we can make smart choices and I'm going to walk you through four ideas that we've had about how we might approach this one extreme retains the full block the other extreme retains the Crockett building but removes the others so zooming in we can see that this is retaining the full block of those buildings so they sit on the edge of the site the gray area is really museum building behind so imagine being within the footprint and along the edge you see the full range of those three buildings and you are able to interpret those layers of history you will notice here that you are not able to see the full footprint because it is under those buildings but you are able to see the Ezekia because it is in front of them another idea would be to leave the facades so that you are able to understand those buildings in terms of their scale and their presence but to remove behind them and create an opportunity to create an amazing museum building as most of us know the inter the interior of those buildings were gutted long ago and are now part of the amusement and attractions and so the physical fabric inside those buildings is not the same one interesting opportunity when we do this is that sorry the complicated clicker here we go there's the opportunity to have a pedestrian walkway at the grade of the street that is continuous and allows pedestrians to walk north to south basically behind that facade and looking into the mission footprint so imagine you're a person just walking through the city and you're trying to get from the south side to the north side quickly and you don't want to go down into the mission where you've got a lot of active interpretation and school groups this is a sort of a beeline through that is possible here within the footprint you would see those buildings but you would actually see through them to see the people walking north south along the length another option is to not retain the facades because it's actually not the full building but in like we would do in some of the other places to interpret them through a kind of a framework now this isn't a design this is something that would be developed over time but this is something that's been done around the world where there are buildings that people are trying to express the scale and significance of but without retaining the buildings themselves the final option and the most significant one would be to take down the plowless and the wood Woolworths building but to leave the Crockett building facade it's interesting here you still get that connection north to south and in this scheme and the others actually that Crockett building really serves an interesting purpose getting people from the museum at the upper level and down into the site without disrupting the public traffic north and south along that promenade and here's what that could look like and again this building is not a design this is just a sort of a gray box to understand that this would be a place where the building could be but imagine what the views from that promenade would be always looking into the long barric and the church then being in the space itself here we begin to show the kind of living history active interpretation that we see taking place there and we see the quality of shade that is created by having those trees around the edges and it's really important that this is a shady place because no one's going to want to spend time going to those sort of outdoor classroom events if it isn't a place where it's able to be cooled and comfortable we are working really closely to think about where there opportunities to do active interpretation and to sort of mark the important historical moments this is a drawing that is certainly not complete if we had put everything on here you wouldn't have any picture left it would be covered with information so we're just calling out a few so that you understand sort of how our process is working but it's important to note here that you'll see identifiers from every period from Native American burial grounds to this to the to the mission period to the textile workshop and the the asikia and even also of course to the battle moments to the southwest corner to the main gate and the lunette and to the location of Mexican soldiers as telling the full picture of this history we think there are some really interesting moments and again we're just going to show you two but there are of course many many of these that are being studied that southwest corner is a really interesting one because it's a place that the history that is embedded in the mission period overlaps with the history of the battle and imagine a place where you can actually see those two things together and interpret them together also not doing a recreation but doing moments where the materiality and the character of the space is of the architecture is expressed and then actually building 21st century platforms light on the ground so as not damaging any of the archaeology but that would allow someone to occupy the space this actually identifies the full height of what the mission was in this corner and imagine being able to stand here and look down all the way to the river and of course from the from the from the soya look back and see this moment along the west wall there's a lot of history to tell this is the place where we understand Travis's letter was written again we're not talking about creating rooms or buildings or structures that make it hard to see the space but we think there are compelling ways to interpret and engage people in really meaningful sort of dialogue about what happened there so there's a lot of stories to tell and if we're serious about making this a kind of a world class heritage site an outdoor museum that functions for school groups and gatherings and visitors and also functions on the day-to-day life of this city and make sure that it functions for them this is another place where we have really interesting challenges but we think we found some ways that are flexible and active that enable both of these things to happen so one of the ideas of course is that this site is always open to the public it is free there is no ticket that is required and any of you can walk in anytime but the other thing is that there's a lot of people who arriving here have no idea where they're going and no idea what they're doing and so is there a way to direct people to a set of entry ways where they are given some kind of interpretation during museum hours when there's active interpretation going on on the site and so we ask a question about whether we could direct people to a set of these places where that transition in grade between the street and the lower level takes place there's probably one primary one and we think it's in the Crockett building but there are there are multiple ones that could be opened and or not opened depending on the activity of the site so on a very active day when there's many people coming or going more than one could be open and on quiet days maybe there's only one now again it's important for everyone to understand that that's not a place where you have to buy a ticket everybody can still come in there but it is a way of organizing people's access to the site such that that interpretation can take place and again this is only during museum hours between the hours of 10 and 5 when active interpretation school groups and other things are happening on the site on the historic site and of course the rest of the plaza is unaffected by this so how would we achieve that without building walls without making it feel impenetrable well we worked very hard to kind of fine tune that to the different edges of the site so the south is different than the north and the east and the west and I'm gonna walk through each of those for you along the south side imagine that some of the planting that is so wonderful in the garden comes out across the plaza just south of the footprint and that's a place where it's sort of one of these thresholds into the historic site their shade and their seating those planting beds could have a fence no more than four feet in it but you would see over it of course at all times we're showing four different gateways here those would be operable again they could be closed at times and they would be open at any time before 10 and after five on the west edge of the of the footprint along the museum that image you just showed that would just be a glass rail or a very permeable rail imagine that it's 42 inches high like you would have in any museum or at the edge of a stair and so kids can still see through and that would just be along that edge in front of the museum along the north this is that view of Houston Street that you see again here's a place where that would be operable at times it could be pulled across and people would be directed down to the Crockett or to one of the other entries or it would be open and again it would be open at all times that the museum is not in operation along the Gibbs into the north and around the federal building a very similar condition a continuous sidewalk at the elevation of the buildings and their floors today and you see the slightly depressed area of the mission footprint itself adjacent and then in the garden along the edge here we've already talked to you about the potential for that masonry wall to come down and we think that here offense could be pushed back into the planting so it's almost not seen and again like you've seen here the gates are at each of the locations where there are pathways that connect from the garden to the surrounding streets so most of your experience of the space will be like this a site that you can walk through that you can access from any of these places it's only during that period of active interpretation that people would be asked to come to one of those specific moments of entry we do think late at night there's probably much like they do now an opportunity to put up a kind of a post and chain situation which creates a little bit of a buffer around the buildings for security and safety but again make sure you understand that the whole rest of that space is open and you can still on the way home from dinner stop by and have a photograph taken in front of the church so that's what we think maybe is the way to think about the changes that are possible around the mission footprint itself and now I want to talk about the plaza so I'm going to focus on the area south of the footprint all the way to Commerce Street here we think those five steps include the idea of restoring and relocating the cenotaph as a ceremonial centerpiece providing large areas for gathering and public expression really enhancing connectivity throughout the city activating the space so it doesn't close down at five so this is a place people want to be in the evening as well and creating shade so what might that look like well we think that relocating the cenotaph here as this moment of of entry and invitation to the historic site creates an opportunity not just to have it there but to begin to interpret it as a piece of history so we've been working with the team to think about how we can create seating and interpretation a moment of reverence where one can pause reflect and really understand because there is a bigger history of that monument that is clear and articulated in and of itself we think at night it could be lit to be a great beacon within this space again always seen in relation to the church but never really blocking the church we think this plaza is an incredible opportunity for public engagement and gathering it's three and a half acres of shaded space which is a kind of an unheard of opportunity the idea of connectivity also is really important and we're just going to show you one of the edges but we think this is really exciting imagine that you're at that part of the river walk that is now underneath the traffic circle where the torch of friendship is imagine that that traffic circle goes away and the traffic is directed to the soya and we'll talk about this in a minute in terms of traffic here you'd arrive at a moment on the river walk where today you have no idea where you are but you would be greeted with a kind of an invitation to step up out of the river walk to the streets of the city as a kind of gateway entrance to the site of the Alamo and the district we think it's important if we have a set of stairs there bringing you up to also have a pedestrian bridge think about the opportunities of a safe and comfortable pedestrian bridge to the south towards market making a connection to la vita and to hemisphere from this site that is really understandable and legible in a way it isn't today so some of this requires changes to traffic in the city and we've been working with gene Dawson and his team to understand the implications because we are proposing to close Alamo Street and to close Houston Street one of the measures here which is really quite interesting is to think about making the soya two way that's three lanes two lanes south one lane north so one of the things that we think is really exciting about this opportunity is that to rebuild la soya could be an opportunity to make it a kind of great pedestrian street to actually rebuild the sidewalks and make it a place that people would be happy and proud to stroll up and down we've understood the traffic counts at the intersection of Houston and Alamo and we think those can be accommodated in gene study helps us understand this but we actually think there's something that this opportunity really does for the city which is a benefit overall which is to create a strong north-south clear connection which doesn't exist today from Broadway to the north which is of course a growing and more animated area and south to south Alamo all the way through actually the traffic studies suggest that some of the complexity of a couple of those intersections where there's multiple points including the at the torch could be simplified and made more efficient by simplifying the traffic to a normal four-way intersection with normal turns and a phase of for pedestrians that allow them to cross we talked a lot about the history of the site and of course part of the cultural history of the site is the use of it as a site for the parades and so we've been working very carefully with the team to understand how the parades work and how they might work within this framework so we're really excited because what's come out of this is that there's not one solution there's actually a flexible framework for multiple solutions one of them might be to bring the parade route around third and bottom and behind the garden north of the manger into the core of the site and then to go to the south through what is Alamo now to Commerce Street in turn of course we've designed all of this with in light of this of the floats and the turning radiuses but the idea of rebuilding La Soya got people thinking that actually that might be quite an interesting route it's more direct of course and with the transformed connection between La Soya and this and the the historic core this kind of opportunity to pause and see into the site would be pretty compelling for the parade we also have said it would be possible for the parade route to turn in to the site pause here imagine that is the moment for wreath laying in front of the church and then turning down and coming past the cenotaph all the way to commerce and out again not a single solution but a set of flexible ones that can be decided over time and really last it's about how this functions on a day-to-day basis it shouldn't close down at night the way we light it to help interpret that history for people who come at night and for making an active urban environment is critical we want people to pour out of those restaurants and spends time here to have cafes and so we think that the way in which we light it and activate it so it returns something significant to this city is absolutely critical and really the script Grove of trees is so important to making this a coherent place that people want to spend time to gather to interact and to engage and so we end here with really going back to the sort of the phrases that we set out for ourselves as measures of success and we want to open it up to a conversation really which understands the ideas that we put out there the questions that we've posed because we recognize we haven't answered all of the questions there are options there are still things to be debated and discussed but we think if we understand those and evaluate those against the principles and these big ideas it gives us a framework for engaging with that conversation thank you welcome everybody few moments to breathe my name is Paris McDermott I'm president and CEO here at the Whitty Museum and also a proud member of our Alamo advisory committee we've been working together since 2014 so I I just want to say a couple things one when we first got together first gathered as a committee we knew then that we were paving the way for a transformative plan that reimagined the Alamo in the heart of our city of San Antonio we created a vision guiding principles themes and goals eight pages of themes and goals that are foundational to these plans and tonight is the time that we test the vision guiding principles and themes and goals with this very comprehensive and bold plan we have in fact in front of us a bold plan and I'll I'm going to ask each one of you to weigh in on your ideas that you know that you like that you appreciate that you need clarification you're seeking clarification about that you're worried about you're concerned about so each one of you has a time to really weigh into the specificity of what you see now these again this is a the first time the first plan so we we must that this is our charge representing San Antonio is to make sure that we understand it and that we challenge it and that we you know say our piece there is one request and I've talked to Councilman Trevino and Sue Ann Pemberton my fellow I tried shares about this and just with respect I just want to make sure that the vision that we came up with and we actually spent most of the time on the vision if you remember that so I'm just going to read it just so we know that we're going to be testing on our vision as well which is first to engage local residents and visitors in ways to personally connect the to the Alamo area experience we have the public with us today welcome we're so thrilled you're here tonight just to witness this and so that engage local residents is very key to what we're about tell the story of the battle of the Alamo and the impact on the Republic of Texas the city of San Antonio the state of Texas the United States and the international community which is why this is so bold and necessarily so include and interpret the diverse cultures that contributed to the story of the Alamo area through meaningful and memorable experiences for visitors we know that this is a story of the entire city of San Antonio and beyond certainly Texas and tell the in-depth history of the Alamo area to the present day as a tribute to all who lived fought and died there and that's the vision so with that I'm going to go ahead and just kind of name different folks and you can tell me what tell us this this audience where you are so I guess I shall start over here and I guess I will start with Marty would you like to go ahead and introduce yourself and who you represent and then tell us and by the way what what we're doing because of the timeframe you know in the three-minute timeframe I'm we're not going to have a buzzer or anything that we're all together as a committee shoulder to shoulder but if you can kind of you know kind of keep your your comments as brief as possible I'm Marty RC with the National Park Service and I'm here as the federal representative on the committee I think you know one of the reasons that I was included on the committee had to do with World Heritage of course I manage the other missions that are in the World Heritage site and so at that level I think it's nothing in this impacts negatively on the World Heritage site I need to remember that the World Heritage site is just what is now considered the Alamo and all the plaza and everything all around there is within the buffer so I think we need to stay clear on that but so I don't think it impacts the World Heritage site negatively I think as someone who has spent 30 years in interpretation and has have done some interpretive planning myself I I like the flow I like the way the visitor is considered in this I think that the idea of lowering the grade slightly the 16 to 18 inches I think that's a that and the trees I think is a really good way of delineating the site I do like that I like the idea of delineating the mission boundaries with whatever it is that you come up with I've seen that work really well where there's archaeological sites underneath I bet that can be good places I've seen it I don't know that they get as hot as it does here with so much direct sun so I know you all can figure that out but I like the way of delineating that the removal of the buildings I was hate to see historic buildings go away but I think that in relation to the story that we're trying to tell is the Alamo story they either need to totally go away or remain I the idea of leaving a facade that's fake that's I don't like that the outlining I don't like that so either they're there or they're not I love the idea of pulling a lot of activity down to you know outside of the mission footprint I think that's great I think it's wonderful to have an active place like that and to still have your heritage site and I like how it's been approached as a heritage site and and I think that there's a lot of room in this plan to tell all the stories that we want to have told I think that that's important it's not just focused on one thing thank anything else I'm just trying to think it off my head what else and the railings are that the demarcation around the plaza I'd like the idea of the plantings I thought that was good and the railing on the side where the the sake it is that that I'm good with I just don't know about the railing over there's I need to see how that would actually work and how that would look I didn't really get that Frank you could introduce yourself and then your comments thank you yes my name is Frank Ruttenberg I am I was appointed to the committee as a representative for building owners I guess businesses down in the area our family has been involved on the plaza over 70 years with kind of continuous business operations in one form or another and I guess that's why my involvement was considered significant and it's been a part of kind of our family and a part of we've been a part of the community down there for quite some period of time first and I think I'd be remiss if I didn't do this and I know we don't have a lot of time to speak this committee has been one of the most remarkable committee processes that I've gone through the people on this committee and the dedication that they have given to this project is second to none and I want to take a moment to applaud every one of you for the hard work that you put in to this process this is not been a it's it's not easy to balance all the different interests and concerns that are taking place to the design team I want to say thank you I think you have been listening you you said at the very beginning we had a long way to go from kind of an early iteration of this that we saw and y'all did spend some time listening I think there's been some vast improvements that have taken place since some of the urban stage discussions that have gone on as it relates to the landscape in particular I want to say understanding how this impacts the visitor in that regard and so for that I want to tell you all thank you there is a this is a plan one of the things that I think we all understand it is a working process this is not the beginning and there's not the end of a process the very beginning of process and so a lot of what we've seen here will undoubtedly through the input from this committee and others will go through some additional changes and we certainly look forward I think I can speak to the committee to say we all look forward to continuing to work with y'all to make this plan better and make the opportunity better as time goes on as it relates to my role my specific role which is kind of dealing with building owners and businesses down that I will say you know this is a very this is a change plan from what we've all seen before and so this is the first impression that we're gaining right now and and I think I would be remiss if I tried to get out in front of that issue for the people that I represent as a constituent and try to represent because there's some very many interest and so I'm going to tell you all thank you for presenting this to us and I plan to get back with y'all as every member of the committee will and we'll continue to work with y'all on the impact of this as across the board as it relates to businesses and to the buildings that are down there in the area obviously at any redevelopment plan there are places where this plan makes businesses better and plans and places where it has a more adverse impact and the commitment that this committee was that we were committed this committee had is to be sensitive to all those issues and I know we'll work together over the next few months to address those impacts that may adversely affect other people and diminish those as much as possible and enhance everybody's opportunity to make this a wonderful wonderful plaza a wonderful people place and one of the things that I really want to emphasize because it's important this is a heritage site and it's a it's the Alamo itself and the story is a fabulous fabulous story but for over hundred and fifty years or longer this plaza has been a people place and that is probably its most significant contribution to this when you take a look at the span of time that's that it is impacted this city and the citizens of the city and the way we've used that plaza so making certainly keep that context is extraordinarily important thank y'all for keeping that in mind lastly and I you know to the extent that people talk about buildings coming down I will say in the in the in the large picture I think it's it's always better to not take down history to try to kind of focus on a particular aspect of history and so to the extent I think I see my family members are here I want to I thank y'all very much for kind of being considerate of that and let's continue to be sensitive to those issues I think there we can all be creative and this this is the beginning of a very creative process we can all be creative and there I think there are ways for us to all work together to achieve both of the purposes that we're looking for here and I don't think I have any more to say if there's anybody has any questions. Frank thank you so much Davis Phillips and you could get my name is Davis Phillips and I represent the tourism industry and the first thing I'd like to say is that whether you're from London or anywhere else you're welcome to be here even if we disagree a lot of what I see is really good and I echo what what you've already heard some points I think that we need to focus on we talked about the access the pedestrian access in and out of Alamo Plaza narrowing that funnel between 10 and 5 is the majority of the day is going to affect businesses up and down Houston Street and south on out that's really really problematic and that's my most nice controlled way that I can say it and we'll talk more as we continue to meet but I'm that's something that's going to make me jump up and down demolishing historic buildings I think that that's a fight we don't need to take on I'll tell you that the committee never once recommended that I've been a part of it since 2014 I think that we've got issues like moving the cenotaph closing the streets the transfer of Alamo Plaza from the city to the state so that they have unified ownership and a final Alamo Museum plan that's going to please the committee and the donors that are going to fund it those are big challenges by itself without strapping on the fight to demolish buildings so I think that's going to harm our project we're trying to move it down the field right I really do not understand the need to demolish Frank's buildings they're outside the footprint the committee never called for that the attractions that are inside his building are going to be relocated to the entertainment district so since his families own that for 75 years they're part of the history in this space too it's an asset to them and it's just wrong as an American and a Texan to take somebody's property when they don't have these are not these are big picture topics not just specifically I think that LaSoya needs to seriously be looked at because telling me that that squash to lane can turn into free lanes and that's going to work is scary I'll tell you as somebody who drives it every single day and is there during the busy times of the year during spring break in July 4th you can't move and if it's now two-way traffic good luck for anybody exiting the Hyatt parking garage okay the other concern I've got is deliveries how we these are not things that can't be dealt with okay we all want this to happen I'm pointing out the things we need to deal with to make this happen okay don't misunderstand me deliveries are a concern for the businesses that are there we've closed off Houston Street closed off Crockett Street now we're talking about taking away everything you have but a sidewalk in LaSoya I don't see how you're going to have room for three lanes plus delivery in LaSoya so those are some issues you've got to think about the bus tour companies where are they going that hasn't been talked about and I know that again we're talking about the site plan but my focus is on the tourism aspect is that all of these companies are respected and guys we can have the right kind of experience at the Alamo without killing certain segments of the industry okay there's a way to do that and the tour bus companies are important part of our industry it's not my money but I'm just telling you looking out for the industry and I don't see I'm not sure where they are because I had heard at one point it would be at the friendship torch and now that's changed looks like the last thing I would say is we've talked as a committee about more connectivity and I don't think we should close off the connectivity from the Alamo Plaza to the river underneath that space that right now goes through the Hyatt there's also a business there that needs to be taken care of the beer garden which is pretty successful and I would urge people just if it's not your business don't be dismissive of the fact that it's feeding somebody's family okay thank you Frank Ramon Vasquez please Ramon Vasquez with the American Indians in Texas at the Spanish colonial missions I also want to thank you for all the work that you've done today you really I can truly say that you've listened and I know that I've been a big thorn in your side for a while and so we'll continue to be so if things continue to move in the other direction but I like what I saw you know I did like what I see I will tell you what some of the concerns that some of the things that stuck out for me it is going to be the the gray sights that's always going to be first and foremost in what I do right and I want to just be clear that on the slide you had Native American burials okay and it's true that is what is there but it was a Catholic cemetery and they were Catholics natives that were buried there so I just kind of throw that out there as well okay because we can't lose that as well right but we don't know if there was Native American traditional burial grounds yet we'll find out with the archaeology right but the other thing too is not just Native Americans okay there's Canary Islanders buried there there's the first the city of soldiers buried there and we have to be mindful of that and not just that Lieutenant Colonel Antonio el Osua is buried there that was in the control of the Mexican armies in 1833 of Coahuila y Tejas is buried there at the Alamo so I think we need to consider all these cultures that we have as well in terms of the burial grounds because they're significant so I just want you know add that I think in terms of the buildings themselves I think you might be I'm not for tearing down buildings but I also do believe that understanding the history of that of what happened there and why it happened was a result of something else and I believe that that's something else has a lot to do with the Alamo okay and that is struggles that happen in this community that were embedded in racism discrimination and prejudice okay and I don't think we can ever we need to also remember the healing that we talked about that needs to be incorporated with this site Sharon hi I'm Sharon scramar sick and I'm a member of the dollars of the public of Texas and I too want to say thank you for all the work that you've done and I am impressed I think it's probably I get a good feeling by looking at the grounds and feeling of reverence I have a sense of it being a memorial and I like that I do have a couple of concerns and the biggest two main concerns one is clarification want to make sure that the plaza is open and I wasn't sure I was getting that completely so if you could elaborate on that at some point I would like to spend more time with that because I do think we all want the plaza to remain open the other issue that I had was on one of the slides that you had and it has to do with the cenotaph and the location of the cenotaph in front of the minger and one of the slides where you had all of this happened and this happened and this happened and this happened the cenotaph is located right where you say the Mexican soldiers were and if you'll remember that the cenotaph is a tombstone it's a headstone it's like for your your your great-great-grandfather's tomb memorial you know and so it's important I don't think we want to put it right where the Mexican soldiers were I think that sends the wrong message but I I do think overall I think we're going down a good path I want to make sure the plaza stays open and I do have concerns about the cenotaph. Thank you Sharon. Sharon would you mind taking it over to this table please we're just going to kind of go that way. Thank you Sharon. Aaron do you want to start with Aaron? Oh you have your own never mind we were very thank you JSAV for being so fabulous we have you have your own microphone. Aaron if you could introduce yourself. Oh yes I'm Aaron Bowman and I am here. Oh Aaron forgive me Aaron go ahead keep going. Okay on behalf of the general land office and I became involved with this 20 years ago chairing a capital campaign for the Alamo. This is a much bigger plan than we anticipated 20 years ago but it's very gratifying to me to see how far you all have come with everything you've done. I personally like 99% of it I think that it is very well done there's been lots of thoughts put into it we are now at a point that we can really focus on the few things that we don't agree on and come to some conclusion. There doesn't have to be any involved because we all want the best for the Alamo so I'm looking forward to working with the committee and having a result in July. Thank you Aaron. For maybe Forrest just since you're both with the GLO go ahead for me. My name is Forrest Bias I'm an Alamo defender-descendant delineating recapturing the footprint of the Alamo compound I think is very very very important people coming to the Alamo will know where they are now finally dropping the grade I think helps do that because they come and they know they're in what I would consider sacred burial ground for several different people there Indians we have the Canary Islanders like he said Alamo defenders there the Mexican troops that were defending their country on their side closing the streets I think is good especially Alamo Street because that travels right over the Alamo battlefield and that's sacred ground to me delineating the west wall I think is important the buildings coming down and no can be a problem if there's some way when I saw that the buildings were gone and we could delineate the west wall I like that but also don't like buildings going so I think that's something we're going to be working out trees more trees I like the more trees thing I like the shade quite a few more trees I see than the plaza and the compound currently has pedestrian friendly I like the pedestrian friendly I'm concerned about the traffic though when we reroute and like everybody said with La Soya if that can be worked out that would be great the cenotaph if it is the tombstone the grave tombstone goes at the head of the grave it doesn't go in the middle of grave so I've always been for putting the cenotaph at the south gate right now it's a little bit further south a little bit further east than I would like but I think that's because of the battle of flowers parade and stuff that would happen where the cenotaph which I would like would be right outside the Lynette would be so but I think the devil's gonna be in the details coming up that we're all gonna work hard for and I appreciate the work that the planners and everything has done to this point and all the hard work that's coming to it thank you Maria hi yes Maria Nelson with San Jersey and Antonio I am fairly new to this committee a couple of months but what I have noticed is that the design team has listened to us and I definitely appreciate a lot of the opportunities for you guys to just hear us and listen to us over and over and over I understand this is the planning stage and I think we are keeping that in mind and that this is the first draft and that I am delighted in the amount of the the grand ambition that we have in providing San Antonio's the locals and the visitors a world-class space and experience and that is important to me I also agree and think that the connectivity moving forward needs to continue being a priority as it's been in this draft and the accessibility so keeping people in mind and continuing that connection as we move forward Naomi hi I'm Naomi Miller and I'm an appointee from the general land office as well and like Maria this is been on this committee for a couple of months and I'm really excited to see the progress that we've made tonight on this that the most exciting part for me is a lifelong San Antonian I'm 41 years old I've been visiting the Alamo for 41 years and seeing the original footprint is really exciting for me and the most exciting part was the lowering of the ground plane and I think if we can address all of the issues that we've heard today and focus on the positive things about we I really feel personally we have one shot at this and I want to be respectful of everyone's opinions but also know that this is this is a great opportunity to really honor our Alamo and I'm really excited about it being from San Antonio and like I said being a frequent visitor of the Alamo and seeing it in such a different way is really exciting for me thanks I'm Warren Wilkinson I'm also with Centro Maria's been on the committee longer than I have and she's only been on it for a few months so I'm a newbie I think I agree with most of what the comments are the pedestrian and vehicular traffic have challenges I think they all have to be flushed out a lot of the designs that are included in elements in this design and elements that are no longer in this design I think are real plus moving forward we look forward to the future meetings to flush out the details Sarah I'm Sarah Lodwanya I'm with the Texas Historical Commission in Austin but I'm a native San Antonio as well and a lot of my comments have already been said but I do have some concerns about lowering the grade I can understand the reasoning for it from the interpretive angle but once you lower the grade you're kind of losing any buffer I know you mentioned that but just be careful with the archaeology what is there and we don't actually know how much is really intact and could be visibly interpreted and also as a preservationist I obviously have concerns about demolishing the buildings across the plaza and oh I am in favor of closing Alamo Street but I do think there are a lot of traffic issues that would need to be worked out. Dave Kropinski. Hi Dave Kropinski with Visit San Antonio also relatively new to the committee just a few months and we're looking at this from a true visitor experience and what this means to the rest of the world after that they come in and enjoy what the Alamo Project has become. First of all I want to say thank you for all the hard work that you've done I think it really is a great plan and we have a visitor center right across the street as many of you know so we hear all of the wonderful comments and the not so wonderful comments and the fact that trees are coming is a major major deal to visitors and for children that are with their parents that are not getting the true explanation of what this site really means and the vision that we're all working on to make sure that confluence is told to families it's really critical that they have a peaceful setting relevance is important in shade and comfort so I commend you for the great work that you've done with that. Concern that we use the word world class and I know we talked about that a little bit you know yesterday and I still want to emphasize that you know as the site becomes world class or better yet the world designates us as world class that we have to look at the security issues and we talked a little bit about that in the past but I know that there's one way in and there's one way out during museum hours and while that's great in some cases having alternative plans just as long as those are being looked at because world-class opportunity brings world-class challenges sometimes in the world we live in today and if we're going to put all this money towards this we want to make sure that's very safe and protected site as well. The other thing that we're also re-iterating with Davis a little bit on the bus tours and the businesses you know also tied to in the tourism industry we share some of those concerns and then finally just traffic queuing over the summer you know I think those are conversations we can dig into a little bit deeper but those would be some concerns for my I'm Amy Shaw with the PSA San Antonio Commission I'm sitting in for Byron LaFleur who was unable to be here this evening as first drafts go personal view as an excellent first draft especially the part about embracing the continuum of history and recognizing that there is a cultural archaeology associated with this part of the city the battle of flowers parade 128 years the pilgrimage 101 years flambo parade 70 years the investiture this hallowed ground Army Marine Navy Air Force Day is at the Alamo that all occur during fiesta we'll we're very grateful for the opportunity to weigh in and that it appears that there have been a lot of thought put into kind of the cultural icons of San Antonio and how that plays in this site we'll be looking forward to weighing in as the process goes forward thank you Amy I guess you all have over there so Phil you want to I'm sorry to interrupt you want to grab the microphone feel bad no fighting over the microphone thank you Maurice for hosting us tonight at the wonderful Woody Museum home to a lot of us appreciate that I thought the the plan was was very interesting I like a lot of things about it I too have a relative's name the cenotaph originally I was adamantly opposed to relocating the cenotaph but I think it could be located in a place that brings more people to it and gives it an opportunity to to be more appreciated in a more personal way and it if you carefully inspect it and look with your own eyes you can clearly see that it needs to be refurbished and preserved for the next hundred years that's apparent I know a companion originally wanted to do it out of bronze but money was scarce then too so I think if we if we look at you know the Alamo and think about it in terms of the Shrine of Liberty and we look and really look at what Liberty represents which is freedom and the ability to assemble which is what the Plaza has represented historically and I think it's truly what binds all of the different organizations and people who have a connection to the Alamo in one way or the other or struggle the goddess to where we are today it's Liberty that it's a common denominator so I think we have to protect the openness of the Plaza and along with that the traditions that we that we formed there over the last hundred plus years and the parade route to me as a sacred cow and I think we should continue to to find a way to to make this site work for one day a year for the Battle of Flowers parade and all it represents in the local history and culture and the way we come together as a community to celebrate Fiesta in the military and civilian communities. I just will also comment that I've learned a lot and come to really appreciate and respect some of the diverse backgrounds that are represented on this committee and I just appreciate the ability to work with my colleagues thank you. Thank you Bill and then I should note right Bill Becky you represent District 10 so if you could also tell the districts that you represent I think this might this might be the council table right here I believe so go ahead Bill. All right I'm Bill Brindle I'm from I'm appointed from Council District 9 and I also am a general manager at the Crockett manager with the Manger Hotel so I work every day in the Plaza area. I do want to thank the design team their process of hearing from our committee and then using that and the guiding principles and the result of this draft has been great to see how that came together and I did write down that I don't think not one objection that they've heard from us has been discounted by them or ignored by them always addressed in their plan so thank you for that. I've written a couple of notes while the presentation was being made I think the plan is truly transformational for the area and that would be good for visitors and our city and our citizens and knowing that it's transformational it is going to require acceptance of change and compromise so we have to keep that in mind at all times. A couple other things I wrote down during the presentation I think Eric said functionality is key for the area and we don't want to impact the day-to-day life of the city by what we do there that's my some of the things that concern me deliveries tours access traffic unfortunately are things we have to fight through and work through but the goal I think making this a world-class tribute to the Alamo will work. Thank you Bill. Rudy. My name is Rudy Rodriguez. I represent council before Councilman Salda in the district. I've been on first of all born and raised here in San Antonio raised our family here and I've been on the committee since 2014. Yes the tri-chairs thank you for all the work that you've done and I do want to congratulate the consulting team and tell you that I think that we're so much closer and so close to a final product and I think that the second and third and fourth time that you see the plan begin to appreciate more and more elements of it and to the audience I'd like to also share with you that over the last four years there's been 21 members of the committee that have worked diligently and I can tell you through some very robust discussions that debated opinion and what you see today really is a compromise that comes from the results of four years worth of work some of us may have wanted to delineate all the walls someone who just wanted to keep all of the buildings but what you're seeing is a compromised approach which I think is very very important here for some of us the cenotaph isn't a perfect place for me I think it makes a perfect marker to the entry to the experience you're coming off of commerce going to the Alamo and you're greeted by the cenotaph if there was ever a sign or signal of reverence to be held the cenotaph would do that for that entry way now I do think that overall the plan is very strong and very good I though would have some concern that we have not quite delineated the wall enough I'd rather in the areas where the four we can create some vertical delineation of the walls now doesn't necessarily have to be the full height of what they were originally but something that really shows a more a sense of arrival a sense of place if you will delineating walls the perimeter walls I think are important within that context I'd like to see delineation of the front gate of the Alamo I mean for me to have my children walk through the front gate of the Alamo and truly arrived there I think could be a very moving moving experience so I think it has some tweaks I think we have some more work to do I applaud again the consulting team the pleas of citizens of San Antonio recognize that all of this and what we will achieve going forward will be a compromise for the collectivity of the Alamo thank you all very much George Esneros on behalf of City Councilwoman Shirley Gonzalez so I extend congratulations to the design team and most importantly to the three co- chairs for bringing this important dialogue into the open so that we can proceed towards a plan each of us on this commission I've only been here in recent months but this experience has been a profound examination of conscience about who we are as a community it is a continuing conversation that will go into the future and into the next generations as well the physical forensic studies that were done by the design team to the architects and the archaeologists it really reveals that there's some emotional forensics that need to take place in the community as we examine issues of culture and examine issues of acquisition of military acquisition of how we get to resolve those prices and I want to thank all of the members of this Commission for that opportunity the one concern I have is this constant conversation about the visitor experience because the identity and the image of San Antonio is actually to be determined by the very people in this room all of the audience all of us anybody with an interest we should not be basing the visitor experience on what other people outside of this community anticipate is the Alamo what the outside biases and the movies and all the things that have been out there the movies that have given visitors from outside San Antonio a vision of what they wanted the Alamo to be oh it's so small is that all there is those things should not be guiding us at this time we should be actually dealing with identity itself when I when I entered this Commission I was afraid that we're gonna make a manifest destiny theme park and it is it is though becoming more obvious that there's a true concern that there will be community reverence and resolution oh you know we've had a very interesting history there's a lot of violence in there and we haven't all resolved it and as mr. Davis said it is un-American and anti-Texan to take away someone's property unless they're Mexicans right and then it's all right to come in here with weapons and take our land away so we have to resolve mr. Davis and I sitting around and figuring out how we can get along because at this point I think we have ruffled that each other's feathers in many many ways so thank you you are the ones that determine San Antonio not tourists we are Roger Perez Marise thank you I'm Roger Perez I'm the mayoral appointee to this particular committee I think I have a little familiarity with this in 1994 Nelson will put me in charge I was in councilman Trevino spot in district one and he said with the Alamo we can do better and we created a team and a task force I was actually with a couple one person's father on this committee back then we began to unearth a number of issues it became a very challenging issue a very emotional issue but it was a great learning experience for San Antonio it's appropriate that we sit at the witty that 20 years ago we had a wonderful place here at the witty but today we have a true gem at the witty now okay down the block in the 1990s downtown in Houston on Houston Street we had a children's museum because they're women like Marise and so many others that decided in San Antonio we needed to have a children's museum but then after we determined that we can do better we now have one down the block that is a true gem so with respect to the Alamo I believe we can do better and I think we're moving in the right direction I too have some concerns about buildings and access and traffic and those are the things we can work out but this is a unique moment in time for the city of San Antonio in 94 we had great ideas but no resources today we have state commitment we have private commitment we have the city commitment we have resources this is a time that if we continue to work together that we can indeed achieve something great for our city it is a world heritage site and we need to realize the importance of that and the significance of that it is just you know a unique opportunity for us so to the tri-chairs to the planning folks the hard-working folks I appreciate your good work we look forward to working with you continuing to move this process forward and I think we're moving in a positive direction thank you thank you Good evening everyone Jose Maria Gonzales I'm representing District 8 I work at the San Antonio in San Antonio first of all thank you everyone for the work the consulting team everyone Jose could you say it one more time Jose Maria Gonzales Jose Maria Gonzales so having said that that is an ongoing process I would say the two main things besides everything that has been said I think I would not add too too much because all all of us have said a lot it would be that of course the plaza remains open for San Antonians and open for business what we do every day at the at the chamber it supports small business owners so definitely a big input in whatever we do will be the business owners that not only around the plaza but for example as David will say it's down to Houston and everyone that gets affected to have their input and the only thing that I would add besides that I would like to see in maybe some of the other committee meetings that we have seen Los Angeles and some of the traffic I guess challenges that we're thinking about and if anyone can could overcome that challenge that's paid dozens for us for the community to see some more detail engineering plans about the street and some of the measurements how how could that be faithful to add those detailed conversations not only about what would happen in the plaza but some plans of what is going to happen around the plaza the streets and some more things so thank you very much thank you Patricia thank you hi I'm Patricia Mejia representative for district three first I want to congratulate Maurice on the air condition it definitely works all joking aside I've just been freezing I'm sorry I should have traded with me I have been on the committee since 2014 so I can say I'm extremely appreciative of all of the commitment I know the public only sees part of the conversation a very small portion but everybody who has been on this committee I echo other people's words are definitely very committed and engaged in some very robust is one way to put it dialogues and so I agree this is a compromise this is several years of compromise but I do need to thank the the consultants and I have said from the beginning through various emails and in comments that this is very important to me personally as well as I'm sure many families in San Antonio and this is a story of genealogy and it's much larger than the concept of visitors and a visitor needs to be taken into consideration of who are the families that the story is about and so I'm appreciative that you have taken that in consideration every phase of this and that you are very delicate with the language that you are using I'm very appreciative of that a couple of concerns that I have in connection to that is just the word of the usage of legend I think that as we define who legends are because there's multiple stories that we are considerate of that that actually takes various angles and stories to be told I too am not necessarily completely sure that the conversation around the rails or the fence however we might describe it is finished I think there's some continued dialogue there given that one of the most important guiding principles is that it continues to be a plaza for people in gathering and I'm not quite I'm not sure that we've had enough of that conversation but more than anything a huge thank you I think this is a wonderful step forward and look forward to continue. Anthony. Okay my name is Anthony Edwards I'm a trustee on the witty board and I also represent district two I want to take a shout out if I could just tell you that every person in this room really should see the confluence of culture exhibit here at the witty because what it does is creates a context for the whole issue about the Alamo because it talks about the generations of centuries leading up to that famous battle so I would I would ask all of you to watch that film because what it does it brings a lot of things together now she kind of stole my thunder when on the issue of the legends thing I think legends that word conveys we they and I think we have to be really careful that as we talk about the battle of the Alamo that we don't use words that have a way of importing to other folks that there are some who won some who lost and and maybe those are the realities but there are some other realities that make for for example social media puts san Antonio in mexico aligned in in microseconds so we shouldn't do things I think that have a way of alienating people or making people feel that they have somewhat of a secondary purpose let me just quickly look at some of my notes the Woolworth building for me as an african-american that was symbolic of a facility that was the first place to move toward desegregating the lunch counter and so I'm kind of torn there whether that should be torn down or not the center tab I've not really spent a lot of time really thinking about it but I do think that there are lots of stories that are left kind of untold I think that if we look at the center tab we've got to make sure that there are some names that may need to go get etched on that facility that have previously been left off just for because how important it is for inclusion and I did google the word legend and I just want to just end it by saying you know the boston Celtics were legendary but they were also other teams in the nba so we can't just suggest that celtics were the premier team there are lots of other important entities so that's that's just my my thoughts thank you anthony I thank all of the committee members I think each of you have spoken and really appreciate your time and your thoughts and your consideration I have a councilman Trevino who will close the session I suppose yes thank you marise and thank you for for helping to for us to engage in a great conversation I want to thank the advisory committee members for for being here tonight beginning of more conversations to be had I want to thank the the design team Eric Natasha and John great work great job and of course I want to thank the public for being out here tonight we certainly appreciate your commitment to this important project and do want to hear from you remember that there's these common the common cards are outside also June 18th we do start the public meetings so we hope to see you at those public meetings this group a reminder that we'll see you again July 10th 6 p.m location to be determined we look forward to many more of these conversations this is an incredibly important project I want to thank Gene Dawson for being here tonight Doug McDonald also as well and the great team over at the Alamo all the great work that you guys do every single day thank you so much for being here tonight we'll see you next time so explain to me what okay so what Olivo my is a fabulous journalist and he's he's going to be we're just going to be asking you if you follow up questions about this just for about five minutes and we hope we are live so I'm Charlotte Ann Lucas with Nowcast SA and I'm here with Ben Olivo who is my journalist friend and Eric your designer who gave a terrific presentation today and we had a couple of follow-up questions about this just terrific presentation that we saw today just what is your reaction to the reaction that you received tonight there were obviously some issues about the cenotaph and closing some streets but what are you what what is your sort of initial reaction well so we know that this is one of the most complicated and most significant projects certainly that will ever be involved in but for the city the passion we heard is no surprise we have heard it every step of the way and I think so if the question is was I surprised to hear these people speaking they're actually deep deeply held beliefs no we wouldn't have expected anything different and actually this is why we're here we're here to engage in a conversation because we have choices to make right this is not a done design that's what Roberto said at the beginning this is a process and we need to hear what the community values and I'm not sure who said it but it's right it's not just for the tourist it's for the city and so we need to hear what the city values so we can weigh those things as we begin to decide what to do to make it better than it is today so we heard some really broad strokes we also heard you saying this is sort of a framework and there were a couple of things I think having to do I guess with the buildings across the street yes yeah I just wanted to get some clarification of what you presented tonight are are you proposing demolishing buildings or what exactly are y'all so what our goal tonight was to show you the opportunities and options so we looked at one where you saw all of those buildings remaining and one where you saw the Crockett remaining and the Woolworths in the palace coming down and the answer is this has to be a community conversation we're doing research to understand the historic significance and the integrity of those as evaluated against the secretary of interior standards so there's a standard practice in place here so this is we've always talked about this as an evidence-based design how do we begin to get enough knowledge so we can make good choices so this is one that isn't figured out yet we want you to understand spatially and in terms of the the stories that we can tell what's possible if we make one choice or another but then we have to make the choice so it's not that they are coming down it's this is how it would be if some came down and this is how it would be if others came down right and that's our goal you know all of this is about visualizing because abstractly these are hard choices to make right you have to understand what's the impact so we're trying to visualize and help you see what those impacts are and therefore again make good decisions uh and about the cenotaph because that was sort of one of the the most contentious of this whole process but um why move it to the spot that you're proposing which is basically in front of the um the manger hotel right so I want to be clear and and I probably should have said this the exact location I'm not sure we know exactly where it is we think that for the clarity of the way in which the footprint functions as a piece of the history that's related to that 18th 19th century period and that the fact that the cenotaph is a 20th century element to help clarify that distinction it actually makes quite a bit of sense to move it and we actually a couple of the people on the committee said this the idea that it is a bit of a welcome a kind of a way of starting to introduce you to the site set the tone seeing that relief as you're walking to the north we think that's powerful is it too close to the manger maybe it is should it be a little closer to the north maybe it should these are all the things that design will do what we've said is it needs to be always seen in relation to the church which if you could see in those drawings it was we also don't think it should be put in a place to block the church so when you're coming up you should see the church as well so we're playing a kind of fine line on how to do that do we have it right I'm sure we don't but we'll work on it in any event you're not talking about moving it across town right so we know that there were earlier proposals which moved it way far away and we don't think that's right we think it has to be understood within the context of what it was representing and it continues to represent I wanted to see if you could give us an idea of like sort of how y'all got to how y'all got to this plan like how long it took and and what are the next steps after this in terms of you know what what other opportunities will the public have to weigh in on on this plan so that's a there's a long history right as you know so um there's two answers that one is that there was a previous master plan and we are working from the principles and the larger sort of themes that that brought to fore we as a team this team with Natasha and John so PGAV cultural innovations and Reed Hildebrandt has been involved since December so we're quite new to this process and so that's why it's taken us this amount of time to learn all that we need to learn to engage with this committee to understand how to their values the vision and the principles come forward and to a point where we were ready to start to put things out in front of people for discussion so that's maybe and I mean you know and as some people said this process started in 1994 and 2014 so there's been stages this process is organized around the overall interpretive plan that we are rolling out through this set of public meetings there's a set in June there's a set in July there may be another set in August depending on how the conversation goes with the goal that the the feedback from the public is incorporated into the plan via deliberations of this group the the Citizens Advisory Committee we will then be evolving this plan with the hope that by the end of the summer we have some kind of a resolution that will then go to the city council not as the plan but in relation to some of the big questions like the street closures that and the management plan uh the agreement between the city and the state well thank you very much and um I really enjoyed it thanks it's great thank you very much