figure it out
I need to find out details of this creek restoration and design, especially how all the urban hardscaping holds up during floods. Do they remove the steel fish sculpture during high flows? Do the bridges back up with debris? The channel does not look very wide, although it is deep. I think that the city unearthed a culvert to daylight this creek. This area near the historic Mission and plaza seems like the center of human activity.
San Antonio Riverwalk, originally uploaded by NutsyFagan.
In the 1920’s, the Architect Robert Hugman proposed, “The Shops of Aragon and Romula,” a beautification and flood-control plan for the city of San Antonio, and kept the proposal alive for seven years until its eventual adoption through 1938 when funding became available from the Works Progress Administration. According to local historian Vernon Zunker, Hugman designed 31 unique staircases for the River Walk and many other features. Hugman established his own architectural office at the River Walk, next to the restaurant Casa Rio established in 1946, despite popular opinion which held that he would be ‘drowned like rat’.
The riverwalk winds through downtown as a former bend in the river and lies one floor below street level. Shops and walkways are protected from flooding via a bypass channel and a 24 diamter flood control tunnel that runs under the city. More history available from:
