- Hello, I am Julie Wright.
First of all, I would like
to thank my committee.
Marcel Erminy is my Chair.
And I have Gabriela
Campagnol as my Co-Chair,
and also Cecilia Giusti,
with the Department of Urban Planning,
who's not with us here today
but she was a great help as well.
For my project,
I wanted to do something in
my home city of San Antonio.
Recently there's been a lot of talk about
the San Antonio missions,
which are a very historic
aspect of the city.
Very important to Texas
and America in general.
But they have recently been nominated
as a UNESCO World Heritage site,
which will potentially bring
in a lot of new tourism
into the city of San Antonio,
which is already mostly based on tourism
due to the Alamo and the River walk
and things like that.
My project will focus
on all five missions,
not just the Alamo which you can see here.
There's also Mission Concepcion, San Jose,
San Juan, and Espada.
For a little bit of a brief history
of the missions and their
importance to the city,
they were began as Spanish colonies
established by the
Franciscan order of monks
in Texas in the 1700s.
They were the first
settlements in the area.
They were established to kind of,
promote trade
and the religion
with the indigenous people of the area.
And they were very
influential in establishing
outposts for the Spanish,
for the Spanish rule in America
and later on throughout South America
and the rest of the United States.
So here's a picture of the construction
of Mission Concepcion.
And then throughout history they've been
repurposed and re-used
in many different ways
as the city grew around them.
At one point they were
used as military barracks
and fortresses defending
off militants coming in
and trying to take over
the Spanish territories.
And then later on,
this was a picture taken from the 40's,
they were used as schools.
Community centers, things like that.
But one thing that they
have always remained
and still are today, are active parrishes
of the Franciscan order.
So, Roman Catholic churches.
These missions are linked
by the San Antonio river
which is a very important aspect
to the city itself and its growth.
Over the years, the river has been ignored
and channelized to prevent flooding.
But recently it has been re-developed
and rehabilitated to its natural habitat.
Which is great because it also links
all of the missions like
they were in the past.
So I really wanted to focus on this aspect
of linking and creating a network
from mission to mission.
There's about a 10 mile span
from the very most southern mission
which is Mission Espada
on the very bottom,
and then the Alamo is north of here
in central downtown.
The Alamo is not included
in the historic park,
because it hasn't been preserved
and as well taken care
of as the other missions.
But it is proposed to be part
of the UNESCO World Heritage site.
So there's kind of a disconnect
that has to be addressed when
re-focusing the tourism aspect
of the missions away from the Alamo
and to all of the other
missions to the south.
Here you can see the green outline
is what is known as the River
South Area Management Plan.
And this district is outlined as
an area that needs to be re-developed
and re-thought about,
when bringing in more tourism
and more community-based
functions into this area of town,
to boost the economy which
is currently under-performing
and really lacks a lot of infrastructure
that the rest of the city does have.
So this whole area really
needs to be re-thought about,
and a great way to do that is to tie into
the cultural and historic
aspect of the missions
that are all along the river here.
Here I did a study of,
which mission I would like
to focus on for my project.
So I was looking at the distances between
the mission and the river
which will be the sole connector
through the entire network of missions.
As well as its centrality
to the other missions,
because as people visit the
missions they will likely
go to all five either biking
or walking along the trail,
or taking their car.
So it's a series of historic
landmarks that go together.
It's not just one mission.
There are five of them.
So I chose to focus on Mission San Jose,
mostly due to its centrality
between all of the missions.
It also has a little bit
more existing infrastructure
as far as the city and
surrounding community.
Here is an aerial view
of the mission itself.
Here's the main church and
then the surrounding wall.
This is also the most complete mission
that's still surviving.
Most of the missions do not
have the entire wall intact
which also contains housing
and different functions
from the past community.
Obviously this site is kind of screaming
for something here.
It's also been recently re-developed
to encourage these activities of community
and history and culture
in the neighborhood
by implementing this
really nice library here.
And then right here is the
mission drive-in theater,
which the whole site
used to have five screens
as a drive-in theater.
Now there's just one and it's become a hub
within this neighborhood for gatherings
and festivals and things like that.
So I want to focus my
project in this area,
and more extensively a
master plan to connect
this site with the existing
mission reached portion
of the Riverwalk here
and to the mission here
across the street.
Also I guess I should say my project,
the purpose is to really
bring in the history
and cultural aspects to the site
by combining family-friendly
oriented activities
as well as tourism and
small local businesses
all together into one.
So here's my site,
and I'm gonna walk through the process
of my master planning and
locating my specific building.
So here we can see the
mission reached portion
of the Riverwalk
to the north.
And then the Mission Branch Library here
is something that I really
wanted to respond to,
because it's just a really nice building
and it brings in a lot
of the community already.
It's on this axis with
the dome of the mission
to the south.
And so I wanted to respect
that and continue it
by just rotating that axis with my site
as well as using a similar setback
to create a more open, pastoral experience
for my building, which
will be located here,
as a journey to the mission itself.
So there's my building.
And then surrounding the
mission to its immediate north
is a street that I'm proposing to make
completely pedestrian and biker friendly
by cutting it off to vehicle traffic,
'cause it's not really used right now.
This will also create
more of a friendly place
to redirect attention to the
north side of the mission
as opposed to the south side here
where it currently is.
Another really important
aspect of this site
is the Ethel Wilson
Harris House right there.
Ethel Wilson Harris was very well-known
in San Antonio in the 50's and 60's.
She's an heiress, a socialite,
but she donated a lot of
her time and resources into
preserving the missions
specifically this one
here Mission San Jose.
She was the first to start
the National Historic Park
and she built her house on the site
to oversee the mission.
She also developed all of the tile work
in the factories that created these
Spanish-style tiles
that we see all over the Riverwalk today.
And so she's a very historic figure
in the city of San Antonio
and especially to the missions.
So I want to re-purpose her house
which you can see here's one of the tiles,
and here's an inside view of this
really awesome fireplace.
It's a very quintessential
mid-century modern house,
but it's being used as an
office right now by the park.
So there's a need for office space,
just functional spaces for them.
So I'm trying to repurpose
this existing house
into more of a museum as
part of this promenade
from my building to the
museum and to the mission.
Also directly next to my
site is the Mission Drive-In
which I want to connect my building with,
with this main access
here that also connects
to the existing river and bike trail here
that leads to the river up here.
Which is one of the main
ways that people will be
entering my building.
I also want to bring
in a street connecting
these main streets
but also adding this
link to the river here.
And secondary streets within the site
to create more of a
pedestrian, store-front idea.
And last but not least
is the current existing
visitor center to the south.
Here's a picture of it.
It's not very, you wouldn't
really know what it is,
it's just kind of there on the site.
It almost looks like
a middle school to me.
But, there's no sense of entry,
no sense of community,
it's kind of closed off
from the rest of the site.
There's no real relation to the mission
and to the city as a whole.
So I want to repurpose
the existing offices
that are in the Ethel Wilson Harris House,
and these smaller
temporary buildings here.
Relocate them to the
existing visitors center,
move the visitors center
to my building up north.
Also there's a grist mill
that is largely ignored
because the main entrance
is from the south right now.
So refocusing the entrance
to the north would create
opportunities for people to visit
the house, the grist mill,
and the mission all at once.
Instead of just going to the
mission and then leaving.
And the mission itself,
has these really great
domes that are continued
throughout every mission.
Even though they're all very different,
the domes and arches are really prominent.
And so that's what I wanted
to bring into my building.
Here's a view of it from the street.
To do this, I needed to develop
some kind of super-roof.
I was thinking of the organization
of the missions themselves.
They're kind of walled cities
so there's this boundary,
but everything community-based happens
within that boundary.
And so I was thinking about a super roof
and how that can create
a subconscious boundary that
contains different functions
and different aspects of community.
So I took this idea of the
dome from the missions,
and it extrapolated from
there making it more wavy,
and developing a module of structure
of these large domes
which would only need six
columns to support it.
It's a 200 x 300 foot area,
and so I focused a lot of my upfront time
on developing this truss system
to support the super roof here.
Here you can see a section
through the entire site.
So here's my building here,
and then there's a
promenade over a ravine.
There would be a small bridge,
and then through that street
that I would close off
to the mission itself here.
Something that I really wanted
to bring into my building
is this idea of the axis from
the building to the mission,
opening it up completely,
making it very public.
And so you can see here through the lobby
there's a covered outdoor
plaza area that steps down
and is very open that
provides direct access
to the bridge and to the mission.
Here's another view here.
You can see how the structure changes
from the dome at its height
to the trusses here where they're flat.
Here are the elevations.
You can see the mission
peaking up behind here.
It's very tall, and I wanted to create
opportunities to see it
from many different places
within my building.
Here's a view from the street
with the existing library in front.
And you can see the large open space here
connected by the trail.
And just off the screen
would be the mission.
I provided some parking underneath,
because I did build it up
on somewhat of a plinth.
It also contains an
auditorium for small videos
and mechanical space.
But here on the first floor
level you can really see
the connection of the
axis with the mission
and the axis to the Mission
Drive-In and the trail here.
That I really wanted to keep
as kind of an organizing
element within the project.
As you can see there
are two main structures
under the super roof
that have completely
independent structures.
The first one contains the visitors center
and a makers space or a studio space
for local artists to kind
of bring the community in.
And the second volume to the right
contains a restaurant and a banquet hall
on the second floor.
So here's the lobby
for the visitors center
with a gift shop.
But you can see straight
through the covered plaza
to the mission here.
I also have the main course
is an organizing element there.
Here's a view from right
outside the visitors center
to the mission here.
And this is the second floor.
More exhibit space,
but on the second floor is a banquet hall.
The missions are used largely for,
since they're still active parishes,
they're used for quinceaneras,
weddings, baptisms,
lots of events that are
central to Hispanic culture.
All of these events usually
end up with a large after party
but there's really no place
to go in the immediate area.
So that was one of my big
goals was to provide a space
for things like that to
move across the street
from the mission to my building.
So here's the banquet
hall with large views
out to the mission itself.
Here's some views of the
visitors center lobby.
And here's the Ethel Wilson Harris tile
that I want to implement as my core.
She was really central to
the missions themselves
and their preservation.
So I think she should be the
core of my building as well.
Also, in the lobby, the dome is exposed
as the actual ceiling for
this portion of the building.
As well as in the banquet
hall which spans two domes.
So here you can see there's
a mission tower right there,
and some different views.
And then there's a third level terrace
that is above the banquet hall
which provides rooftop
views that are between
the super roof and the lower structure,
which you can see here.
So you can overlook the covered plaza,
see the missions up close and personal,
and even here you can look
down into the banquet hall
and see what's going on
which provides a lot of visual connection
and interest.
So here's a view of the south portion
of the covered plaza
which is mostly shaded.
It can serve as places for many different
cultural activities like
dancing, performances.
There could be live
bands, farmer's markets,
festivals, all sorts of things.
And here is a better view
of this access that's raised
that connects to the
Mission Drive-In theater.
And so this is kind of the
final view of the approach
from the mission back to the building,
and its connection to the rest of the site
which needs further development.
And that's it.
Thank you.
(clapping)
