© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Supreme Court Renovators Will Take On Alamo Next

Joey Palacios
/
Texas Public Radio
Becky Dinnin, Executive Director of the Alamo, opens a Thursday press conference announcing the decision.

A new firm has been selected to oversee the redevelopment of the Alamo and its master plan.  The same company is responsible for improvements at several other historic landmarks around the country.

The Alamo Management Committee chose Philadelphia based Perseveration Design Partnership to determine what the Alamo and its surrounding grounds should look like in the coming years. Gene Powell, chairman of the Alamo Management Committee, said the firm will examine the Alamo and the entire city “and determine how we redesign and reimagine this site to better present to the citizens and the children of Texas the tale and story of the Alamo from 1724 to today.”

He adds one of the goals is to complete projects on the Alamo by 2018 in time for the  city’s 300th anniversary.

It’s unknown what the changes could be, but Powell said it will feel like a completely different place. “We are on the site where many of the indigenous people of Texas worked, died and were buried,” he said. “Yet when you come upon this place you have diesel buses running in the background, you have lots of noise, you have business endeavors going on; it doesn’t feel like a respectful place.”

Preservation Design Partnership recently wrapped up a 14-year project renovating the Supreme Court. It has also designed upgrades to Independence Hall. One Mexican and a San Antonio design firm will also be part of the redesign.  The process of surveying the Alamo and what changes could be made will take about a year.  

Tags
Joey Palacios can be reached atJoey@TPR.org and on Twitter at @Joeycules