San Antonio is being shortchanged!
 

I don't understand. I am a new member and I don't get why the City of San Antonio doesn't get more skyscrapers. It is currently the 7th largest city in the U.S. It is the headquarters of many Fortune 500 companies like Valero Energy and AT and T.
In addition, I think that the Alamodome should be lit up at night with neon on the 4 support columns. Blue and green maybe would look nice. Furthermore, I think the Tower of the Americas should be modernized more from the exterior to make it look more futuristic. I think that maybe 3 rings of neon around the tower would make it look more fascinating at night. I think either white or green would make it have a more futuristic look at night.:tup:

But then we would look tacky, like Dallas at night.

Neon lights, or in the case of Dallas, argon (Bank of America) has to be done carefully. It can look great, but also overdone and tacky. In Austin, our 4th tallest building, the One Congress Plaza, has blue neon lighting on the setbacks. The building had won several years in a row in the Austin Chronicle's "The best of Austin" for best modern building in the city, until the Frost Bank Tower came along.

Its true that SA's skyline is drab and seems disappointingly short, but remembering that SA is the 27th largest metro (not the 7th largest) helps to put it in a little bit better perspective. Its also located in a state that has three other medium to large metros that have had or are in the process of having building booms that result/ed in lots of tall buildings. That's just the mindset in those places. Compare SA with other downtowns like Salt Lake City, Milwaukee, Tampa, Columbus, which are close to SA's metro size, and you might feel a little bit better about the situation. Phoenix and San Jose (which seems laid out more like a Bay Area suburb) are the only two top 10 cities that have skylines really comparable with SA's. Dallas, Houston, Philly, et al smoke SA, thanks at least in some part to metro populations that add a lot of wealth and density.

That having been said, welcome to the forum :tup:

I've also wondered what could be done to modernize the ToA. Adding lights is definitely one way to do it at night, but I'd also love to see architectural elements added to the roof to change to profile and add some height (ala CN Tower).

Like you, I have often wondered why some tall skyscrapers haven't been built in SA. One possible explanation may be that there are a lot of historic buildings in the downtown core that are closely protected by a local preservation society so clearing some of those buildings off to acquire highly desirable locations to build something new may be nearly impossible. However, there are some parking lots in the DT core and space around the edges of the DT core that one could build on so that's most likely not an adequate explanation. Maybe someday we'll get lucky and one of those F500 companies will decide to build a landmark tower, there's always hope! Anyway, I also want to say welcome to the forum.

I love skyscrapers, and buildings in general. But, if San Antonio never got another skyscraper, I would still be content w/ the skyline as is. Am I the only nut who feels this way? lol

Not at all! Even though it would be really cool for SA to get a really tall scraper, I still like the current skyline.

I was in San Antonio over the weekend and stayed in the Staybridge Suites @ sunset station on the 12th floor facing west. Had a good view of DT and start imagining if Sa had some modern glass towers what would it look like. Personally I think the skyline is good as it is but it wouldn't hurt it maybe to have a few 500-700 ft glass scrapers. That being said San Antonio still is a great city and the older gems in the core make up for its lack of glass and height!!!!

well one way to may the ToA look better is to change the color of the deck to something other than dark brown. i HATE that dark brown color. although i cant think of what other color it could be that would make it look better.

I agree with you. SA has one of the most pedestrian-friendly, most human-scaled downtowns of any city I've been to. The problem with the skyline to me isn't so much lack of height as it is a lack of hierarchy. The 400+ footers are just too spread out, with two nodes (the Marriotts and Grand Hyatt) on one end, Weston and BoA on the other end, and the ToA and Tower Life kinda off to themselves. If all of those were within 5 or 6 blocks of each other, it would look a lot better. The solution to that seems to be building a few towers of moderate height (say, 250-400 feet) in place of existing parking garages or parking lots around Market and Commerce Sts and around Navarro and Pecan, and then maybe one signature tower that's between the Weston and ToA in height.

NuStar, you listening??

It's actually black now...been that way for the last 2 years...and looks much better at that.

^^^ hearing you loud and clear. :haha:

latest rumor i heard contains a dirty word for our future HQ: "campus":yuck:

still nothing even remotely settled, but i'll let the forum know when i know...

I also want to say that I saw the skyline from the top of Tower View Rd. in Helotes today. Besides the fact that I was left speechless by the surrounding views of the Hill Country, I also found the skyline from this angle to be impressive and it also made the buildings look clustered and not spread out (so that depends on the angle). However, viewing the skyline from that far out makes you have to look really hard for Tower Life and BOAP. All the others stand out prominently, and yes including the Grand Hyatt, which really does make a nice addition to the skyline.

ATT calls their downtown site a campus.

NuStar was birthed out of Valero. That is the "campus" that is held as the gold standard.

Remember that it was under Greehey's leadership that Valero moved from their 281/St Marys HQ to the 1604/I10 campus (after they bought Diamond Shamrock - UDS). He is now the Chairman of NuStar and a resident of Dominion.

So, any mention of "campus" around here leans suburban.

i no everyone is passionate about having nice "big city" skyscrapers. However lets take time to marvel in what SA does have goin on now. When has SA ever had, not one or even 3 but 5 (including the Broadway project) buildings under construction in a such a short time from on another. Downtown will change when its ready and the wait wont seem as long when it does happen.

:cheers: to San Antonio! ! ! !! !

AT&T isn't based in SA anymore their moving their headquarters to Dallas which I think is dumb and I live in Austin but was born in SA.

I just mention it because campus can be used in another context other than suburban. ATT uses it because they have multiple buildings.

ya, i get what you're saying...

all i hear now is rumors anyway, so who knows...

Yeah, it's just an institutional word. I had asked a janitor at a hospital recently if there were any functioning change machines around. He said no, that I would have to go off campus. The hospital only occupies two buildings at that site.

I can't peg which buildings specifically, or what year(s), without double checking, but yes, there have been some. The 20s, 30s, and 80s saw a lot of construction, as did many cities across the country during those eras.


Heh, me too. Was born in San Antonio and have always lived in Austin. I was almost born in a car though. :haha: