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Old Posted Jul 29, 2013, 11:05 PM
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Back to San Antonio

I was in San Antonio in March and took some photos. You can see those photos here. We went back this month again and of course I went downtown for more photos.































This is part of the riverwalk infrastructure.





















Tobin Center construction/renovation.















I went up to their central library which has some decent views of downtown and beyond.









This was San Antonio's tallest building outside of downtown from 1988 to 2010. It's a residential retirement tower.





This building here is their current tallest outside of downtown. It's residential condominiums.





Office highrises on the north side of San Antonio. The building on the left is residential.



















Tobin Center construction.

















San Antonio's central library. It's an interesting building.











The midrises in the background are part of San Antonio's South Texas Medical Center. There are about two dozen midrises and highrises there that make up one of San Antonio's skylines.











Weston Centre - San Antonio's tallest building.

























I just about cooked on this parking garage taking these photos. When I got back to the dog show arena from my bike ride, my bike computer thermometer said 112F. The actual air temperature wasn't that high. I think the high that day was 99F or so, but the asphalt was like a lava field. Anyway, the views were worth it.







































































No bike rack means riding cozy with my bike on the way back.



On the 2nd day we drove into downtown to go eat on the riverwalk. I snapped a few more photos from the garage we parked in and on the walk over to the restaurant, and of the views from the riverwalk.





































I got the taco plate with beans and rice.





Literally right after my niece said she didn't want anymore of her food, a pigeon swooped in and started eating right off her plate.



A few of their friends showed up.



So fair warning, if you're eating on the riverwalk, guard your food.





































There is a 30-story hotel and timeshare tower planned for atop the tan building on the right.























And a bonus from a week ago when we had to go to San Antonio's airport.



San Antonio's Alamo Heights skyline.









~Thanks for looking.
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Last edited by KevinFromTexas; Jul 29, 2013 at 11:28 PM.
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Old Posted Jul 30, 2013, 2:55 AM
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Incredible photo set. This is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating downtown areas in the U.S..

So were you eating at Casa Rio? My family was eating there as long ago as the 50s.
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Old Posted Jul 30, 2013, 3:51 AM
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Yep, Casa Rio. We started going in the mid 90s and have gone back there every time we've been back. And yeah, Casa Rio was one of the first businesses along the riverwalk.
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Old Posted Jul 30, 2013, 2:29 PM
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i love Casa Rio! epic tour, thanks

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Old Posted Jul 30, 2013, 3:54 PM
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Great pics of my hometown! Have you explored the Southtown area before? It's like a slice of Austin in San Antonio.. quirky and full of good restaurants.
The King William's District is in the area and has a lot of very nice historic homes.

Also, did you see any of the B-cycle bike sharing stations? Can't wait till we get ours here in Austin this fall.
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Old Posted Jul 30, 2013, 4:41 PM
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Solid set Kevin, especially how thoroughly you covered downtown with your elevated shots.
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Old Posted Jul 30, 2013, 4:49 PM
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1) It looks like San Antonio is booming.
2) I am always surprised how green San Antonio is. I thought it would be more like El Paso.
3) Please don't take photos while driving: http://www.distraction.gov/content/faces/
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Old Posted Jul 30, 2013, 5:03 PM
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Originally Posted by audiomuse View Post
Great pics of my hometown! Have you explored the Southtown area before? It's like a slice of Austin in San Antonio.. quirky and full of good restaurants.
The King William's District is in the area and has a lot of very nice historic homes.

Also, did you see any of the B-cycle bike sharing stations? Can't wait till we get ours here in Austin this fall.
No, I haven't gotten into Southtown. I mostly visit downtown, but I am wanting to see more of San Antonio. It's just that I've always been pressed for time whenever I'm there, and I always end up in downtown. If I had the time to do it, I'd ride my bike all over town. With the riverwalk trail system, you can pretty much go anywhere you want to across many miles of the city. San Antonio is lucky to have such a trail system. I'm wanting to make a map of all the places that look interesting to me to visit and use it as a check list. I've been looking for a good place to take photos of the skyline from up high on the west side of downtown.

There is a bike share station at the central library. Here's a photo of it I took back in March.



Quote:
Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist View Post
1) It looks like San Antonio is booming.
2) I am always surprised how green San Antonio is. I thought it would be more like El Paso.
3) Please don't take photos while driving: http://www.distraction.gov/content/faces/
Oh, I wasn't driving. Someone else was. I generally dislike taking photos from a car. I'd rather be walking or riding my bike.
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Old Posted Jul 30, 2013, 5:13 PM
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KevinFromTexas:
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Oh, I wasn't driving. Someone else was. I generally dislike taking photos from a car. I'd rather be walking or riding my bike.
In that case, mea culpa and great to hear!
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Old Posted Jul 30, 2013, 5:39 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas View Post
No, I haven't gotten into Southtown. I mostly visit downtown, but I am wanting to see more of San Antonio. It's just that I've always been pressed for time whenever I'm there, and I always end up in downtown. If I had the time to do it, I'd ride my bike all over town. With the riverwalk trail system, you can pretty much go anywhere you want to across many miles of the city. San Antonio is lucky to have such a trail system. I'm wanting to make a map of all the places that look interesting to me to visit and use it as a check list. I've been looking for a good place to take photos of the skyline from up high on the west side of downtown.
The Great White at SeaWorld has pretty good views of downtown

In all seriousness, though, go down to the Guadalupe St bridge where it crosses the tracks west of S Frio. If you want good views of the entire city, try going up to LaCantera where the Elian development was just completed off of Interstate 10.

Great pictures, by the way. There's always talk in the SA forum about how the city needs more tall buildings. Part of it I'm sure is the inferiority complex and being in Texas, but I suspect it's mostly because of how easy it is to ignore the wonderful variety of architecture that's already there. It's something that's easy to tear down but impossible to build new.
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Old Posted Jul 30, 2013, 6:10 PM
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Thanks, oldmanshirt, I'll have to check out those places.

And agreed on what you said. What's been going on in Austin is really a spectacle and is amazing, but during that time I've learned to appreciate San Antonio for doing its own thing. Most of San Antonio's biggest office buildings and even its major residential buildings are not downtown. Some cities are good at meshing the old and new buildings and making it work and be a connected neighborhood, but it can be very hard especially with different eras of architecture that might have been withdrawn from the street. I really like San Antonio the way it is since it's so different from other places. I'm not even sure how I would feel about adding more towers to downtown that are big and glassy and modern. And I'm not sure I like new buildings that try to replicate old architecture. I'd rather have the real thing than to try and copy it. San Antonio definitely has a style all its own and is doing it right.
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Old Posted Jul 31, 2013, 1:42 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist View Post
1) It looks like San Antonio is booming.
2) I am always surprised how green San Antonio is. I thought it would be more like El Paso.
3) Please don't take photos while driving: http://www.distraction.gov/content/faces/
There's really no resemblance between San Antonio's and El Paso's topography and climate. They're about 500 miles apart. San Antonio is not super wet like Houston and East Texas, nor is it desert like El Paso. It's in a transition zone between east and west. I think San Antonio gets about 26-30 inches of precip, while El Paso is more like 7. Northwest San Antonio is rugged and scenic Hill Country. It's an interesting area, but the real draw is the city's downtown area. It is something you'll never forget if you visit. And a good thing is that it's only about 80 miles from Austin!

I should have mentioned that the thing San Antonio and El Paso have in common is the vibrant Hispanic cultures. The two cities represent what Texas is rapidly becoming in an ethnic sense.
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Old Posted Jul 31, 2013, 2:40 AM
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I actually notice a fair amount of tropical plants along the riverwalk, and they're clearly safe from freezes being as big as they are. That's another thing I love about San Antonio. The city seems to pay close attention to landscaping and native/warm climate plants.
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Old Posted Jul 31, 2013, 6:47 PM
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Awesome set! Marriott Rivercenter towers are so cool in that 80's sort of way...
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Old Posted Jul 31, 2013, 7:29 PM
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Very interesting and complete tour, Kevin! Thanks for your pictures.

I like the architectural details of many buildings. I like the green spaces of San Antonio too and that area with that water canal and tourist boats. Lovely city. I suppose San Antonio will be very warm by summer, won´t it?

Congrats and greetings from Madrid, Spain!
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Old Posted Jul 31, 2013, 8:48 PM
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Yes, it was about 99F or 100F those days. My bike computer thermometer said 112F/44C. The 2nd day, though, rain moved in and it rained pretty hard for the drive home. You can see the clouds build up in some of the photos.
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Old Posted Jul 31, 2013, 9:24 PM
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Thoroughly Enjoyed This Post!

Thanks for sharing. Living in SATX all these years has been a sheer pleasure for me. I fell in love with the Alamo City immediately after I arrived here 31 years ago and to watch it grow so much during the decades since has been so exciting! One of the few things that I would change would be to finally have clusters of ultra-modern, sleek skyscrapers downtown to offset all those charming, ornate, yet earth-toned and bulky buildings. That would befit a city that boasts itself as the nation's 7th largest and the state's 2nd. It sure would be cool to see some of the concrete, glass and metal "madness" that we see going on in Houston, Dallas and Austin to start occurring in San Antonio. I'm upset that so many people are fighting so hard against the proposal for the 26-story "Joskes" hotel near the Alamo. Amazing...

To clean up/modernize the area right around downtown would also be a welcome change to get rid of the decrepit, "warehousey" look. They are working on that, though, with all of the lofts they are building around Downtown. You Go, San Antonio!
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Old Posted Aug 1, 2013, 1:42 AM
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Thanks for the pics! DT San Antonio seems like a weird/eclectic mix, half Austin (walkable/urban/bustling), half parking lots, billboards, and exit ramps, like a bigger Shreveport or something.

Although it's probably not my place to comment having never been there.
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Old Posted Aug 1, 2013, 2:13 AM
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Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas View Post
I actually notice a fair amount of tropical plants along the riverwalk, and they're clearly safe from freezes being as big as they are. That's another thing I love about San Antonio. The city seems to pay close attention to landscaping and native/warm climate plants.
I think it's interesting that San Antonio is notably sunnier and milder during the winter than Austin, only 80 miles away. Not that they don't get cold weather in San Antonio. I was there for a conference in 1982 (in January), and a couple of inches of snow fell. The northerners freaked out. Then, in 1985, San Antonio had a snowfall of 14 inches in one day, causing a lot of damage to structures. That day, Austin had about 4-5 inches. In the past, Austin and San Antonio both used to have at least one good ice storm every winter. It hardly ever happens any more.
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Old Posted Aug 1, 2013, 7:14 AM
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Originally Posted by scraperfetish View Post
Thanks for sharing. Living in SATX all these years has been a sheer pleasure for me. I fell in love with the Alamo City immediately after I arrived here 31 years ago and to watch it grow so much during the decades since has been so exciting! One of the few things that I would change would be to finally have clusters of ultra-modern, sleek skyscrapers downtown to offset all those charming, ornate, yet earth-toned and bulky buildings. That would befit a city that boasts itself as the nation's 7th largest and the state's 2nd. It sure would be cool to see some of the concrete, glass and metal "madness" that we see going on in Houston, Dallas and Austin to start occurring in San Antonio. I'm upset that so many people are fighting so hard against the proposal for the 26-story "Joskes" hotel near the Alamo. Amazing...

To clean up/modernize the area right around downtown would also be a welcome change to get rid of the decrepit, "warehousey" look. They are working on that, though, with all of the lofts they are building around Downtown. You Go, San Antonio!
You are well-named, scraperfetish.
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