| Abstract |
The city of San Antonio has a unique historic urban landscape, renowned for its Riverwalk, the Alamo and for five 18th century Franciscan missions, a World Heritage site since 2015. The city is one of the Nation's top tourist destinations, and the downtown districts have been for a long time exclusively domain of tourists. In the last decade, local movements, effectively supported by public and private investments, have embraced the challenge to transform the center of the city from a tourist district into a real urban neighborhood, characterized by functional `mixite'. This paper examines the urban regeneration efforts carried out at the 1968 Hemisfair Park, an area of seventy-eight acres connected with the Riverwalk physically and historically. Prior to its redevelopment for the 1968 World Fair with funds from the Federal Government, the area under analysis was previously occupied by a thickly populated neighborhood with over two thousands structures, including two churches and a synagogue. Of the historic neighborhood, only twenty-two are the extant buildings. After the World Fair, Hemisfair Park became a neglected area, disconnected from the city and sadly underutilized. The recent master plans had the goal to reconnect Hemisfair to its surrounding neighborhoods, while sparking the tourist economy. This paper discusses how Hemisfair Park's urban regeneration effort can be considered as a model for sustainable redevelopment with the creation of a blended urban residential, recreational, and heritage tourist destinations. Currently, completed park amenities, small local businesses, cultural activities and institutions are already effectively attracting the residents and the area is being used again after half a century. The links to the nearby Riverwalk and immediate proximity to the new Convention Center provide huge potential for the economical, historical, social, and cultural dimensions of tourism as well. |