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29-711: Blue Star Contemporary is housed in a renovated warehouse in the Blue Star Arts Complex, a mixed-use development containing lofts, apartments, galleries, artist studios, retail stores, and restaurants. BSC is a part of the King Williams Cultural Arts District in the Southtown neighborhood and is located along the San Antonio River Walk . Blue Star Contemporary is at the center of San Antonio's First Friday Art Walk, an event that takes place on

58-722: A branch from the 1968 extension to create a lagoon at the new Rivercenter Mall and the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel. In 1981 the Hyatt Regency San Antonio opened with a new pedestrian connector that linked Alamo Plaza to the River Walk with concrete waterfalls, waterways and indigenous landscaping. Known as the Paseo del Alamo, this river "extension" actually flows from Alamo Plaza into the San Antonio River through

87-637: A free six-week program that brings artists to school classrooms for weekly lessons, the MOSAIC Student Artist Program, a free after-school program for students interested in learning about the arts, and the Berlin Residency Program, a three-month residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien granted to four artists from Bexar County annually. Blue Star Contemporary partnered with BiblioTech , Bexar County's digital library, to open

116-631: A prominent bend of the river in the Downtown area (between present-day Houston Street and Villita Parkway), then to pave over the bend, and create a storm sewer. Work began on the Olmos Dam and bypass channel in 1926; however, the San Antonio Conservation Society successfully protested the paved sewer option. No major plans came into play until 1929, when San Antonio native and architect Robert Hugman submitted his plans for what would become

145-615: A reading room in the museum's Arts Education Lab in 2016. Art in the Garden is an ongoing partnership between Blue Star Contemporary and the San Antonio Botanical Garden . Each year, an artist is selected and commissioned to create a site-specific work in the garden. Blue Star Contemporary has also partnered with the City of San Antonio 's Department of Arts and Culture's Public Art San Antonio division (PASA) to commission Plexus c18 at

174-407: A slice of pie with the curved part of the piece facing the source or upper pool of water and the tip pointing toward the destination or lower pool. The curved face or skinplate of the gate takes the form of a wedge section of cylinder . The straight sides of the pie shape, the trunnion arms, extend back from each end of the cylinder section and meet at a trunnion which serves as a pivot point when

203-507: Is a type of radial arm floodgate used in dams and canal locks to control water flow. It is named for its inventor, the Wisconsin structural engineer Jeremiah Burnham Tainter . Tainter, an employee of the lumber firm Knapp, Stout and Co. , invented the gate in 1886 for use on the company's dam that forms Lake Menomin in the United States. A side view of a Tainter gate resembles

232-922: The Little Sugar Creek Greenway in Charlotte, North Carolina , the Cherry Creek Greenway in Denver, Colorado , the Bricktown Canal in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma , and the Santa Lucía Riverwalk in Monterrey, Mexico . In 1972, the River Walk is featured in The Getaway in a scene with Steve McQueen and Al Lettieri . The 1984 film Cloak & Dagger includes an extended chase scene along

261-658: The San Antonio International Airport . See also: List of museums in Central Texas San Antonio River Walk The San Antonio River Walk is a city park and special-case pedestrian street in San Antonio, Texas , one level down from the automobile street. The River Walk winds and loops under bridges as two parallel sidewalks lined with restaurants and shops, connecting the major tourist draws such as

290-806: The Shops at Rivercenter , the Arneson River Theatre , Marriage Island , La Villita , HemisFair Park , Petty House , the Tower Life Building , the San Antonio Museum of Art , the Pearl , and the city's five Spanish colonial missions, which have been named a World Heritage Site , which includes the Alamo . During the annual springtime Fiesta San Antonio , the River Parade features flowery floats that float down

319-618: The Americas as part of HemisFair '68 . The expansion extended the Riverwalk beyond its natural banks at the horseshoe bend to the new convention center and theater by excavating much of the block bordered by Commerce, Bowie, Market and Alamo Streets. That was also the year the Hilton Palacio del Rio was built, the first of many downtown hotels that leverage their slice of urban "riverfront." A subsequent major expansion opened in 1988 that extended

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348-430: The Olmos Dam and bypass channel minimized the area damage. Casa Rio, a landmark River Walk restaurant, became the first restaurant in the area in 1946, opening next door to Hugman's office. Through the following decades the network has been improved and extended. The first major extension of the Riverwalk was constructed by the joint venture of two general contractors Darragh & Lyda Inc. and H. A. Lott Inc. to Tower of

377-580: The River Walk. In 1997, the so-called Selena Bridge on the River Walk between Navarro and North St. Mary's streets provides a romantic setting for a scene in Selena , the biopic starring Jennifer Lopez in the title role as the late Tejano singer. 29°25′31″N 98°29′30″W  /  29.425205°N 98.491575°W  / 29.425205; -98.491575 See also: List of museums in Central Texas Tainter gate The Tainter gate

406-451: The River Walk. Although many have been involved in development of the site, the leadership of former mayor Jack White was instrumental in passage of a bond issue that raised funds to empower the 1938 "San Antonio River Beautification Project", which began the evolution of the site into the present 2.5-mile-long (4 km) River Walk. Hugman endorsed the bypass channel idea (which would be completed later that year) but, instead of paving over

435-643: The San Antonio Museum of Art and The Pearl Brewery, which has become one of the most popular areas for locals. Two years later, in May 2011, the River Walk was extended by several miles to extend from Downtown to Mission Espada which is on the city's south side. This addition (named the "Mission Reach") is notable for its emphasis on ecological controls and improvements, as well as trail improvements to support both hiking and biking. The Mission Reach has paddling trails and biking trails which allow tourists to experience

464-606: The San Pedro Creek Greenway. The greenway joins with the River Walk at the confluence of the San Pedro Creek and the San Antonio River near Mission Concepción. On May 25, 2017, Esperanza Andrade , a former Texas secretary of state , and Lisa Wong, her business partner in the company Go Rio San Antonio, prevailed in a 10–1 vote from the San Antonio City Council for the $ 100 million contract to operate

493-552: The UNESCO World Heritage Missions. After years of murmuring from locals and tourists about the water's quality, talk has also begun about cleaning up the water , although the muddy bottom and silt deposits make this difficult. The muddy bottom does receive an annual cleaning during the Mud Festival. In early 2016, for the first time in its history, the River Walk was connected with another linear urban walkway,

522-689: The atrium of the hotel. This connector not only allows the hotel to market itself as being on Alamo Plaza and on the River Walk, but it provides the city with an urban park that connects the city's two largest tourist attractions. Many downtown buildings like the Casino Club Building have street entrances and separate river entrances one level below. This separates the automotive service grid (for delivery and emergency vehicles) from pedestrian traffic (below) through an intricate network of bridges, walkways, and old staircases. The San Antonio Spurs had their five NBA Championship victory parades/cruises along

551-473: The barges on the River Walk. The only dissenter on the council was the mayoral candidate Ron Nirenberg , who faced Mayor Ivy Taylor in a runoff election on June 10. In selecting Andrade and Wong, the council rejected City Manager Sheryl Sculley 's recommendation to award the contract instead to the Chicago -based Entertainment Cruises, the choice also of former Mayor Phil Hardberger . On receiving

580-406: The bend, Hugman suggested 1) a flood gate at the northern (upstream) end of the bend; 2) a small dam at the southern (downstream) end of the bend; and 3) a Tainter gate in the channel to regulate flow. The bend would then be surrounded by commercial development, which he titled "The Shops of Aragon and Romula". Hugman went as far as to maintain his architect's office along the bend. Hugman's plan

609-450: The contract, Andrade told Taylor and the council: "We not only know but we understand why the River Walk is indeed our crown jewel of our beautiful city. And we understand that the barge operation is the thread that weaves it all together."   In 2021, the River Walk was temporarily used as a source of water after a winter storm crippled infrastructure across Texas. The River Walk has inspired similar projects in other cities, such as

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638-461: The convex (upstream) side. When the gate is rotated, the rush of water passing under the gate helps to open and close the gate. The rounded face, long radial arms and bearings allow it to close with less effort than a flat gate. Tainter gates are usually controlled from above with a chain/gearbox/ electric motor assembly. A critical factor in Tainter gate design is the amount of stress transferred from

667-510: The first Friday of each month and is intended to provide "a free showcase of the art community in San Antonio." Blue Star Contemporary is credited as being a revitalizing force for the arts district and surrounding neighborhoods. Contemporary Art Month (CAM), San Antonio's month-long celebration of local contemporary art in July, started at the museum. In 2016, BSC programs included Creative Classrooms,

696-411: The gate rotates. Pressure forces on a submerged body act perpendicular to the body's surface. The design of the Tainter gate results in every pressure force acting through the centre of the imaginary circle of which the gate is a section, so that all resulting pressure force acts through the pivot point of the gate, making construction and design easier. When a Tainter gate is closed, water bears on

725-454: The initial construction of a network of some 17,000 feet (5,200 m) of walkways, about twenty bridges, and extensive plantings, including some of the bald cypress (others are several hundred years old) whose branches stretch up to ten stories and are visible from street level. Hugman's persistence paid off; he was named project architect. His plan would be put to the test in 1946, when another major flood threatened Downtown San Antonio, but

754-445: The river walk. Expansion plans are planned for areas of the river north and south of Downtown. As chain restaurants and establishments have begun to flourish, now taking up about a third of commercial space, talk has begun at City Hall about limiting their existence on the River Walk and keeping a distinctively local flair. On May 30, 2009, the city opened the $ 72 million Museum Reach. The Museum Reach features local attractions such as

783-549: The river. The area within the circumference of the River Walk is the heart of the original 1700s Villa de Bejar outpost, which would eventually become the City of San Antonio. In September 1921, a disastrous flood along the San Antonio River took 51 lives, with an additional 23 people reported missing. Plans were then developed for flood control of the river. Among the plans was to build an upstream dam ( Olmos Dam ) and bypass

812-412: The skinplate through the radial arms and to the trunnion, with calculations pertaining to the resulting friction encountered when raising or lowering the gate. Some older systems have had to be modified to allow for frictional forces which the original design did not anticipate. In 1995, too much stress during an opening resulted in a gate failure at Folsom Dam in northern California. The Tainter gate

841-489: Was initially not well received – the area was noted for being dangerous. At one point, it was declared off-limits to military personnel. People were warned of the threat of being "drowned like a rat" should the river flood. However, over the next decade support for commercial development of the river bend grew, and crucial funding came in 1939 under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which resulted in

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