Landscape Architect Articles

2009 Brick Awards01-26-10 | News

2009 Brick Awards
Best in Class
?EUR??,,????'?????< Project: Pearl Brewery, San Antonio, Texas

Concrete banded brick paving cuts across the access road and forms the edge of the Stable Building entrance plaza.
-Photo Courtesy of Bobby Eichholz, ASLA, associate, Rialto Studio, Inc.

Brick Distributor: Featherlite Building Products/Acme Brick

Pearl Brewery was established in 1883 in San Antonio, Texas on the banks of the historic river of the same name. The brewery closed in January 2001. In the fall of 2001, Silver Ventures acquired the 23-acre site with goals of urban revitalization and business development where people can live, work and shop in a close-knit community. With easy access to the inner city, the complex is establishing itself as a hub for local and international business interests, which include condominium units, artist studios, locally owned restaurants, shops and boutiques. The entire project will ultimately connect into and be part of the historic San Antonio River Walk extension tied into downtown.

Phases I and II focused attention on three buildings and their surroundings: the former brewery garage, a rail shipping warehouse and the historic Stable Building. The brewery?EUR??,,????'?????<

The installed paving relies on maintaining serviceable portions of concrete paving and adding brick paving to the vehicular and pedestrian surfaces. Site development included relocation of a 36-inch caliper, 60-foot canopy live oak tree to shade the entry plaza and provide scale to the electric locomotive train car and shed.
-Photo Courtesy of Bobby Eichholz, ASLA, associate, Rialto Studio, Inc.

Texas Farm Table, a restaurant using only Texas grown ingredients, now resides in the space formerly occupied by the garage offices. Much of the restaurant?EUR??,,????'?????<

Site Development

The project team preserved the old ?EUR??,,????'?????<

A brick paved patio contains one of the original deep wells of the Edwards Aquifer, previously used to provide limestone-filtered water to the brewry. Concrete banded brick paving cuts across the access road and forms the edge of the Stable Building entrance plaza. Continuation of cable-suspended street lighting replicates the web of electrical cables used in operation of the two electric powered locomotive rail cars. Pearl Stable, constructed in 1894, once housed horses used to pull wagons that distributed Pearl Brewery?EUR??,,????'?????<

Storm water runoff quality was improved by a biofilter swale at the edge of the largest parking lot and along a large section of the perimeter of the developed site. The first one half inch of rain runoff flows over a flush curb into a wide planting area allowing the water to percolate into the
landscaped area.
-Photo Courtesy of Bobby Eichholz, ASLA, associate, Rialto Studio, Inc.

Green Building or Sustainable Design Principles of the Project

The principles of environmental stewardship incorporated into this project are improvement of storm water runoff quality and rainwater collection for reuse in site irrigation. Storm water runoff quality was improved by a biofilter swale at the edge of the largest parking lot and along a large section of the perimeter of the developed site. The first one half inch of rain runoff flows over a flush curb into a wide planting area allowing the pollutant laden water to percolate into the landscape area. Any additional runoff originating from these areas is then much cleaner with less impact on downstream watersheds. Rainwater collection was also incorporated into the design. Beer and hot water storage tanks salvaged from the old brewery operations are repurposed to store water collected from building roofs. The water is to irrigate nearby planting beds and tree wells by an uncomplicated passive low-pressure distribution system.