Hosted by the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures is “1000 Parks and a Line in the Sky: Broadway, Avenue of the Future.” The exhibition features a 50-foot-long model of Broadway, a street that has the potential to become San Antonio’s great urban avenue.
Recent developments on Broadway, such as the Museum Reach and the Pearl, and renewed interest in the street’s future have generated much discussion about what becoming an “urban” city actually means. In its present state, however, nearly fifty percent of Broadway’s urban landscape is flanked by parking space while nearly all spaces along the corridor are tied to businesses, leaving almost no public space for people to gather as citizens without being consumers.
The Urban Future Lab has conducted extensive research on Broadway and proposes a linear park system, comprised of unused interstitial spaces found along the street, and a skyride that connects the airport to Travis Park. Many residents and visitors to San Antonio remember experiencing the city from the sky between the 1960s and 1990s on the Brackenridge Park skyride. Inspired by this local history, he explores possible future directions for urban development, public parks, and alternative transportation systems using the Broadway corridor as a model.
The interactive installation focuses on public input, while associated public events, roundtable discussions, photo collection events, and educational programming will bridge the past and future of Broadway to help the community imagine its new identity. Visitors are also able to experience a nostalgic moment by taking a seat in a gondola from the original Brackenridge skyride.
When: October 21, 2016 – April 16, 2017
Regular hours are 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
Where: UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures, Hemisfair Campus, 801 E. César E. Chávez Blvd., San Antonio, TX 78205
