Via Flickr User Andy Eick
We now know who's going to give the Alamo its face-lift.
PDP won the bid to lead the master planning process to re-envision the area around the Alamo. The selection committee that picked PDP reviewed over 250 firms and individuals. Fisher Heck Architects of San Antonio and Grupo De Diseño Urbano of Mexico City will also work on the project, providing a local perspective on history and preservation.
PDP specializes in large projects at historical sties. The firm has completed projects at Independence Hall, the U.S. Supreme Court, the Virginia State Capitol and other landmarks.
The effort to preserve, renovate and re-envision Alamo Plaza won over $30 million in state funds from the Texas Legislature last year. In December, the state purchased several Downtown buildings across the street from the Alamo where attractions such as Ripley's Believe It Or Not and the Guinness World Record Museum now sit.
The currently unplanned project will come with a hefty price tag. The Alamo Endowment — a group of wealthy, influential Texans — could raise "hundreds of millions of dollars to reimagine the Alamo and to tell this nearly 300-year-old story," said Gene Powell, a board member of the group.
Now, the real work begins for PDP and the other firms. A draft master plan for the plaza may be available as early as fall of 2016. PDP and others involved in the plan will conduct community outreach this summer to formulate the draft.
