Pearl Brewery Plaza & Cellars

I was down in  San Antonio for a short anniversary getaway and was able to work in a quick stop by the new Pearl Brewery Plaza that I believe opened around April of this year.  At least, that's when the abutting restaurant Southerleigh opened up.  Behind them is also a new boutique hotel called Emma that is in the refurbished historic brewery building.  All this development is a continuation of the vision outlined in Lake|Flato's award winning Pearl Brewery Master Plan.  The first phase of that development included landscape by San Antonio based Rialto Studio, and I'll have to revisit that part at a later date.   This new plaza was designed by my former employer Ten Eyck Landscape Architects.

The plaza landscape appears to be divided into two main spaces.  At the center of one of these is a large three tier fountain fed by an elevated aqueduct.  From the distance, the fountain component seemed to be very conventional in its form, but when you get closer you notice that the steel tiers are recycled steel components presumably from the brewery.  You can also see the detail of the rain chain feeding water from the aqueduct that limits the splashing of the water.

Tiered Water Feature

Rain Chain from Aqueduct Feeding Water to Fountain

Upcycled Steel Fountain Tiers

Surrounding the fountain are a series of board formed concrete planters with concrete seat blocks.  The seat blocks introduce another recycled material component, this time what looks like reinforced concrete beams that have been laid horizontal.  You can see a circle of rebar points in the section cut of the seat blocks. The ground plane is composed of large cut stone paver rectangles with a jogged edge that bleeds into a crushed aggregate paving.  Large trees emerge directly from the aggregate, so there's a blurring of compacted pedestrian paving and permeable tree planting areas.  Modern bistro tables and chairs (they look like the Parc Centre series by Landscape Forms) provide a lot of seating in the plaza and freestanding umbrellas give additional shade.  Once the trees get bigger in the future these may not be as necessary as they will shade the plaza nicely.

Board Formed Concrete Planter

Reused Concrete Beam as Seat Block

Tables on Pavers and Crushed Aggregate

Another feature of this first plaza space is a large mesh steel wall that abuts what looks to be a former grain silo.  There's a sandwich of woven wire mesh panels with Bougainvillea starting to grow up them.  When the vine matures and fills in the trellis it will give a huge splash of color to the space.

Weathered Steel Trellis with Bougainvillea

The second space of the plaza landscape is defined by a large weathered steel pergola.  I didn't think to roughly measure the size of the posts or estimate the height, but it looks at least 15' tall to me in the photos.  It looks kind of like the big sister to the similar steel trellis I wrote about at Texas French Bread in Austin.  This trellis has two Big Ass Fans (it's the brand name) for summer cooling and then a series of hanging pendant lights for the evening.  At the end of the long axis is a 7' or 8' tall weathered steel sculpture wall that looks like it might also be composed of some components salvaged from the former brewery.  Steel rings at the base of each round post have soil with Crossvine (Bigonia capreolata) growing up vertical rebar.  Although, from my photo it looks like Bougainvillea might have been planted on one of the posts possibly by accident.

Weathered Steel Pergola

Big Ass Fan

Steel Ring with Vine

The paving under the pergola is the same crushed aggregate as in the other part of the plaza.  It is edged with reddish pavers that have an antique finish.  I think these tie in with the type of pavers you find in the earlier phase of the Pearl Brewery landscape.

Brick Sized Pavers Edge Crushed Aggregate

Those pavers also pop-back up near the entry of Southerleigh back in the first plaza space.  A pathway using them runs parallel to a sereies of rain gardens right at the main entry of the restaurant.  The entry also has some more recycled material, this time in the form of some planters willed with some type of palmetto and almost purple-black Oxalis.

Rain Gardens Flank Restaurant Entrance

Recycled Planters