Why I Love San Antonio Part 1/5

"WHY I LOVE SAN ANTONIO"

Part 1/5 - Architecture

Written by Timothy McVain

"My SATX" by TimothyMcVain

While San Antonio may not be able to compete with the likes of Dallas or and Houston for tall buildings or a crowded skyline, we have many beautiful structures. High above the city, the Tower of the Americas is a beacon glowing in the night and a silent giant during the day. I always tell people if they are lost downtown to memorize where you parked in relation to the tower because you can see it no matter where you are.

Two of my favorite structures in the city happen to be neighbors; the Bexar County Courthouse and San Fernando Cathedral. Both of which are breathtaking during the day or night.

I know that I'm probably part of a minority on this next one, but I love the Frost Bank building downtown. Frost Bank has a knack for choosing interesting architecture for their headquarters and while I think Austin's is my favorite, there's just something about the one here in San Antonio that I like. Perhaps it's the simplicity and sleek design, or the beautiful park and statue across the street dedicated to the founder.

Coming in at a close number 2 on my list for favorite structures downtown is the Tower Life Building that has had different names in the past (Smith-Young Tower, Transit Tower). There are cool gargoyles on the side of the building too! I like the style and the 1920's feel of the architecture.

My #1 favorite structure downtown will not surprise anyone that has followed my blogs for a while; The San Antonio Central Library! I am occasionally lost for words to describe how much I love this building. To name a few of the highlights; there's an outdoor plaza, colorful parking garage, artwork and sculptures inside including a blown glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly, unique and elaborate interior and exterior design by the architect Ricardo Legorreta, and larger than life yellow walls that end up in sky lit pyramid shaped skylights. Oh, and they have books too, rows and rows; tons of them...

 What do YOU love about San Antonio? Write it in the comments down below!


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Castle Hill Austin Texas

"Castle Hill -Austin, Texas"

Written by Timothy McVain

January 24, 2014

 There is a quiet hill overlooking downtown Austin where artists great and small come to put their mark. On their canvas of walls, trekking through a corn stalk covered dusty hill or climbing up shiny, sticky painted cement slabs, they have come to show off their talent and paint what's on their mind. From images representing or criticizing politicians to larger than life faces, eyes, and mouths; the artist illustrates and sprays from the colors within themselves. There's stenciled faces and caricatures on the bottom of one side of the ten foot wall and colorful layers of different images and words on the other. This is a shrine to the human spirit set free. Expressing ones innermost ideologies and feelings in an easily understood, artistic way communicating to every passerby until their work is covered up by another's.

“LOVE IS GOD” stood out to me as I walked below the towering painted walls and stood above it all. Looking down seeing everything from a different perspective I noticed things I missed on the ground, sometimes having stood right next to it. Even going through my photos revealed hidden messages and beautiful shrouded faces covered by stylized words.

The experience at Castle Hill reminded me of my first visit to the San Antonio Museum of Art where I was completely overwhelmed and impassioned by seeing and being surrounded by all the precious, beautiful, masterful art and artifacts. I left that with a heavy heart, truly amazed at the human capacity for creating beauty and I walked away from the hill with a similar feeling that I had just walked through sacred ground. I wanted to kick off my shoes and fall on my face in the tan dirt and worship this monument to imagination and creative expression.

Atop the hill was the castle, standing with clean brick walls and resting safely, at ease behind a tall impenetrable metal fence with sharp points. Standing there in the sunlight like a proud sentinel daring everyone to just try and approach it, I realized that perhaps I was looking at it incorrectly and judging it prematurely. I began to imagine the castle being a gracious landlord, a kind king who graciously shared his land, this hill, with everyone and invited artists from all walks of life to come and put their name on the slabs of concrete. Whatever the spiritual significance of the castle, it provided a stark contrast in color, style, and shape from the art filled hill below.

Looking out from the top of the hill, standing on names and shapes painted by hundreds to thousands of artists, I saw the entire skyline of the magical city of Austin, Texas. At my left was The University of Texas clock tower, Texas State Capitol, and then to my left began the towering skyscrapers and swinging construction cranes ending at the farthest extent of my peripheral vision. It was a view like this captured by one of my followers and a helpful online map that led me to the hill. Far below, as I climbed down the sides of walls and through rocky spaces between corn stalks, a man played a banjo while another played music through speakers and juggled or waved ribbons. 

“Keep Austin Weird” is alive and well here, one of the few remaining places in Austin that seem to have been saved from progress and overpopulous growth. I'll be back to bathe in those wall's shadows and lie under the words, faces, colors, giraffes, and creatures sprayed by imaginative, inspiring young and old nameless people.

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