New playground in Brackenridge could be used to reuse trees that are to be removed

Plans for a new playscape at Brackenridge Park could include reusing trees that will be removed in the first phase of the park’s restoration, city and Brackenridge Conservancy officials said.

The new children’s playground will be built around the existing trees in the area, said Rob Gray, principal architect at Kansas City-based Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects.

“We want to respect the trees and incorporate them into the design,” Gray said Wednesday. “We’ve never worked on a site that has so much history,” he added with a chuckle. “We want to tell the stories of the land through the design.”

The new play area, which is currently entering the design phase, will be located in a bend in the San Antonio River across from Joske’s Pavilion, just west of the Witte Museum and south of the Lambert Beach Softball Field.

The planned location of the natural playground is on the San Antonio River west of the Witte Museum. Credit: Courtesy of the City of San Antonio

Gray told the San Antonio Report that the stumps of the removed trees could be used as a bouncy staircase, the wood could be used as logs in a small cabin-like structure, or the wood could be used as part of a playground.

The removal of trees from Brackenridge Park has been hotly debated since plans for the voter-approved 2017 Brackenridge Park bond project were first presented to the Historic and Design Review Commission in early 2022.

Two public meetings were held Wednesday afternoon to gather citizen input on the new playground, the first project launched as part of the 2024 Brackenridge Park Reconciliation Plan. The Reconciliation Plan came about through a series of public meetings, the formation of a revamped advisory committee and the creation of a new capital improvement evaluation tool, all of which were approved by the city and city council earlier this year.

The final plan for phase one of the park, which involves restoring Lambert Beach, calls for 48 trees to be removed from the park, including six historic trees. The original plan was to remove 105 trees.

The new play area will ideally stimulate outdoor play for children and families in the park, said Chris Maitre, the new CEO of the Brackenridge Park Conservancy.

The new playscape will also fill a gap that has existed in the park since 2020. The existing playground at Joske’s Pavilion, built in the 1920s and modernized in the 1990s, had been closed for nearly four years, first because of the pandemic and then because of excessive bird droppings on the equipment, Parks and Recreation told the Report in an email Thursday.

The playground at Josie Pavilion in Brackenridge Park will be closed in 2022 due to the abundance of droppings and waste from migratory birds. Credit: Scott Ball / San Antonio Report

The new playground, located across the river, will be in the design phase by May. Gray added that the company hopes to have the concept designs completed by the end of December to present to the public for further input.

Construction is scheduled to begin in the summer, with completion and opening planned for October 2026, he added.

“We want this to be a place where people can come together,” Gray said of the project. “We want to see cross-generational play, we want to create a place that invites everyone to participate.”

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