Work on the future Briscoe museum is well under way
Web Posted: 02/29/2008 11:13 AM CST
Jennifer Hiller
Express-News Staff Writer

A downtown building designed for books, converted into a treasury of circus artifacts and then vacated and left as a storage building in 2001 is well into its latest transformation: Western art museum.

The exterior renovation of the old Hertzberg Circus Museum building at the corner of Market and North Presa streets is nearing completion. Soon, preliminary work will start on the construction of a contemporary two-story pavilion, which will connect with the original Hertzberg building, as well as a sculpture garden along the San Antonio River.

In the summer of 2009, the buildings will reopen to the public as the Dolph and Janey Briscoe Western Art Museum, named after the benefactors who donated $4 million to the project.

Scaffolding has come down and workers are finishing cleaning the limestone blocks of the Art Deco/Beaux Arts building. The original painted metal windows have been cleaned and repaired, interior demolition is complete, including the removal of lead and asbestos, and a new roof has been added.

In a few weeks, the city will haul from the site two 40-year-old oak trees to Main Plaza and rescue a handful of sego palms and Mexican plums for other city parks. Most of the oak trees will remain on-site, though.

"We feel like it's a worthy project for downtown," said museum director Darrell Beauchamp. "We want to be good neighbors and improve this part of downtown and the River Walk."

The Briscoe Western Art Museum is taking a "if we build it, they will come" approach to its collection. The museum plans to fill its galleries with the borrowed collections of local Western art collectors, as well as borrowing pieces from other Western art museums.

"It's a unique 'Field of Dreams' approach," Beauchamp said. "Most museums start with a collection and build the building around it."

The original building was designed by architect Herbert S. Green, built in 1929 and opened in 1930 as the main San Antonio Library.

The building is clad in Indiana limestone and has a monumental entry that includes polished bronze doors, custom torchiers and two carved figures, believed to be Shakespeare and Cervantes. Inside, the entry includes marble and an elaborate cast plaster ceiling.

Design for the two-story contemporary pavilion hasn't been finalized, but architects are considering using a Texas limestone in a similar size and pattern as the Indiana limestone on the Hertzberg building.

"There's a fine balance between respecting the old and building something contemporary," said architect Kim Monroe, partner at Lake/Flato Architects. "There's a huge amount of history in this area."

Lake/Flato is doing interior work and designing the new pavilion and sculpture garden.San Antonio's Ford, Powell & Carson Architects is overseeing the restoration of the Hertzberg building's exterior.

One of the biggest restoration challenges was the damage done to the limestone blocks by abrasive cleaning — possibly with high-pressure water — sometime in the building's past, said Carolyn Peterson, partner at Ford, Powell & Carson. That harsh method eroded the limestone and let water (and then mold) seep into the porous rock.

Masons hand-cleaned each block, applied multiple applications of an antifungal and a moisture-blocking material, and in some cases replaced the blocks with those from other parts of the building.
"I'm delighted that it's worked out that the building has a new life," Peterson said. "It will be a wonderful addition to downtown for residents and for tourists."
About $11 million of the estimated $18.5 million in construction costs has been raised, Beauchamp said.

"We're on a good pace," he said. "We're still young in the process, and still involved heavily in a capital campaign to make it happen."

Because of its location — downtown, on the river, in a historic building, on city and San Antonio Water System property — the museum has been working with a number of entities, from the Historic and Design Review Commission to the San Antonio Library.

A long-term lease with the city allows the museum to use the building in exchange for the restoration work. The sculpture garden will reach down toward the River Walk on a piece of SAWS property.

The Hertzberg building operated as a library from 1930 to 1968, when the library moved to South St. Mary's Street. Soon after, the Friends of the Library installed a collection of circus memorabilia given to the library in 1940 by Harry Hertzberg.
But the museum closed in 2001, and the building became an unofficial storage space for the city. It was filled to the ceilings with chairs, desks, tables and paperwork when the museum first started looking at the building as a possible site.

On Saturday, the National Western Art Foundation and the museum will hold a gala to help with fundraising efforts. The event is sold out, but there will be a public art auction from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the McCombs Center on the campus of University of the Incarnate Word. Admission is $100 and can be paid at the door or by calling (210) 832-3204.