CENTRAL PARK, McALLEN AND THE VALLEY-DELTA: the land…the people…the potential
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n September (2007), Regenesis was asked by Henry Miller Sustainable Partners and the Trust for Sustainable Development to develop a “Story of Place” for McAllen and the Lower Rio Grande Valley, to be presented at a November master planning charrette for the Central Park project in McAllen. The purpose of the story was twofold: (1) to connect the design team to the distinctive character and dynamics of McAllen and the region—the people
and the land; and (2) to serve as a unifying and inspiring context, as well as an organizing core for the creative work of the charrette. The following is a print format version of that presentation. Included as appendices are additional maps, notes from interviews conducted as part of the research, the design principles developed from the story of place, and notes from the envisioning dialogue.
Table of Contents Introduction………………………………..page 3 The Land…………………………………..page 7 The Human Social Dimensions of Place.…page 33 Central Park: the site………………………page 47 Appendices A. Maps……………………………………page 51 B. Interview Notes…………………………page 55 C. Place Based Design Principles………….page 57 D. Envisioning Session…………………….page 58
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key part of the charter from the City to the development and design team was to create a distinctive project—an authentic reflection of this unique place.
An appreciation of the importance of understanding, and being true to who this place is, has been a continuing thread in McAllen, as the McAllen Vision
2000 noted. Regenesis began the process of story development with an internet and literature search, followed by field research that included interviews with over two dozen community members, tours of the city, and several representative ecosystem sites. We were looking for patterns in what shaped the land and what is core to how it works; patterns in how humans shaped and were shaped by the land, and how human culture developed and how it works today. In particular, we looked for where ecological and human patterns mirrored each other as a way to begin to understand the core or essence that distinguishes McAllen and the larger region, and that needs to be reflected in the planning and design of Central Park. The following presents our findings, beginning with a brief introduction to what a story of place is, and why it matters.
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Sustainability requires more than green buildings and technologies. Achieving the profound shift needed requires understanding, reconnecting with and even falling in love with the place we inhabit. When that happens, sustainability is no longer some global abstraction. It is real and it is personal. Perhaps most important, we cannot understand our place by looking at just the human or just the land as if they were separate and separable elements. Understanding a place requires seeing the interweaving of human and natural forces that created and continues to create it today and into the future.
“The reason we are now desecrating nature is not because we use it to our ends, but because we commonly manipulate it without respect for the spirit of place. Spirit of place symbolizes the living ecological relationship between a particular location and the persons who have derived from it and added to it the various aspects of their humanness. No landscape, however grandiose or fertile, can express its full potential richness until it has been given its myth by the love, works and arts of [human beings]”—René Dubos (1972)
Why do we use stories for this purpose? As one storyteller notes, “While analysis is good for control and prediction, story-sensibility is good for understanding meaning and role.”
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Two aspirations wove through all of our interviews: to strengthen McAllen’s position to leverage opportunities in a changing global economy, and to stay connected to their heritage. Stories of Place enable us to carry our roots into our future, rekindling the experience of wholeness inside each and every one of us.
An authentic story has power. Its authenticity comes not from a marketing version of what will ”sell”, but rather from understanding the essence of a place—the core that is the true source of its uniqueness.
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We are used to stories as narratives, but every story has a core framework behind the narrative that organizes the unfolding of the relationships within it. This is the framework we saw at the heart of the story of this place, and which we used to structure the following presentation. It emerged out of understanding the patterns of relationship that have shaped and are shaping this place. It was reinforced by seeing how the patterns of the land and the people have mirrored and amplified each other through time. A shared story framework—one developed out of a deepening understanding of place, enables us to create our own stories within it. It is a means for keeping the storying process alive in how we shape our community, define our identity and determine what we are uniquely able to contribute. For this framework to serve in that way, we’re asking the community folks here to check if it resonates with your experience as Joel and Nicholas present the story of the land and the people. And we’re asking the design team to listen for, and extract design principles and concepts that would guide your work this week.
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This is where we are. In a subtropical oasis. A rich multi-storied jungle-like system.
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The land ranges from open water, to wetlands, drylands, and everything in between.
Tall over-story trees from palms to ebony grow with lower trees, shrubs and grasses and ground covers, while vines twine up it all.
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Here we can see the lower Rio Grande Valley, and below an aerial photo of the region showing McAllen.
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It can be seen more closely here. The varying colors of the shallow elevation changes in the coastal plain are clearly shown. The land is quite flat, with very little fall.
McAllen lies in this small green Subtropical zone.
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This subtropical zone is a lush multi-storied jungle.
It is bounded to the south by desert‌
‌as well as to the north.
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It is where large trees of many kinds formed broad canopies. Many kinds of vines grew up these trees and in their shade. (This vine is now rare).
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The Rio Grande is fed by large portions of both Old and New Mexico and all drains into this area.
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This is where the waters of the river spread out on their way to the ocean. You can see how broad the delta is. McAllen is well within the delta and the floodplain.
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The Delta can clearly be seen on this aerial photo.
Like the Nile Delta the river spreads out in multiple distributary channels and deposits its silt, water, and nutrients to create a rich biological zone.
In this photo the main channel as well as multiple smaller channels and old oxbow lakes can be seen. These all worked to catch flood waters to allow them to soak in slowly.
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What is the difference between a valley and a delta? A valley has two distinct sides. A delta is a complex weave of constantly moving channels and side channels. It is difficult to tell what is on which side as well as where the water ends and the land begins. It is constantly changing year to year and season to season.
A delta is like the corpus collosum in the brain. It is a web that connects and disperses across media.
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The delta is the river’s last chance to distribute its water and nutrients and have them used and held in the bodies of plants. It takes as long as possible to reach the ocean.
The river acts like our intestines. They twist back and forth within us so that they are as long as possible so that our bodies can absorb as much water and nutrients as possible from our food before leaves our bodies. Similarly, the river meanders torturously taking as long as possible to reach the ocean distributing it gifts of water and soil as broadly as possible. To support as much life as possible and to insure that the water that reaches the ocean is clean.
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The main channel of the river may shift annually, creating a complex weave of soils, topography, and land and water.
This created a shifting mosaic of diverse plants that held and thrived on the rich and varied soils. The plants act as a net slowing and holding the flood flows and expressing them in complex mosaics of trees, shrubs, ground covers, and vines.
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This diversity of habitat nurtured a great diversity of not only plants but a vast array of birds and other animals. Making this a focus of biodiversity and leading to the establishment of the world birding centers.
This system was designed to spread, slow, and hold the large pulses of spring floods and the richness that they brought.
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The arroyo Colorado watershed in which the site lies is an old river channel or distributary through which the rivers waters where spread. It is worth noting that the rain in McAllen does not flow to the river but to the Arroyo Colorado. The river is uphill from the site.
The delta topography and plant communities were also designed to absorb flood pulses from the regular hurricane inundations.
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It is important for the landscape to hold these pulses of flood waters to enable the life here to continue through the drier parts of the year. The low areas created by old river channels acted like stable eddies, holding water long after the floods had subsided in the river.
The legacy of this varied topography and soils can clearly still be seen in the landscape.
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This diverse landscape, fading from open water to dry land through everything in between and changing seasonally, fostered an incredibly diverse mosaic of plant life. The legacy of this varied topography and soils can clearly still be seen in the landscape.
These ranged from the river forest belt that the City of McAllen would have been within the, sitting as it dose just atop the old riverbank now called Mission Ridge.
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To grass meadows created by repeated flooding and deposition of fine clay soils with seasonal water‌
‌and open water ponds and wetlands.
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This landscape is also host to pulses and floods of other sorts as well. The subtropical oasis nurtured by the Rio Grande is an important stopover in annual migrations of many bird species who make use of the seasonal flushes of food provided by the river’s floods.
It lies at a critical conjunction of flyways and landform and water.
Similarly, the native people lived in shifting communities based upon seasonal and annual changes in food availability.
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The grazing of sheep in these landscapes starting with the Spanish occupation had powerful impacts.
It so shifted large areas from grasslands to thorn scrub that it forced settlement north of the river.
Very large herds and confinement within wire fences along with drought shifted the landscape considerably. Like much of the earth this is a shift toward desertification, or the drying out of the landscape.
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Once the plant communities that allowed the landscape to absorb and hold the water were depleted the landscape dried out.
The rich clay soils deposited by the river drew many farmers as well.
The clearing of native plant communities for agricultural cultivation also depleted not only species diversity, but the ability of the landscape to absorb the pulses of flood waters and to create bounty from them.
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The river’s flows were constrained within and distributed by the irrigation canals.
And the floods from the river were held back by levees.
From this chart the ups and downs of moisture within this landscape are obvious. We can see how we are in a rapid downturn in the cycle.
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One aspect of this landscape stands out as an important example to examine in depth: the resacas, or oxbow lakes created by old river bends that persist when the river has moved. Two are clearly visible in this picture. Where the river is almost touching in the upper portion of the picture it will soon cut through, leaving the river bend to the right isolated as a resaca.
This process is clearly shown here.
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This is an old resaca long isolated from flooding. It contains a wide array of plant communities based on topography, soils, and seasonal moisture.
At times they are ponds and wetlands.
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Resaca also means a “hang-over� perhaps referring to the water in the resaca being a hang-over from the spring floods.
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Note the fountain in this resaca. In Brownsville the fanciest homes are built along resacas to make use of the cooling trees and breezes as well as the closeness to water.
It is even one way that Brownsville portrays itself. The resacas are a valuable design element.
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The question we will explore is not what is McAllen but who is McAllen. “What” questions tend to lead to indicators, statistics and measurements, whereas “who” questions speak more to the core qualities of a place.
What makes McAllen uniquely McAllen? What we found in our research was: • The people of McAllen are largely a merchant class of people who always see opportunity in the face of dynamic change • They are strongly family oriented and have learned to sustain themselves and prosper through the development of close networks and ties across geographical, ethnic, and social boundaries. • This is a city where the American Dream is sill alive and thriving, where diversity and new immigrants continue to contribute to and enrich the lives and livelihood of the community. • It is a city in which hard divides and divisiveness are antithetical to their way of life. Like their music, there is a spirit of Conjunto, of togetherness and non-apartness.
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Ecologically, we have seen that the Lower Rio Grande Delta is a place of continuing pulsing floods from the river, from the gulf and its storms, and from seasonal migratory land animals and birds.
This is mirrored in the human dimension. Where pulses and floods of people and events from the outside have influenced and at times even redefined the social, political and economic landscape of this place.
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In response to these ongoing floods of change, the people of McAllen could have developed a closed, barricaded approach to these intrusions…
Both present day experience & history show the opposite is true. The people of McAllen are remarkably open and welcoming as a people. As one resident put it, “you can get closer quicker here.”
The people of McAllen are an entrepreneurial class that always sees opportunity over danger in the face of change
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Historically, those who remained open to change and embraced it as an opportunity for advancement were the ones who succeeded. This is a major reason why McAllen grew to become the leader in the ValleyDelta region.
What are the current threats to this dynamic flow? According to one resident, “We aren’t currently connected to water. All the water is behind raised levies. There is no place where water is integrated into it except in the parks. Except for at the Convention Center there is no place to stroll around in the evening by water�
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Turning to the characteristic of stabilizing nets and family ties
As the waters of the Rio Grande flow dynamically through the delta, the response of plant life and of the land itself is to slow down and harvest this resource through stabilizing nets of resacas and plant root networks. This has allowed life to thrive in times of drought and flood.
Amidst these pulsing changes, human communities have periodically faced the threat of having their economic and cultural livelihoods swept away in the flood years or dried up in the drought periods of isolation. What made the difference were the stabilizing networks of family-like connections.
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These adaptive, family-like connections spanning across social and geographical boundaries are what help to enable a strong, thriving community in this region. • Culturally, it is important that McAllen preserve its “slower, intimate, small hometown feel.” • Economically, merchants must continue to develop ties across both sides of the border. • Ecologically this means, as one rancher states it, that “I am a steward for my heirs”
There is a high level of volunteer activism in this community and a lack of political divisiveness. As one resident put it, “people still care about everyone here.”
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This network of connections is also reflected in the settlement patterns of McAllen and the ValleyDelta. There is not one town center but rather a network of attractor nodes, each with its own unique qualities.
Some of the things we heard in our interviews: • • •
• •
Cross-generational connections are key There is a need for intimate places where people can slow down and connect. Could Central Park be a place that could host and attract large numbers of people yet maintain a sense of intimacy? There is a desire to hold onto and honor their agricultural roots, possibly through a farmers market There is a desire for reconnection to the land in terms of its water systems and lush vegetation
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Turning to the quality of living mosaics and the enrichment of life that this has enabled‌
The Lower Rio Grande delta is one of the most biodiverse regions in the country, brought about through the rich mosaic of soils that have been distributed across this landscape, each forming a distinctive niche for life to grow and each blending into the other to form a living whole in which an oasis of life has flourished.
The same has been reflected in the diverse mosaic of cultures that have blended and intermixed in this area
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McAllen is a truly American city, one that has not lost touch with the roots of the diverse contributions that migrating peoples from around the world have brought to it
Michael Meade
What makes a mosaic? It involves diverse elements, each contributing to form a whole picture. The more complex the diversity of colors, the richer the mosaic. And if the colors merged together into one monotone, the richness of the whole would be lost.
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What distinguishes McAllen from other cities along the border is that it is an “American city on the border.”
McAllen is evolving as a city from focusing largely on economic enrichment to a community that is seeking cultural enrichment as well. According to the mayor, “previous administrations focused more on functional needs of the city, building an incredibly good infrastructure… Now focus is more on quality of life issues, on growing culture and the arts. But these things need to be grown in ways that generate more wealth for the city” And there are seeds for a further evolution toward seeking ecological enrichment as well. This is reflected in the desire for connection to naturally flowing water and vegetation. Currently, the convention center is considered the only place to stroll in the evenings by water
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The periodic freezes became debilitating to the economy in the 80’s when agriculture became too heavily reliant on citrus crops.
There is potential for Central Park to become an education center as well
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Every place has a particular spirit.
Here, there are no clear divides between us
Like the spirit of the music which originated from this region, we are Conjunto, or together with. There is a sense of being a part of rather than apart from
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Every great city has a distinct contribution to make to the world.
What is the vocation of McAllen and what can this project symbolize in this effort?
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This is a Great Blue Heron fishing. It is obvious that the reservoir is an important node in the habitat for local and migratory bird species.
The native plants like the palm are already beginning to establish around the pond as they would around a Resaca.
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One of the hopes expressed for Central Park is that it be an icon of the future McAllen. To be an authentic icon, it must reflect the essence of this place and the values and principles drawn from that essence to shape the future McAllen creates. McAllen’s leadership role in the Valley means that future will most likely shape the Valley future as well. And that makes the planning work that begins this week even more significant. If Central Park realizes its full potential, it will be a source of change through inspiration, always the most effective form of leadership.
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APPENDIX A: MAPS This map indicates the important relationship of noise and wind. The winds are from the northwest and the southeast. While the Southeasterlies are the most common and the direction of hurricane winds, the Northwesterlies can often be stronger than the prevailing winds. In either case, buildings should be designed to protect from these winds as well as capture cooling summer breezes, often off of the gulf. The noise coming from airplanes landing and taking off from the airport as well as from the elevated highway also needs to be protected from. Because these forces are at right angles to one another, if either the noise or the winds are considered in isolation. the design could exacerbate the unconsidered problem. Both wind and noise will need to be held in mind to address both issues well.
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The noise contours for the airport are clearly shown here. No good data for traffic noise was available. Some monitoring might be useful. 52
The location of the site within the regional drainage, watershed and floodplain indicate its susceptibility to flooding. 53
Appendix B: Interview notes Developing the Story of Place for McAllen A critical part of the story development process was a series of conversations with over two dozen people from McAllen and the Valley. They reflected a broad range of historical, current and future-oriented backgrounds and perspectives. Included were naturalists and environmental scientists and activists, cultural historians, City and community stakeholders in the Central Park project, political leaders, cultural/social activists and thought leaders, and people working on envisioning and articulating a desired future for McAllen.
Contemplating the future illuminated both values and challenges: how to seize opportunities to grow without losing connection to our agricultural heritage, or the “slower, intimate, small hometown sense of personal relationships”; how to define and maintain a leadership role in the Valley that is authentic to McAllen; how to coalesce different visions and cultures as we succeed in growing more diverse; and how to grow in ways that maintain and even enhance the ecological richness on which this area depends.
A number of key themes wove through the core of these For Central Park, aspirations and visions wove an image of: an interviews: icon that brings to life McAllen’s unique qualities and values for residents and visitors; a multiplicity of gathering places— On the qualities that make McAllen distinctive and a leader in the welcoming to all generations, nurturing personal interactions and Valley, we heard the following, stated in many different ways: an creative expressions, honoring in a living way the ecological indomitable spirit of entrepreneurialism conditioned by a deep richness and agricultural heritage, contributing to the economic sense of caring toward the whole; the treasuring of diversity; and health of the community, and expressive of the sense of welcome an open hearted generosity of welcome. and home that is so core to this place. On aspirations for the future: a strong commitment to growing the arts and cultural attractions to create a community quality of life that complements and nourishes the strong economic engine that has fed McAllen’s growth; a desire to throw off old “border town” stereotypes and gain recognition for who McAllen truly is.
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A Collection of Notes Sounded in Interviews in McAllen October 21-23 2007 McAllen distinctiveness… “The valley is a chain of pearls and McAllen is the pendant that hangs down in the middle” •
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Business oriented, entrepreneurial, and supportive of commercial enterprise from the very start … Economics, quality of life, and being successful in business is the glue of this community…There is very little politics. From 1977 to 1997, we had the same mayor, which helped to create a non-political environment that was non-divisive. Politicians stand on their own, are not elected through a platform party. It’s based on who you are and what’s your record. In this there’s an independence of spirit… local government is not an obstacle but rather a facilitator for businesses…The business community has stewarded the growth of McAllen… There was emphasis on tourism from early on with the train…a big push to get northerners to come down in the early 1900’s…This is distinctive from other towns in the area where the Patron system has dominated…they did not want to invite competition…they were content with the way things were and therefore there was little room for entrepreneurship in their towns…This is “the business opportunity city for young families.” An “American” city on the border… …a buffer between McAllen and Reynosa has caused McAllen to be more attractive to Mexican visitors. It’s more exciting to visit. It feels more like an American frontier city, as opposed to being a continuation of their Mexican cities, only on the other side of the border… architecture of this area is Nuevo Mexican, it has retained Mexican attributes while not looking fully like it. It is its own style Cordiality and welcome… People are friendly, very receptive and accepting… they make people feel comfortable here…there is a strong sense of home…People treat me like family, like everyone else…It embraces outsiders that bring value …you feel good being here…welcoming …lots of personal exchange…you can get closer quicker here. It’s an open network…It’s easy to move around and feel safe…Everyone is for the city here.
McAllen’s aspirations • to grow the arts and cultural attractions of this place and use them to grow and attract financial revenue and business growth…
…The city has invested half a million dollars into the arts…there’s the intellectual factor – an appreciation of art, theater, culture…previous administrations focused more on functional needs of the city, building an incredibly good infrastructure…now focus is more on quality of life issues, on growing culture and the arts. But these things need to be grown in ways that generate more wealth for the city. It’s not welfare…we have a ballet and a symphony but they need to be regenerated…we have the convention center but we don’t have enough for people to do to attract and hold them here for longer periods…we need to attract and retain people who would otherwise move on to San Antonio or Austin. •
growing and becoming less disconnected from the world …gaining recognition for who we are; it is changing, but many people in other parts of Texas still hold old images of this as a backward area.
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maintain our leadership position in the valley
What do we want to preserve and nurture as we grow? • connection to our heritage/roots… …Our heritage is an agricultural background. Everyone who grew up here has some connection to farming…It was referred to as the “magic valley” because you could grow two crops a year.…We need to maintain this character and give it recognition: Ranch life; Mexican trio-playing…hardwork, honesty, conservative/traditional family values. •
being different is good… …We are a real mixing pot of ethnic communities and need to build on this strength…Mexican/American integration…we can’t lose sight of our uniqueness of location on the border and our connection to Mexico.
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Personal relationships, being able to personally know the people to get things done People still caring about everyone…The whole community coming together to help out…a “slower, simple small hometown feel”
Challenges facing McAllen: • Balancing: love for the “slower, intimate small hometown feel” and belief that “Growth is good because it’s good for the economy” •
Local/regional competition… …The competition to McAllen are planned community developments outside of the center town that offer all the amenities (e.g. Sharyland,)
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Attracting and holding people… McAllen is seen as a good place to make money and then move to central Texas. This is because we neglect the aesthetics… We are losing young people… Statistics are showing that people are now choosing location first and job second. This is the new “creative class”…“Putting business in front of aesthetics can screw the city long term”…We think that if we make it harder on business through zoning, it will drive business to Phar and other outlaying regions. But this reduces everything to the lowest common denominator versus helping McAllen stand out as the desired place to be. Coalescing different visions/different cultures… There’s a cultural clash going on between old-time American town aesthetics (e.g. no walls) and Mexican upper middle class transplants (who want houses surrounded by big walls). The big question is how to blend these two…There’s a growing concern from old timers that the city is moving more towards looking like Reynosa with signage everywhere, flea market areas, etc. Ecological issues… “Lack of water and lack of green is at the root of a lot of the trouble”
What would a successful Central Park contribute to McAllen? “We are building our spine in the city through a series of connected attractor points” • A gathering place… …cross generational, welcoming to families; a destination point that can expand to host a major event like Santa Fe’s Indian Market or provide a wide and diverse menu of activities and spaces at dusk, in the evenings and daytimes; a place for growing a culture of art and music…A big city feeling compared to the rest of the valley • A symbol… • …that captures the distinctiveness/uniqueness of McAllen and makes McAllen memorable; a place to come back to terms with your roots, that helps us understand what the valley is today and why it became that way • A source of revenue… …that complements, not competes with, existing shopping centers What effect would it have/ what experience it would create in people to be able to contribute in these ways? • Learning that “being different is great”… … experience the beauty of different cultures; we are becoming very cosmopolitan…at a time when others are building walls we have something to offer the world
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Gaining a sense of this place… …we need to be reminded of the city as you walk around— different statues, art pieces, symbols, etc that remind us where we are, our heritage…to create self-awareness through the design and feel of the park—it’s why Central Park in New York City is so valuable. Quaintness and intimacy… … entertainment and outdoor life, European style, not one large park but rather lots of little areas and niches for different things and events and interactions A sense of home… …comfort, security, welcome; experience the openness of the people here; it needs to be safe and feel safe
Design thoughts/images: • We envision…street life/art/music… • …strolling, artisans, a place to spend time with your family at dusk, water features, nestled stores, pedestrian ways, not too open, fountains that splash out of the ground for children to play in, brickwork around a tree that people can sit on, street vendors, things that kids can be stimulated by, a planetarium,…a lot of color…things to do that are hip…live music ; carnivals; farmers markets…grassy area; winding, meandering paths where you’re wondering what’s around the next corner; the feel of an oldfashioned Mexican plaza but American in style. •
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We envision…living accessible water… …weaving through like a river as opposed to just a fountain. We aren’t currently connected to water. All the water is behind raised levies. People tend to flock to areas that do have water (like South Padre Island). There is nowhere in the valley where water is integrated into it except in the parks. Except for at the Convention Center there is no place to stroll around in the evenings by water. A place where you can sit and see water. Water all around, boat rides, bridge crossings. We envision…family, both kids and adults. …There are not many places to go to as a kid…it’s a place where school teachers can bring their students to walk around during the day and engage in educational activities We envision…upscale …need to step it up and go to the next level of shopping. Otherwise we will lose this shopping experience distinctiveness from other cities in the valley We envision…popular scale … Make it popular. It should be “popular-scale” not up-scale. E.g. petting zoo type attractions
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Appendix C: Designing from Place: Sustainable Design Principles For Central Park, McAllen The following principles were developed at the charrette, drawing from the Story of Place and the community input captured in the “What if…” dialogue
Space: relationships/patterns/functions •
Build adaptable, flexible spaces for large or intimate gatherings and a variety of uses—for both dynamic interaction and quiet reflection
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Welcoming for all ages/all incomes/all cultures/all languages.
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Create distinctive “nodes” and gradual transitions (no abrupt edges)
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Create networked spaces that develop entrepreneurial and cultural talent. (e.g. farmers’ market supported by and supporting local networks of farms and farmers; artisans live-work lofts connected with local creative incubator)
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Reflect the bi-cultural, agricultural and ecological heritage of McAllen and the Valley—living water; living agriculture; living culture (e.g., native vegetation, resacas and constructed wetlands; farmers market, IMAS and Heritage Center)
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Educate and inspire through illuminating and making explicit the underlying values, patterns and contextual relationships of Central Park. (e.g. using signage, educational materials; marketing materials)
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Create a new model of retail integrating global and local, the unique and the branded.
Process: engaging the community •
Engage and invite community responsibility as well as participation.
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Integrate entrepreneurial activity with existing civic networks.
Overall Aim: to create a Central park that is inspirational, authentic, “naturally” intelligent and paradigm changing—a “teaching” fractal for the future growth of McAllen and the Valley.
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Appendix D: McAllen Charrette Envisioning Session Monday, November 12, 2007 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
What if the museum could showcase the local vegetation by incorporating it into the building? What if the project spotlights our historic resources – downtown? What if roads for cars do not exist? What if we were the greenest city in the US? What if North of Nolana was ecologically as well economically developed? What if we were “the” sustainable project for South Texas? What if Central Park created a “skyline”? What if this place became the most important place for second homes for people of ….Monterrey…. What if it had a retail component? What if Central Park had as much space for wildlife as it did people? What if Central Park was the international trade center for Mexico, Central and South America? The gateway? What if it was a place to build memories for kids with rowboating, etc.? What if it included a cultural component rivaling any other architecture? What if we had an Anglo and Mexican architectural mixing of styles? What if incorporate blending Mex/American styles or coexist? What if there was a baroque style in contrast to neo-classical, yet existing as a mosaic? What if development incorporates pedestrian link west-east centennial (mall) (could be people mover)? What if there were islands in the water or peninsula? What if lofts-residential with cultural setting/nature/water and small retail and restaurants? What if the site was a center for the World Birding Center and treatment facility for water (natural system)? What if new McAllen Heritage Center and IMAS – Mirror ecological and human foundation of McAllen?
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What if we had a mass transit system to bring people within the centers of McAllen? What if we connect McAllen to the world with mass transit? What if we had live work lofts for artisans? What if we relocate MFA program down by the water? What if we had an unrivaled arts district within that celebrated all art forms and each project designed by noted architect (architecture as art)? What if we create oasis, naturally air conditioned? What if we have amphitheatres for once a month concerts/presentations? What if we had lots of water? What if we had concepts similar to “Mud Island”? What if we drew as many from North as South because it is a beacon for how we can work together as human beings and celebrate the humanity that incorporates art/arch/ecology? What if we developed a school of art and design based on sustainability? What if McAllen becomes epicenter for a new order in addressing immigration? What if it created a think tank of sustainability? What if had a technologically advanced showcase for the region? What if we built buildings that went up instead of out, green roofs? What if we used only native plants? What if we were to model another way to live in a floodplain? What if agricultural celebration through farmer’s market and specialty foods? What if it was an Epcot vs. live work, marriage of live/work/play – recreation area? What if lots of small gathering centers together? What if we built a water feature that is also a cooling feature? What if this was the family attraction for residents and travelers, slowing down and extending their visits?
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What if we had an inter-model center car to McAllen jet to the world? What if we had a restaurant mecca, 100 small boutiques (no chains) of local restaurateurs? What if outdoor cafes with retail for year round outside life? What if we had lots of meandering flows, water and paths? What if we had interconnected spaces with pedestrian pathways and linkages? What if we demonstrate that we don’t need to ‘clutter’ area with signs? What if it was iconic, not like Austin, not big city but McAllen? What if icon that defines McAllen? What if it is relaxing, spiritual, place of joy and beauty? What if we use solar power? What if it was a project that “jumped us” ahead of the sustainability curve? What if Quinta Mazatlan could be recreated on the site? What if it was a prototype for future sustainability projects? What if we did a mini-charrette in Monterrey to test these ideas? What if we had a boutique hotel? What if it was run like a resort (rental program) instead of private second homes? What if all the greenspace had wi-fi connection?
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What if we hooked up with creative incorporate? What if we had an importance of brands and American experience in Mexico? What if symbolic for how to grow global while growing more intimate? What if we had edible walking tour and unique plants and build on natural heritage – culinary tourism? What if we attracted cultural class of country to gather, dialogue art (not just local)? What if we suspend development regulations on the site, so as to allow a new thing, not collection of separated mono-cultures (codes for uses/subdivisions)? What if it was a welcoming place regardless of income or language? What if we embrace differences? What if we include the best of London, Paris, Toledo, Italy, India, China, Korea, Bruges, Colonial Mexico and America? What if we become the central attraction between Monterrey and Corpus Christi/San Antonio? What if we had a domed theatre? What if we have police on horseback giving children rides? What if we have lots of children and museums?
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