San Antonio Botanical Garden Goes to the Birds

Does this count as multifamily development? The San Antonio Botanical Garden is gearing up installation of its “epic birdhouse” exhibit. It’ll feature human-sized birdhouses (they average 12 feet) designed through an AIA competition. The Garden’s Candace Andrews and Sasha Kodet showed us the winning selections, which include the Eco Echo Dome, designed by PBK and Journey Construction and incorporating birdsong. Another favorite is Susan Ohlhaber’s Egg Nest, which features hay bales and pictures of birds that have gone extinct.

Candace and Sasha with the other judges: Garden executive director Bob Brackman, Leslie Komet Ausburn, Aline Yoldi, and Rafael Bedolla. This group culled from 16 entries down to six winners. The structures will open March 29, and were built with the following (and more) in mind: how the structures relate to garden and plants, sustainability, and (very important since the birdhouses will be up for three months) weather-resistance and kid-proofability.

Here’s Sasha with Overland Partners’ winning Purple Martin Gourd entry. The Botanical Garden has major changes underway. It's City-owned, but becoming private, and a capital campaign is up and running to implement a master plan for its 38 acres. Candace tells us it took over two decades to acquire eight acres adjacent to the Garden. Now landscape architect Christy Ten Eyck is leading the master plan, which includes a new entry, event center, classrooms, outdoor kitchen pavilion, edible garden, and family adventure garden. This year, the team will move utility lines along Funston and realign/straighten Old Austin Road.