The City of San Antonio functions as a collective whole uniting locals and annual visitors together through shared experiences. The Broadway corridor serves as a thread between the city and the community and provides the backdrop for these experiences to unfold. The city is evolving and is becoming a more vibrant urban environment, and new developments will ultimately shape the communities that are supported along the Broadway corridor. The City of San Antonio must embrace this evolution along Broadway in order to establish a strong urban core that supports the future needs of the community. Nestled below the US-281 and I-35 interchange is a void within Broadway, a detached space that is severing this urban thread. Is it possible to provide a place for the community that is rooted to its site, supports a diverse range of activities, and connects the city from the streetscape to the urban scale, without sacrificing the arterial needs that the Broadway corridor services?

Broadway Pass is an urban community hub that anchors this connection between the city and the community. By embracing the natural linearity of the Broadway corridor, an elongated – yet centralized, location creates the backdrop for a diverse range of uses and experiences to take place. These uses include commercial and hospitality spaces to support housing within the area, creative spaces for local artists, and an information center to support neighboring events. As an anchor, the urban community hub is then interlinked to a number of public spaces including a community garden, playscape, art park, and an event lawn.

To soften the streetscape along Broadway, the existing median is removed in order to accommodate wider bike lanes and barriers that interchange between LED lit platforms below the overpasses and vegetated planters in areas that are open to daylight. This design strategy accommodates both pedestrian needs and vehicular traffic, without sacrificing safety or the arterial nature of the Broadway corridor. To connect the community hub between both sides of the street, a celebratory pedestrian bridge, housed underneath a perforated LED canopy, serves as both a spiritual threshold for the corridor and a protective shading device for the suspended party floor. The canopy then unfolds onto a social stair that overlooks a grand multi-purpose event lawn. These combined elements converge together to create a meeting place and destination for residents and visitors alike; enhancing San Antonio’s richest traditions of sharing experiences.