Canopy Hotel San Antonio

The design of this hotel dramatically transforms a long-neglected urban corner into a 21-story tower and local culinary destination. Sited on a tight urban lot fronting San Antonio’s Riverwalk, the hotel preserves and incorporates a historic 1860s limestone building to offer expansive views and connections at multiple levels to the lush urban landscape of the river. The city’s multifaceted culture is expressed through layers of texture and history, resulting in a careful intermingling of old and new.

In collaboration with Gensler.

The building makes use of its urban brownfield site in an extremely intensive way, packing the program onto a small footprint. The tower cantilevers beyond its property lines on three sides, creating unexpected vantages and a generously sheltered river-level plaza tucked into the building’s base. A collection of balconies, perches & terraces are shaped and oriented toward specific Riverwalk experiences.

PROCESS

Historical Building

The hotel incorporates the walls of an 1860s masonry building as a major character-defining feature of the facades, lobby, dining and conference spaces.
Wall remnants and original materials were salvaged, reconstructed in their original locations, and adapted into the hotel’s public spaces as major character-defining elements.
A long-forgotten brick-vaulted rainwater cistern is the focal point for the outdoor dining plaza. Revealing this historic artifact entailed carefully documenting, disassembling, and then reassembling it in its original place - rediscovered and celebrated.