Planning for a “museum of trees” on the South Side kicked off under a canopy of oaks, cedar elm and mesquite Wednesday morning with local officials announcing the firm selected to develop Arboretum San Antonio.
Following a lengthy bid process, the arboretum’s board members chose the landscape architecture arm of Boston-based design firm Sasaki to develop a master plan for the 188-acre tree sanctuary located at the former Republic Golf Course at 4226 S.E. Military Dr.
“There are a handful of firms in the country, in the world, who are experts at building open space and designing it with excellence,” said former mayor Henry Cisneros, founder of Arboretum San Antonio. “We chose the one that we think best fits this site and San Antonio.”
Cisneros was joined by other local officials, including Mayor Ron Nirenberg and County Judge Peter Sakai, in making the announcement before a pastoral backdrop of land acquired for the arboretum in late 2023.
He called the site “providential,” and pointed to its developed cart paths, fairways and native trees as the ideal foundation for the arboretum. Salado Creek runs along the west edge of the former golf course which closed in 2020.
“It’s just already gorgeous, almost ready for prime time, but this master plan will get us there,” he said.
Sasaki was selected from among 19 firms that responded to the request for qualifications in 2023 and from among three firms invited to submit proposals, said Tom Corser, CEO of Arboretum San Antonio.
Among Sasaki’s many landscaping projects is one in 2012 for the National Park Service to improve accessibility and security issues at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in the Nation’s Capital.
The firm stood out for its insistence on a community engagement phase in the 12-month, four-phase master planning process, Corser said.
Leading the project for Sasaki is Anna Cawrse, landscape architect and co-director in Sasaki’s Denver office.
“Working on an arboretum project from the ground up is something a landscape architect dreams of, but being on site here was incredible.” Cawrse said. “The magic was apparent, it was tangible. You could see the cathedral of trees, we saw Salado Creek flooded. We saw hogs, we saw a hummingbird nest, we ate amazing food.”
More than a park
Barred owls barked and the summer morning air was still as Corser and others led tours of the bucolic site on Wednesday. Paved golf cart paths cut across the gently rolling meadows rimmed by centuries-old live oaks and lush vegetation fed by small ponds and flowing waterways.
A low bridge shaded by mulberry and cypress trees invites views of the cool and trickling creekbed and leads the way to a rise that offers serene views of untouched landscape and majestic oaks.
A team from Sasaki is already on site working to catalog the trees and plants, Cawrse said. They also carry with them a tool to measure the sounds of nature and the tranquility they hope to preserve in designing and building the arboretum.
In one section of the site, a nursery of 140 young trees is already growing side by side, having been planted in one day by a team of volunteers.
In 2022, county commissioners approved spending $7.3 million to acquire 18 acres of land and pay for master planning, design and construction of the arboretum. The Brooks Development Authority also purchased another 170 acres located in the floodplain for $1 million.
Sakai said the purpose of the arboretum is to promote health and wellness, environmental sustainability, economic development, community and education — and to provide “equitable access to nature.”
“Our children need nature and wide open space more than ever,” he said.
Corser is quick to say the arboretum is not a park or botanical garden. “This is a place for the ecosystem to nurture itself,” he said, offering an important lesson in how nature has a life cycle.
He also compared it to the planned Great Springs Project, a 100-mile network of hike-and-bike trails connecting San Antonio to Austin with both recreational and conservation uses.
Project funding
Also on Wednesday, several groups presented checks to the arboretum project. Brooks donated $100,000, CPS Energy gave $150,000 and the nature-focused Hollomon Price Foundation presented a grant for $200,000.
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To fund the master plan process, Corser said $1.5 million has been raised so far toward its goal of $2.5 million. When that goal is met, the nonprofit arboretum team plans to raise funds for operations costs for the space.
The National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., a nearly 100-year-old arboretum home to the Grove of State Trees, has an annual budget of $11 million and 650,000 annual visitors.
Nirenberg said the City of San Antonio would contribute $400,000 toward a tree nursery at Arboretum San Antonio, saying while the city has many types of green spaces, it’s missing one thing.
“We have city parks, we have county parks, we have neighborhood parks where children and families can enjoy the outdoors — they’re all different,” Nirenberg said. “We even have natural preserves where we don’t want that many people to trample the ground. What we don’t have is a place, a theater, a museum of trees. That’s the arboretum.”
