San Antonio Botanical Garden Strategic Master Plan

San Antonio Botanical Garden charged Reed Hilderbrand with developing a Strategic Master Plan to reimagine 38 acres of gardens and support their mission to become a leading horticultural organization while remaining uniquely San Antonio. 

This plan outlines recommendations for action over a 10- to 15-year period to strengthen community connections and implement site improvements. Key principles emerged during the process to guide the Garden's ambitions for the next decade and beyond—bringing plants forward to inspire and welcome all, centering conservation, expanding access, and enriching lives through meaningful engagement with the Garden.

An interdisciplinary process formed a foundation for this effort, involving substantial community input and listening by the design team and the Garden’s leadership. Together, we dreamed of gardens.

Place and History

Located near the historic Brackenridge Park and San Antonio’s Cultural Corridor, the Garden is a living museum and an oasis within the City.

Once the site of San Antonio Water Works, a privately owned water supply company in the late 1800s, the Garden sits at the headwaters of the San Antonio River. This legacy of water runs deep, with hydrological expression evident in the lake at the Texas Native Trail, the acequia on the ridgeline, and the amphitheater which traces the footprint of the original historic reservoir.

Drawing from this unique hydrological history, the Strategic Masterplan strengthens the site’s expression of water and creates moments of pause with ambient cooling throughout the Garden, providing comfort, respite and delight for visitors.

Strategic Master Plan

Reed Hilderbrand arrived at San Antonio Botanical Garden on the heels of the successful GROW Capital Campaign which welcomes visitors through a suite of horticultural experiences — the rich Texas Native Trails, a hands-on Zachry Culinary Garden, and the joyful Family Adventure Garden. 

Furthering this legacy of care and excitement which now greets visitors, the new plan contemplates how to renew outdated areas of the Garden. It returns attention to the Texas Native Trails and manages for the stresses of success from expanded programs and increased visitation. The addition of the West Texas Garden highlights the Garden's extensive conservation and collection work in the area, and celebrates ecosystems unique to Texas and the four ecoregions which converge at the Edwards Plateau in San Antonio.

Tying into the success of the 2019 addition of the Zachry Culinary Garden, there are two expanded culinary and cultivation opportunities: one at the Community Vegetable Garden, re-envisioned with accessible beds and additional classroom spaces, and the other with the addition of a vineyard in the Texas Hill Country area, reflecting the history and legacy of vinoculture in Texas.

The Pollinator Meadow and Garden and Horticulture Campus

Our work envisions new and refreshed spaces across the Garden, including the Pollinator Meadow and Garden, the Horticulture Campus, and an Education and Conservation Building that will reinvigorate the northwest corner of the site. The sweeping 2.5-acre Pollinator Meadow and Garden will become the new heart of the Garden, creating a vital link between the historic Carriage House Restaurant and the Overlook. This landscape will feature ribbons of pollinator-focused plantings, meandering paths that foster a sense of discovery and delight, and seeps and seat walls beneath canopy trees to provide shade and ambient cooling for visitors.

The Pollinator Meadow and Garden will create the foreground for a new, iconic Education and Conservation Building envisioned by Solid Objectives Idenburg Liu (SO-IL). This building will house classrooms, a seed bank and a library, offering opportunities to educate and engage visitors by revealing the Garden’s back-of-house and growing operations. Together, these spaces embody the Garden’s mission to “grow, conserve, and engage.” Conceived of as a connector, the building links the high-performance operations of the Horticulture Campus with the meandering, experiential qualities of the public gardens, while also addressing the need for expanded event space to support public programming. Designed to unite many forces within the Garden, it will create opportunities for learning, observation, and engagement across all levels of activity.

The Horticulture Campus serves as the center of production and cultivation within the Garden, housing not only plants on display but also staff who carry out essential, behind-the-scenes work. A well-functioning campus that balances public access with staff efficiency and privacy will ensure that the Garden’s growing operations continue to support successful garden displays, educational programs, and plant sale events.

Community Engagement

The Strategic Master Plan also advances recommendations to further the Garden's community engagement practices with focus on the Garden’s internal community of staff and leadership, as well as the broader community of immediate neighbors, San Antonio residents, and visitors from around the world.

The planning process incorporated a range of engagement formats, including community workshops, free community days, and a lunch with Community Partners to better understand how the Garden can support diverse programming needs. These efforts allowed the team to gather critical input on the community’s vision for the Garden, alongside insights from staff and leadership regarding day-to-day operational needs and long-term alignment around conservation, public engagement, and institutional growth.

Glass Houses

Working closely with the Garden, Reed Hilderbrand has redesigned the interior of two of the five glass houses, originally designed by architect Emilio Ambasz in 1984.

The new exhibits reflect the Garden's mission to place greater emphasis on community, education, and conservation. The gardens of the Orchid Pavilion and Tropical Room are designed to teach, awe, and inspire while immersing people in the world of plants.

The Orchid Pavilion

The Orchid Pavilion display will feature a growing collection of orchids from around the globe. Cloud forest environments, particularly from the mountainous regions of Central and South America, are its inspiration. Each garden element is carefully designed for the purpose of displaying orchids, taking into account the variety of growing medium and light conditions, and to maximize space within the room while bringing the unique flowers to eye-level with observers, encouraging a closer look at these incredible flower structures.

The Tropical Room

The Tropical Room display will feature a collection of edible and useful tropical plants. This design is inspired by the human connection to plants, how we use plants to nourish our bodies, and the ability of plants to build community and deepen our relationships with each other. The elevated walkway traverses through multiple levels of tropical plants, many of which are familiar through food or product. The room is centered by a tamarind tree, a symbolic center of community.