Binational River Park between Texas and Mexico selects Overland Partners to create design plan

A deliberate 6.3-mile-long park straddling the Rio Grande River alongside america–Mexico border is rapidly coming along with the announcement that San Antonio-based structure and concrete design agency Overland Companions, working alongside native associate In a position Metropolis, have been tapped to create conceptual design plans for the primary section of the ecological restoration challenge.

As detailed in a press launch, the companies have been unanimously chosen by the Laredo Metropolis Council and members of Binational Working Group, a public-private consortium, earlier this month. On February 18, a website plan, aerial renderings, and eye stage views for a one-mile stretch alongside the Rio Grande, often called the Rio Bravo in Mexico, have been introduced by the design crew to the Binational Working Group, mayors, and neighborhood and enterprise leaders hailing from each Laredo, the tenth most populous metropolis in Texas and the third-most populous American metropolis alongside the southern border, and the Mexican metropolis of Nuevo Laredo, the third-most populous metropolis within the state of Tamaulipas. The 2 cities, which collectively kind a bustling and economically very important commerce border crossing, are linked by three worldwide vehicular bridges and a rail bridge over the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo.

Francisco Javier García Cabeza de Vaca, the governor of Tamaulipas, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar, and U.S. Consul Common for Nuevo Laredo Deanna Kim have been additionally current on the February 18 assembly.

“The journey has begun, and we’re ecstatic to interact to start with phases of this rewarding challenge alongside our sister metropolis of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas,” mentioned Laredo Mayor Pete Saenz in an announcement shared by the Laredo Morning Instances following the presentation. “We had the respect of welcoming U.S. Ambassador for Mexico Ken Salazar and presenting him with our concepts and imaginative and prescient for the Binational River Park.”

The February 18 presentation adopted a three-day workshop held from February 7 to 9 by which Overland Companions and In a position Metropolis, joined by specialists from OLIN and ARUP together with regional engineering companies Crane Engineering and LAN Hydrology, met with members of the Binational Working Group and native stakeholders “to grasp challenge wants and research the encompassing bodily context.” In whole, over 35 folks participated in that workshop, which included visioning workout routines and website visits and resulted “in a unified idea of the Binational River Park.”

Ensuing from that workshop was a project-guiding mission assertion:

The Binational River Park on the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo in Laredo and Nuevo Laredo connects and celebrates our frequent tradition on america and Mexico border. It reclaims our shared historical past, spurs the financial system, promotes safety on each side of the river, and restores the ecological treasure we name house. The primary of its sort, this worldwide conservation challenge enhances our high quality of life and serves as a prototype for border cities all over the world to comply with. Two nations, one neighborhood. One river. One park.

“We’re impressed by the Binational River Park and excited by the distinctive challenges an aspirational challenge of this magnitude presents – environmentally, socially, and culturally,” mentioned Rick Archer, senior principal and CEO at Overland Companions. “Along with our companions and stakeholders, we need to create a world cultural vacation spot and mannequin for cooperation, conservation, and neighborhood.”

Whereas plans for the Binational River Park, which was first publicly introduced in early December 2021, are nonetheless within the early conceptual levels, it has been envisioned as being just like San Antonio’s famed River Stroll, with Overland Companions describing the challenge as one that can “re-establish the river’s ecosystem, revitalize the financial system, add cultural belongings, reminiscent of public artwork, and entice tourism on each side of the river, remodeling the area into a particular worldwide landmark that joins two communities and nations into one.”

“Rivers are sources of life, they’re sources of tradition, heritage and historical past, and when correctly embraced, they could be a place the place folks congregate and are available collectively,” the Laredo Morning Instances reported San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg as saying late final December when he joined Laredo Mayor Saenz, Nuevo Laredo Mayor Carmen Lilia Canturosas, and others to announce the challenge. “So the work that can happen on this stunning binational park that brings this essential river again to its life and prominence is a chance once more for us to determine an necessary future that america has with Mexico.”

Though a challenge timetable or prices for the Binational River Park haven’t been formally introduced, the challenge is anticipated to value $100 million or extra.

Whereas the thought for a binational park alongside the U.S.­–Mexico border is definitely each promising and distinctive, it wouldn’t be technically the primary.

Established in 1971 as a welcoming place for family and friends members separated by the border to see one another and converse in particular person, the half-acre Friendship Park straddles San Diego, the place it’s a part of Border Area State Park, and Tijuana. The U.S. facet, nonetheless, shuttered throughout the pandemic and stays closed to guests. (Even earlier than the pandemic, entry to the park on the U.S. facet had turn out to be way more restricted starting within the mid-Nineteen Nineties when U.S. Border Patrol ramped up safety measures alongside the San Diego-Tijuana border.) As soon as a spot of cross-border bonhomie, Friendship Park was certainly one of 13 endangered and under-threat landscapes included within the 2021 version of The Cultural Panorama Basis’s annual Landslide report.