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Home>Meeting Professionals>Convention Facilities>Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center>Naturescapes

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Convention Center Naturescapes

Drawn from the story of San Antonio, the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center not only provides superior meeting space, but also embodies the city’s rich history. Artful designs are carried outward to present a beautiful façade adorned with art niches, grottos and water features.

Aside from offering a River Walk location that provides many picturesque grottos and Tower of the Americas at HemisFair Park plazas (perfect for receptions), the Convention Center resides next to HemisFair Park, the lingering home of San Antonio’s World’s Fair in 1968. It was an epic celebration of cultural heritage that signified San Antonio as the gateway to Latin America. Today HemisFair Park’s 92 acres have been beautifully preserved and reinvigorated with contemporary art pieces. Among these you’ll find broken stair benches amidst the hillside with blue and white decorative tiles that entice patrons to sit and rest between afternoon sessions. Along the park side of the Center, brightly colored works of modern art appear to have sprung from the earth as flowers from the rich South Texas soil. Across bridges of stone, mortar and iron—an art of function—are plazas that lead to the commerce of the city. Here, towering skyscrapers can be seen through the high arching branches of trees, and turn of the century homes from behind stately trunks. HemisFair Park is also home to the 750-foot-tall Tower of the Americas which has a café, observation deck, 4-D theatre that takes visitors on a high-flying trip across the Lone Star State and upscale dining at a level above all the rest.

The flawless integration from pristine San Antonio park to a captivating Convention Center is one of many reasons San Antonio is a convention destination like nowhere else. Out of the Convention Center’s limestone walls, art niches have been carved and filled with portrayals of San Antonio. Each nook is a window into the soul of the city, from mosaic cactus sculptures and brightly depicted murals of the San Antonio River to an iron sculpture of St. Anthony for whom San Antonio was named symbolizing the city’s birth upon the mission of Christianity. Also among the recesses of this great gathering place lies a poem of pictures and words: “If this land could tell us stories… Canta no llores llorona aqui stanzas tus hijos mestizas.” The languages of Spanish and English blend seamlessly as they do in the streets of San Antonio.

Convention Center Fountains The visual beauty of these pieces is accompanied by the sounds of water falls, a feature reminiscent of why original settlers flocked to this region—the life giving force of the San Antonio River. As each bead of water descends into the pools below, creating a symphony as artful as its appearance, the native landscape of live oaks and indigenous foliage creates shaded arbors for guests. A lit paradise in the evenings, a calm awakening for each morning. On the Convention Center’s east wall is a work entitled, Mustangs at Noon, which is a play on light. At midday, a series of five sculptural wall pieces suspended from the wall use the Texas sunlight to cast shadows of life-sized mustangs that appear to be running alongside the Convention Center. As the day progresses, they disappear only to run again the next day.

With attributes like these, the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center is more than a place where people come together, more than a source of commerce for a thriving culture, more than the designs of its architects and artists—it tells the stories of the people of San Antonio and welcomes visitors to become a part of the tale.

S.A.V.E.

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Copyright (c) 2011 by City of San Antonio. Any party wishing to reproduce content displayed on this website must obtain the express written permission of the San Antonio Convention and Visitors Bureau. Phone: (800) 447-3372