{"id":227624,"date":"2025-09-15T02:22:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T02:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/227624\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T02:22:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T02:22:28","slug":"san-antonios-tobin-land-bridge-wins-prestigious-architects-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/227624\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio’s Tobin Land Bridge wins prestigious architects award"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Robert L. B. Tobin Land Bridge at Phil Hardberger Park, the first dual-purpose bridge in the U.S., has won the American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award<\/a> for General Design.<\/p>\n

Completed in 2020, the land bridge spans 175 feet across Wurzbach Parkway on the city\u2019s North Side. It reconnects a bisected tract of Hardberger Park, restores an ecological sanctuary along the longest creek corridor in Bexar County and reduces traffic collisions with wildlife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bridge accommodates both wildlife and humans,\u201d said Melissa Kazen, executive director for the Phil Hardberger Park Conservancy. \u201cThere may be other dual crossings (in other cities) now, but we were the first.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ASLA Honor Award, announced on Sept. 5, will be presented to land bridge architects Stimson Studio<\/a> in October at the annual ASLA Conference in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe set out to create something more than infrastructure \u2014 an extension of the land, a new home for native species and a place for people to reconnect,\u201d Stimson founder Stephen Stimson said in a statement. \u201cThis award affirms that mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opening to the public in 2010, Phil Hardberger Park existed as two parcels with six lanes of Wurzbach Parkway slicing through the landscape, causing fatal collisions with wildlife.<\/p>\n

The land bridge was financed through a voter-approved $13 million bond in 2017 and $10 million in grants and donations. The bridge opened in December 2020.<\/p>\n

The ASLA awards page commends the land bridge for diversifying the habitat with more than 50 reintroduced species.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Robert L. B. Tobin Land Bridge spans 175 feet across and is the first in the U.S. that accommodates crossing for both humans and wildlife. Credit: Courtesy \/ Justin Moore at Airborne Aerial Photography<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the first anniversary of the bridge,\u201d the ASLA awards page says, \u201devery mammal species known to reside within the park was captured on the land bridge\u2019s trail cameras, including bobcat, white-tailed deer and ringtail cat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The page includes comment from the awards jury: \u201cThis project makes an incredibly difficult task of building a functional landscape on structure; creating a welcoming space over a highway; balancing the needs of humans and non-humans alike; and connecting ecological fragments look easy. This is an impressive ecological investment by the community, and a well-executed project by the Landscape Architect and design team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kazen said the bridge has won state and regional awards. Recognition from ASLA, however, is the bridge\u2019s first national award.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope this will help other communities solve habitat fragmentation and wildlife vehicle collisions in an innovative way,\u201d she said. \u201cThey can look at what we\u2019ve done here in San Antonio.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Robert L. B. Tobin Land Bridge at Phil Hardberger Park, the first dual-purpose bridge in the U.S.,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":227625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,122925,122926,122927,7202,7203,122928,358,3187,7815,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,11887],"class_list":{"0":"post-227624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-american-society-of-landscape-architects","10":"tag-phil-hardberger-park","11":"tag-robert-l-b-tobin-land-bridge","12":"tag-san-antonio","13":"tag-sanantonio","14":"tag-stimson-studio","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-typedaily","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa","24":"tag-wc-less-than-500"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115205933869513479","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}