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Bronze statue of Robert L.B.Tobin by Norman Boyles,  (2001) at the trailhead in Robert L.B. Tobin Park 

Whodunnit

How the Tobin Center was born Genesis September 14, 2014 The Tobin Center’s opening was the culmination of a process that began in 2003 with the city’s creation of a committee called the Cultural Collaborative. Its charge: Develop a cultural plan for San Antonio. In 2006 a consultant hired by the Cultural Collaborative to study the city’s venue needs recommended building a performing arts “campus” with large and small concert halls, a separate theater for opera and dance, a black-box theater, a rehearsal space and an educational facility.    In 2007, Bexar County Commissioners Court planned to ask voters to extend the county visitor tax, which soon would fulfill its original mission of footing the bill for the AT&T Center. Projects to be funded by the extension included construction of the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River Improvements, an assortment of amateur sports facilities and upgrades for Freeman Coliseum and the AT&T center. Those would become Propositions 1-3 to be presented to the voters in May 2008.  County Judge Nelson Wolff and then-Mayor Phil Hardberger — both strong supporters of the arts — wanted to include funding for a performing arts center. They hatched a plan: If the voters approved Proposition 4, the city would contribute the site (initially, they had in mind the  southwest corner of HemisFair Park), county visitor tax revenues would pay $110 million of the construction cost. And the rest? Mr. Wolff and Mr. Hardberger buttonholed J.Bruce Bugg Jr., chairman of the Tobin Endowment. That sizable pot of money was the legacy of Robert L.B. Tobin, an internationally important art collector and a major patron of the Metropolitan Opera and Santa Fe Opera. In his youth, Tobin had been a stalwart participant, offstage and on, in the San Antonio Symphony’s grand opera festivals in the Municipal Auditorium. (His wealth came from the company his father founded, Tobin Aerial Surveys, the favored mapping service of oil and gas companies. Robert managed the company after his father’s death in 1954. Robert died in 2000.)  Mr. Bugg quickly organized the Bexar County Performing Arts Center Foundation, whose mission would be to raise private-sector money to supplement the public investment and to own and operate the facility.   Consultant Bud Franks, who had conducted a feasibility study for the Cultural Collaborative, was brought in again. Given the proposed $110 million from the county and his reading of the potential in private gifts, Mr. Franks scaled back the scope of the project. He thought  it realistic to plan for a multipurpose hall seating 1,600, a recital hall seating 500, and an educational facility with a rehearsal space. He pegged the minimum capital budget at $140 million, including $10 million for a capital reserve. Commissioners Court decided to include money for the Briscoe Western Art Museum and renovations to the Alameda Theater in Proposition 4, leaving $100 million in public funds for the proposed performing arts center.  The new foundation would have to raise $40 million. By May 2008, when the tax extension went to the voters, the site had shifted to Municipal Auditorium and the Fire Department Headquarters across the street, with a combined appraised value of $41 million.   All four propositions passed handily. (The county later added $8 million to pay for the Medal of Honor Walk on the west edge of the auditorium site, raising the county’s total contribution to $108 million.) The new foundation decided to add two features that Mr. Franks’s figures had not anticipated — a  catering kitchen and an ingenious floor system that could transform in less than half an hour from conventional raked seating to terraces or a flat floor for banquets. The foundation would have to raise an additional $11 million to pay for these features, but they would give the new center a shot at more revenues from rentals. The fiscal history of other performing arts centers suggests the decision was wise.  Eventually, the Bexar County Performing Arts Center Foundation committed to raising $54 million, including $10 million for the capital reserve. The biggest contributor, to no one’s surprise, was the Tobin Endowment, with a $15 million challenge grant. (As of the end of August, the capital reserve was still about $2 million shy of the goal, according to Mike Fresher, the Tobin Center’s president and CEO.) The scope of the project was further refined after the election as architects, acousticians and theater planners studied the site and the program.   Final tally: The H-E-B Performance Hall can seat 1,759 (including wheelchair positions) for concerts, 1,689 or 1,589 for operas and musicals requiring a pit. The Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater is an (almost-)black (eight-sided) box that can be configured in many ways; its capacity is said to be 230, but for most performances it is likely to seat 150-180. River Walk Plaza, equipped with a giant video screen, is an outdoor venue that can hold 600. The basement and second floor of the former Fire Department headquarters (originally the Martin Wright Electric Co. Building) serve as office space. Negotiations are under way to lease the street floor to a restaurant.  Construction cost, excluding the capital reserve, was about $144 million — in the middle of the pack for modern facilities of comparable scope. In addition, a 510-space parking garage is expected to open next summer on Fourth Street a block east of the Tobin Center. It is likely to cost about $14 million, to be funded by a combination of city, county and private sources.  Early estimates projected completion in spring of 2014. Actual completion came a few months later than that, but in the realm of major performing arts facilities three months behind schedule counts as 18 months ahead of schedule. Construction faced no cost overruns. That counts as a miracle. Mike Greenberg

What’s where at the Tobin: Interactive map with photos

How to weave a mantilla

Former San Antonio Fire Department headquarters (originally the Martin Wright Electric Co. Building) has been converted to office space for the Tobin Center and several resident companies. Ground floor might become a restaurant.

In new stage for arts, design runs deep