Texas Architect

Recast Pearl

PROJECT Pearl Stable, San Antonio
CLIENT Rio Perla Properties
ARCHITECT Ford, Powell & Carson Architects and Planners
DESIGN TEAM Chris Carson, FAIA; Jeffrey Fetzer, AIA; Ellen Berky, AIA; Kimberly Mercer, Assoc. AIA
CONTRACTOR Metropolitan Contracting Company
CONSULTANTS Danysh & Associates (structural); Goetting & Associates (MEP); Pape-Dawson Engineers (civil); Rialto Studio (landscape); Lang Lighting Design (lighting); Texas Scenic Co. (theatrical lighting); Acoustic Dimensions (acoustics/AV); Sound Distributors (AV design); Courtney & Company (interior); Project Control of Texas (project manager)
PHOTOGRAPHER Paul Bardajgy

Upon seeing the newly renovated Pearl Stable, one can fully appreciate the grace with which past generations imbued even the most prosaic of structures. The stable building was originally constructed in 1894 to house the horses that pulled the beer wagons of the Pearl Brewing Company. The elegance of the original two-story elliptical structure derives from the simplicity of its plan - with horse stalls arranged on the ground floor around its perimeter and its core - and the richness of the corbelled and patterned brick on the exterior. The second floor served as the hay loft from which feed could be dropped through the chutes to the horses below. At the center of the roof was a handsome cupola that provided ventilation to the stables.

The structure remained a functioning stable for approximately 30 years until the horse-drawn beer wagons were phased out in favor of motorized delivery vehicles. The building was then converted to a storage facility. In the 1950s the stable was again converted to a new use when it was transformed into a hospitality room for the brewery and renamed the Pearl Corral. With this conversion the wooden second-floor structure was removed and replaced with steel framing to support the roof load and provide a high-volume interior. To emphasize the hospitality room's Old West theme, the steel columns were fashioned to appear as giant cacti and a facade replica of Judge Roy Bean's "Law West of the Pecos" residence/saloon/courthouse was constructed as a backdrop for the stage. That latter insertion undoubtedly was the origin of the name of the stable's next incarnation, another hospitality room known as the Jersey Lilly. The stable building served in this capacity from 1971 until 2000 when the Pearl Brewing Company ceased operations in San Antonio and sold the entire 26-acre property.

The new owners are transforming the historic brewery into a lively mixed-use complex. Located on the north side of San Antonio's downtown in close proximity to another converted brewery - the San Antonio Museum of Art, formerly the home of Lone Star Beer - the complex features several types of structures. Dominating the site is the main brewery building, a massive brick pile currently under renovation that shares a similar Victorian architectural expression with the stable. New tenants of the mixed-use complex include a culinary institute and a restaurant, with housing and office space expected to be completed soon. Pearl Stable now serves as a function room that can be rented for special events, such as the AIA San Antonio Design Awards that were held there last fall.

As noted by Jeffrey Fetzer, AIA, project architect for Ford Powell & Carson Architects' renovation of the stable, "the overall complex is being developed to express the flavor of the industrial legacy of the site." The use of levelers from the brew tanks as site bollards is just one example of the incorporation of recycled elements in the design of the site that recall the history of the brewery. A reclaimed brew tank serves as a cistern to harvest half of the roof drainage for on-site irrigation.

Over the years unsympathetic modifications were made to the stable building, including the removal of the entry's elaborately detailed brick pediment, painting of the exterior brick, removal of wooden windows that were replaced with aluminum windows or in-filled with brick, and removal of the cupola. The task of converting the historic stable required minor exterior modifications to accommodate the building's new use, and its interior was transformed to provide an elegant venue for functions without losing the sense of the building's lengthy history. As part of the exterior renovation, the pediment was reconstructed and a cupola similar to the original was installed. The paint was removed from the brick but the original stain that highlighted the brick corbelling was retained. New wood windows similar to the original windows were inserted in some of the original openings. The interior was reconfigured by the architects to create an elliptical assembly space - that matches the outline of the old hospitality rooms - within the larger elliptical structure. The space between the two elliptical shapes is dedicated to pre-function activities and services such as kitchens, restrooms, and backstage areas.

As if there weren't enough challenges in adapting the historic structure to a new use, accommodating the service entry also posed a significant problem - the building's elliptical geometry, combined with its central location within the complex, does not provide for a "back of the house" where services can be neatly hidden from view. The design team met the challenge by dressing up the service entries with materials similar to those found throughout the project - such as the vertical- grain fir doors - without creating confusion as to the location of the front door. Fetzer and the design team also faced problems related to the incorporation of MEP systems. Because the owner wanted the original wooden roof structure exposed and visible from the interior spaces, there was no place to conceal lighting and other systems. The solution employed by the design team was to construct a second roof below the parapet but above the original roof structure which created an interstitial space in which the systems were concealed.

To express the brewery's legacy inside the building, old beer bottles found on the site were incorporated into the design of the chandelier and other light fixtures. Glass from broken beer bottles also was used as aggregate for the terrazzo and bar countertops. Furthermore, a few horse stalls were recreated inside the main assembly space opposite the stage to recall the building's original use. The stage backdrop honors another moment in the building's history by incorporating a false facade of Judge Roy Bean's house that cleverly conceals a ramp to the stage.

Meticulously returned to its former glory, Pearl Stable's beautiful historic structure now offers twenty-first-century patrons the opportunity to inhabit a space that, while common enough to accommodate horses in the nineteenth century, is uniquely elegant today.

--Doug Lipscomb, AIA, practices with Marmon Mok Architecture in San Antonio.