Mexican American Cultural Center

CIP 834-867-0600

Summary

The Mexican American Cultural Center is to be dedicated to the preservation, creation, presentation, and promotion of Mexican American cultural arts and heritage. The center will be a tremendous resource for the local community and visiting tourists. Through education and community participation, the center will foster a meaningful understanding and appreciation of Chicano, Native American, and other Latino cultures with their respective artistic expressions. The programs and education curriculum will include the areas of visual art, theater, dance, literature, music, multi-media, and the culinary arts. The MACC will be designed to create a safe and beautiful place for youth, adults, and seniors to spend their time creatively and pleasurably. Ultimately a large 800 seat theater, a small 300 seat theater, an outdoor Plaza, a two story education/exhibit/rehearsal/office building and a two story parking garage will be built.

Status

Design of Phase I of the Master Plan started in May 2001.

Issues

To build out the entire site could take $45,000,000; only $7,500,000 is available for construction of Phase I.

Description

This is a great undertaking and in order to develop a long-term plan for the development of the site, we developed a Master Plan to better help us design the first Phase of the MACC. In an effort to receive community input as to what the MACC should be, we held a series of community meetings on July 29th and 30th. A second public workshop was held on September 9th. In those workshops, as we called them, there was tremendous interest from the citizens in developing the connection not only of the MACC to the Hike & Bike Trail, but the further development and improvement of the Hike & Bike Trail in that part of Town Lake. Further more, the development of a trail and a bridge on both sides of Waller Creek was just as important to the community. On October 9, 2000 the consultants presented to the public the basic Master Plan design based on the last workshop. It was enthusiastically accepted.

The Master Plan was completed and presented to City Council on December 14, 2000.

Phase I will be the design and construction of an outdoor Plaza to accommodate 2,000 people. It will also have a two story structure to house offices with classrooms/meeting rooms. A multi-purpose building will be designed and constructed that will seat 300 people for a performance or 150 for a sit down dinner. Associated surface parking and landscaping will also be part of Phase I.

Basic Data

• Project Manager: Paul Medrano, AIA, Department of Public Works, 974-7141
• Designer: CasaBella & Del Campo + Maru, Joint Venture
• Appropriation Amount: $10,900,000
• Construction Estimate: $7,500,000 to $8,000,000
• Preliminary Phase: July 2000 - May 2001 (Master Plan and Cost Estimating)
• Design Phase of Phase I: May 2001 - March 2002
• Bid Phase: March 2002 - July 2002
• Contract Award: July 2002
• Contract Execution: July 2002 - August 2002
• Construction: August 2002 - September 2003
• Warranty Phase: September 2003 - September 2004

Back to the July 2001 Downtown Report