Remember the Alamo? Not this way

Remember the Alamo? Soon it won’t look the way you recall it.

If you’ve lived in Texas for any length of time, you’ve heard “That doesn’t look anything like I thought it would” or a variation of that complaint countless times from new visitors to the state’s most historic shrine.

The historic and archeological treasure sits humbly in the heart of San Antonio surrounded by Ripley’s Haunted Adventure, Tomb Rider 3D, the Guinness World Records Museum, T-shirt vendors, souvenir shops and bustling city streets

For about the past two years, a special Alamo commission has been working earnestly on a master plan to restore the historic mission and give visitors a better sense of what it looked like at the time of the 1836 battle. Included is a planned 135,000-square-foot four-story museum on the west side of the plaza, which would house the artifact collection bequeathed to Texas by musician Phil Collins, among other relics and memorabilia.

This week, the Alamo Master Plan Management Committee released design renderings of the proposed plan for the Alamo complex. The stated intent is to “restore reverence and dignity to one of the most historic battlefields in the United States while capturing the imagination of all ages and all cultures, for generations to come.”

The vision: Aerial view looking northeast

Interpreting the South Wall and Gate — A sense of arrival

Recapturing the historic mission plaza

A new civic space: Plaza de Valero

A sense of enclosure

Alamo promenade

La Plaza and the Crockett block

The renderings were released on Tuesday at a public meeting in San Antonio. The public can provide feedback at the next meeting on Tuesday at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Room 225, 900 E. Market Street, San Antonio; via the website Reimagine the Alamo; or by email at info@reimaginethealamo.org.

This story was originally published April 13, 2017 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Remember the Alamo? Not this way."