The Pearl named a revolutionary urban development

5. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Campus, Seattle – The campus has two acres of vegetated roofs on parking structures, which feature edible plants like blueberries, huckleberries and red flowering currant. There's also an intricate rainwater filtering system and 46 solar hot water collectors, saving energy along with birds. The second-largest LEED-NC Platinum building in the world helps restore 40 percent of the campus back to being a wild bird habitat. less 5. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Campus, Seattle – The campus has two acres of vegetated roofs on parking structures, which feature edible plants like blueberries, huckleberries and red flowering ... more Photo: JORDAN STEAD, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: JORDAN STEAD, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 36 Caption Close The Pearl named a revolutionary urban development 1 / 36 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO -- The oh-so-chic Pearl Brewery has been named a top architecture project known to revolutionize city life.

The website, Mashable, ranked The Pearl as fourth in the country because of its notable transition from abandoned brewery to popular social venue.

The Pearl now houses an amphitheater, restaurants, varying from Italian to seafood to barbecue, retail stores and the Culinary Institute of America, all overlooking the River Walk.

Elizabeth Fauerso, chief marketing officer for Pearl, said the area is revolutionary because it is "dense," in that it offers living, dining and shopping areas in one place.

"We see Pearl as being an anchor of that kind of density here in Midtown," she said.

Although the 22-acre area is seen as modern and hip now, the 67,000 square-foot building was once seen as an outdated eye sore.

The Pearl Brewing Company closed its doors in 1985, ending an era of what used to be the largest brewery in Texas, according to the Pearl's website. Pabst Brewing Company took over that year, but shut down in 2001.

Since then, a large development project revitalized the area, making it into an emporium located on San Antonio's Museum Reach.

"What's special about Pearl, is that it's not just a new development that was kind of invented by us, it's building on top of a history that's meaningful to San Antonio," Fauerso said. "We're creating the next chapter of that history."

Mashable, a website that offers news, information and resources for the "Connected Generation," ranks New York City's East River Blueway Plan as No. 1. The project will be the foundation for an interconnected network of waterfront sites, according to the project's website. A four-mile strip of Manhattan along the East River will offer wetlands and pedestrian walkways.

Ranked second is the Bud Clark Commons, which offers 130 studio apartments for homeless men and women. The Commons also offers a 90-bed transitional shelter for men unable to afford an apartment. The shelter provides sleeping, living and dining areas, as well as food storage facilities and bathrooms. A resource center offers various services for the tenants' minds and bodies. The Commons building is LEED Platinum-certified, and it uses greywater recycling, zero stormwater runoff and solar hot water.

The Creative Corridor in Little Rock, Arkansas is ranked third. The project will incorporate an artistic element in the city's neglected Main Street. Non-traffic social services, restaurants, assembly centers and recreational centers will be added in the area.

Ranked fifth is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Campus in Seattle. The campus, which was once held streetcars and buses, now hosts buildings eco-friendly buildings. Vegetated roofs sit on top of buildings, along with edible plants like blueberries and huckleberries, to house a wild bird habitat.

Last on the list is the construction of a vertical gym in Caracas, Venezuela. In the high-crime Barrio La Cruz neighborhood, a vertical gym houses training areas, tracks and soccer fields stacked on top of each other. Its builders, Urban-Think Tank, say crime has declined in the area by 30 percent, and sees about 15,000 visitors a month.

Click through the slideshow to see Mashable's "6 architecture projects that revolutionize city life," as well as The Pearl's features.



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