Floodgate is a distinctly modern 17-story mixed-use building along San Antonio’s historic River Walk featuring 63 apartment units. Designed for a dense urban site, asymmetrical floor plates twist across three stacked tiers, responding to unique views from the site and providing optimal sunlight to the River Walk below.
Rethinking The Future Awards 2026
Third Award | Housing (over 5 floors) (Built )
Project Name: Floodgate
Category: Housing (over 5 floors) (Built )
Studio Name: Rhode Partners
Design Team: Rhode Partners
Area: 100,000 sf
Year: 2025
Location: San Antonio, TX
Consultants:
BUILDER/CONTRACTOR: Jordan Foster Construction
ARCHITECT: Rhode Partners
INTERIOR DESIGN: Keller Henderson
FFE/A: Keller Henderson
CIVIL ENGINEER & LANDSCAPE: Pape Dawson
STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: DCI Engineers
MEP ENGINEER: Schmidt Stacy Consulting Engineers
Photography Credits: Chase Daniel
Render Credits:
Other Credits:
A harmonious relationship to the historic structures framing the project is established through compatible materials that align with and borrow from proportions found in neighboring façades—locally sourced limestone and U.S.-made sintered stone.
The lower two levels of the building feature a residential lobby and a two-level restaurant space with outdoor dining along the River Walk. A fully autonomous vehicle parking system, housed on two levels above the ground floor, is the first implementation of this technology in Texas and designed to convert to apartments when parking needs become obsolete.
At the river level, the limestone block of a historic floodwall is recycled into a new series of walls and portals maintaining the original wall line, creating a permeable edge between the walk and outdoor seating for the lower restaurant. Floating above this patio is a balcony for the upper restaurant, which also provides outdoor seating in a dramatically narrow space along the sidewalk next to the newly exposed stone demising wall of the adjacent building, connecting East Commerce Street to the River Walk.
In revitalizing a previously neglected section of this beloved civic space, Floodgate creates a new paradigm for downtown development—one that balances private investment with public benefit, historical reverence with contemporary expression.
