A hand sculpture in San Antonio helps keep waterways clean by filtering stormwater runoff before it reaches the river.
SAN ANTONIO — A towering hand sculpture in downtown San Antonio is doing more than turning heads, it’s helping keep the city’s waterways clean.
The installation, called “Falling Water,” sits where the San Pedro and Apache Creeks meet, just beneath a busy overpass.
Created by New York-based artist Mark Reigelman and funded in partnership with Bexar County, the project was designed to catch and filter polluted stormwater runoff before it reaches the San Antonio River.
Whenever it rains, water from the highway above pours down through drainage holes, carrying motor oil, debris, and other contaminants. “Falling Water” intercepts that flow.
“Whenever it rains, water tends to trinkle through and all that water is really gross,” said Elisabeth Ibarra, a project office analyst with the San Antonio River Authority. “So you have all the debris and all the oils from the cars. So we want to make sure that doesn’t one, fall on pedestrians. And then, how can we find a way to filter that water?”
The metal sculpture collects runoff in its palm and channels it through an internal pipe system down into a bioretention pond—an engineered garden of native plants and soils that naturally filter toxins before the water returns to the creek.
“Essentially what a bio retention pond is, it’s a collection of natural plantings and soils to help naturally filter that water before it gets redirected back into the creek,” Ibarra explained.
The installation took several years to complete and involved a large team of engineers, landscape architects, local artists and community partners. Beyond its environmental function, the sculpture also adds cultural and visual interest to the west side of the creek, which has fewer art features than other parts of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park.
“There’s a ton of people and a ton of effort that goes into these specific projects—not to include the local artists that we involve in making sure that these artworks coincide with the way that San Antonio is,” Ibarra said.
The River Authority hopes the piece not only serves its practical purpose but inspires visitors to think differently about public infrastructure.
“Art is for everyone, and it can be so many different things in so many different ways,” Ibarra said. “This specific piece really helps us bring together both that environmental aspect on how important it is to take care of our environment… and how we can fully enjoy it.”
“Falling Water” is now open to the public as part of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park, offering a glimpse at what’s possible when creativity, engineering and sustainability converge.