Spotlight: Big Three

San Antonio Riverwalk

Texas’ three big cities always offer something new. San Antonio, Texas’ historic city, has been revitalizing its long overlooked Main Plaza with $18 million in improvements. It’s again the center of civic life, with concerts, outdoor movies and events. The city’s also working on its famed River Walk, adding waterfalls, art installations and sound recordings to the linear urban park. Once famous for sprawl, Houston’s downtown continues to boom. An expanding light-rail line makes it possible to see the city’s famed museums, like the Museum of Fine Arts, sample its restaurants and take in its cutting-edge theater, all without getting in the car. The new AT&T Performing Arts Center puts Dallas on the cultural map. It includes a new opera house, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Norman Foster, and a theater center, designed by Rem Koolhaas, another Pritzker winner. The district has been called the most important arts center to open since New York’s Lincoln Center.