San Marcos — The unique, one of a kind, tubular-flower petal shaped sculptures at Aquarena Center are in peril.  Their future lies in the hands of Texas State officials that are planning their demise in the near future and prompts the question, "Why?"  The flowers still retain a certain aura of their former luminescent, almost translucent glory.

Constructed in 1963 by renowned Hays County artist and inventor Buck Winn, the flower petal sculpture structure was to shade people waiting to board the new sky ride gondola from the hot Texas sun during the day and illuminate the area at night. San Marcos electrician Ted Breihan worked with Winn on the project to hook up the sky ride, fountain and petal sculpture with electricity.  

"It didn't work out too well," Breihan said, "The lights weren't very bright through the material he used."  

Seems Winn had worked for months out at the H. B. Zachery ranch perfecting a very light weight concrete and fiberglass material that would adhere to a rebar frame covered with wire mesh.  The sculpture was made in the form of a popular tubular floral shape and then sprayed with the fiberglass mixture.  Winn even patented the sprayer he invented for the process.  

The sculpture has 15 floral forms connected to metal pipes set in concrete and wired for light.  Six flowers are fastened together with a dome to cover the sky ride gondola.  Five flowers cover the waiting area and four cover the entrance.  

Over the years workers at Aquarena have cleaned the sculpture by painting it and not always with the same color, so the flowers have developed an interesting patina of peeling layers of differing color.  They would be impossible to move, but they could be cleaned (or not) and saved to mark the entrance to the boardwalk.  

The floral sculpture is around two pools; a large circular one with a smaller lower one in front, which have now been converted to wetlands garden ponds and  an outdoors classroom for field trip students.  As water gently spills from one pool to the other, the splashing sounds and soothing green plant life now create a serene scene for contemplation or instruction.

According to Texas State University spokesperson Mark Hendricks, the sculpture could be gone within the next six months. He said that over the past several years, the university has spoken to the Winn family, the Texas Historical Commission and other parties about taking the pieces away, but had no takers.

The university would still be open, he said, to giving the petal shaped sculptures away, but removal proves to be a challenging and expensive task.

Aquarena Springs was a popular resort owned and built by the Rogers family around the headwaters in the 1940s. The glass-bottom boats still run today, but most of the buildings exist in varying stages of decay, some damaged beyond repair by flooding waters and are all set for demolition.  

The floral sculptures, however, are built on higher ground, lifted up by a two-tired, stacked limestone wall, filled with soil and topped with a concrete pad, have escaped much of the destruction.  The same cannot be said of the fountain Winn was commissioned to create at the edge of Spring Lake at Aquarena Springs.  The kinetic fountain of tubes and pipes, formed whirling, spraying figures and included a curtain of water along the bank, behind which a central jet periodically shot a stream of water high into the air was damaged by numerous floods and finally dismantled. The flowers are the only sculpture that remains of Winn's works constructed for Aquarena.

Sadly, few of Buck Winn's other works remain as well.  Although his career spanned more than four decades from 1930 to 1972, his works of art were of such colossal size and constructed on buildings that many have been torn down.  What was a collection of 50 works has now dwindled to 18.  And believe it or not, some of his more famous ones are archived at Texas State.

Google Buck Winn and Texas State University pops up immediately.  Three panels or 75 feet of the History of Ranching mural painted for the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio were purchased by Texas State and are now archived there.  

In 1959 when Dr. J.G. Flowers, president of Southwest Texas State Teachers College wanted a mural for a new building on campus, who did he call but his friend, artist Buck Winn to sculpt a glass and carved concrete mural wall on what would be named Flowers Hall.

Flowers had also called upon Winn to create a base for the Fighting Stallions sculpture given by Anna Hyatt Huntington to Texas State in 1950.  When the sculpture arrived, it was completely unassembled and so large, it demanded a nine-foot base.  Long-time resident C.W. Wimberley had just the thing.  

Always the conservationist, he had rescued a chunk of blackened granite from the historic Texas Military Institute after it burned, but before it was razed.  Winn was able to construct a fabulous base from it taking reclaim, reuse and recycle to a new levelof artistic endeavor.

Whether by default or design, Texas State University has become the repository for Buck Winn's artistic creations.  What better setting for the floral sculpture than their original site — Aquarena Springs, marking the entrance to the boardwalk that is to remain after most of the buildings are razed.  

They could again shade benches for visitors taking respite from the hot Texas sun that just want to stop and rest a spell while visiting this historic spot.