San Antonio Roundup July 2025
Two big losses this year – the Texas Pavilion (Institute of Texan Cultures building) has succumbed to demolition, seemingly accelerated by the Conservation Society’s failed attempt to get an injunction or even a hearing at either District Court or the 15th Court of Appeals. The unfortunate precedent being set is clear – if you want to demolish a property, make sure it is owned by an institution of higher learning, because they have a special carve-out in the State Antiquities code and may be willing to enter into a transaction for that privilege.
That loss was followed by the lame duck City Council approving the Digital Arts and Media Pilot Program, a digital billboard scheme that was opposed by 71% of those surveyed. Now we will have 10 Times-Square styled digital billboards attached to buildings and accompanied by artwork. All because one billboard company couldn’t play by the rules. Sigh. You can read my earlier blog here.
Speaking of public opposition, the City just wrapped up a couple weeks of workshops on the proposed Sports and Entertainment District previously known as Project Marvel. (Side note: one of the ways you know something doesn’t have great public support is that you have to keep renaming it. The Digital Arts and Media Pilot Program used to be Urban Entertainment Districts). The Express-News today had a feature on the “No Project Marvel” movement. I attended workshop sessions and it was actually pretty tame and useful. I should note that the Conservation Society has not taken a position on the Sports and Entertainment District. Some people did use the mapping workshop as a mechanism to vent.
It has been a difficult and chaotic time for most things, including historic preservation funding, as I blogged about in May here. The historic preservation tax credit did survive the OBBB, along with New Market tax credits, and the 2025 Historic Preservation Fund money was finally released. Solar credits were cut though, dampening one of Texas’ leading industries and giving China a big advantage.
On the plus side, a very cool 1906 Craftsman building in my Beacon Hill neighborhood that we deliver newsletters to is becoming a local landmark. I call it the house of Seven Gables.
Also on the plus side, the design and planning for the Civil Rights exhibit in the Woolworth Building that is part of the new Alamo Visitor Center and Museum is coming along very well. Can’t preview it but safe to say some great stakeholder input and some excellent design.
The biggest news has been the killer floods which claimed 13 lives in San Antonio and then more than 100 in Kerr County on the 4th of July when the Guadalupe River gained 20 feet in an hour and a half. The grim total may well exceed 200 including the flash floods in Travis and other counties. A combination of changing climate, Hill Country geology and limited notification systems came together in this catastrophe which has made the news worldwide and caused great grief and sorrow.
Project Marvel
The new Mayor and City Council have been sworn in! We don’t really know how they feel about Project Marvel, the “sports and entertainment district” meant to link the Alamodome, Hemisfair and the Convention Center and provide a new home for the San Antonio Spurs, BUT we will hear how the public feels thanks to a series of workshops being held over the next three weeks in each of our 10 Council districts.
Here is the image of Project Marvel that was released last year and garnered the support of perhaps 41% of the public. Famously, the new Spurs stadium occupies the site where we failed to save the 1968 Texas Pavilion.
Our legacy media San Antonio Express News loves the project and endorsed it again this week. The schedule for the public workshops is here so that you can participate. And just to get the juices flowing, let’s take a look at ALL of the renderings of the project that have been released over the last year.
Whan That Aprille
In medieval Europe, one of the drivers of economic development was the practice of pilgrimage to holy shrines. The practice began in the 4th century when the Emperor Constantine developed pilgrimage sites in Jerusalem which remain successful today. While pilgrimages to Jerusalem were largely ended with the Fall of Acre in 1291, Rome remained a popular pilgrimage site, as did Santiago de Compostela in Spain, which began in the 9th century with the discovery of the tomb of St. James the Great. The pilgrimage famously began at the Tour St. Jacques in Paris, and was an economic boon to sites, hostelries and businesses en route.
Tour St Jacques, Wikimedia Commons, Cormac 2008
Adrian Bell and Richard Dale have written about the economics of the medieval pilgrimage for years, and they describe the rivalries between various pilgrimage sites seeking to profit – spiritually and economically – from their respective relics. Canterbury was of course a great pilgrimage site made famous by Geoffrey Chaucer, but it had its competitors. Shortly after Thomas Becket was murdered there it became a site of miracles and marvels, leading to “St. Cuthbert performing a sudden spate of miracles at his rival shrine in Durham.”
Statue of St Cuthbert, Durham, 1987
Each of these sites had to have a relic – a piece of the body of a saint, perhaps a piece of the true cross. Similarly, Buddhist stupas and viharas often are centered on a tooth or jawbone of Sakyamuni or perhaps the bones of a boddhisatva.
Unidentified saintly skeleton, Stift Melk, Austria, 2005.
Canterbury found the most economical solution to the relic issue, since they had some of Becket’s blood, which they could almost infinitely dilute with water without reducing its miraculous capacities. Reading Abbey had a hand of St. James and was in competition with Canterbury. Bell and Dale describe how a woman who went to Canterbury for a cure was “confronted” in a dream by St. James who said she would not be cured at Canterbury but had to go to Reading, which she dutifully did. And got cured.
Holycross Abbey, Ireland, 2000
I took the three photos above, which means I also contributed to the economy of these pilgrimages during the late 20th century. I even recall having a St. Cuthbert t-shirt from Durham. I saw St. Thomas the Apostle’s forearm in Chennai when it was still called Madras. Heck, Cologne Cathedral has the bones of the Three Kings behind the altar. Pilgrimages are still an economic boon today, from Mecca to San Antonio, where the World Heritage Mission churches have been promoting El Camino de San Antonio Missions.
“Rose Window,” Mission San Jose. Actually they are pomegranates.
If it was a fight for relics in the medieval era, the competition between cities today tends to revolve around things like convention centers and sports stadiums. As reported everywhere, San Antonio recently released the miraculous Project Marvel, which includes not one, but two sports stadia, an expanded convention center, a new theater in an old theater, and perhaps a park on top of the highway.
Most aspects of Project Marvel had been rumored for a year and a half, and of course the big arena in the center is meant to be for the San Antonio Spurs and implies the demolition of the Texas Pavilion/Institute of Texan Cultures building (CRS, 1968) as I reported last month here.
The good thing about Project Marvel is that it is an example of Daniel Burnham’s “Make No Little Plans” comment. A big plan “stirs men’s blood,” according to Burnham, even if it doesn’t get realized in full. His 1909 Plan of Chicago did exactly that – the majority of it never happened, but some pieces did and it continues to influence urban decisions.
The bad thing about Project Marvel is that it is an example of Daniel Burnham’s “Make No Little Plans” comment. BIG planning grew to maturity in the 1960s and by the 1980s the hubris of big design was already being felt. That hubris is that not even the smartest architect can fully predict the future, so the big plans will have flaws. Also, their bigness can be a hindrance to functionality, an issue that came up today when the Express-News noted that Project Marvel is about 10,000 parking places short of functional.
Hemisfair site with ITC circled on left. Current East Side Spurs stadium, right. Which has more parking?
Beyond parking there is traffic. A big concert in the Alamodome today will quickly back up Cesar Chavez Boulevard for a mile and a half. A big plan putting everything in the center may be bold, but it is redolent of 1960s High Modernist planning. Nowadays we prefer a more iterative, incremental approach. Why put all your eggs in one congested basket? We have a proposed baseball stadium on the northwest side of downtown, the Alamodome itself downtown, and an unused 35 acres at Lone Star. That would give you three major venues in three very well connected locations that aren’t on top of each other.
Chicago has that – a northside baseball stadium, a football stadium five miles south, a basketball-hockey stadium two miles west and another baseball stadium four miles south. Distributes the traffic, you see.
It also contributes economically to the local community, at least on the north side.
Part of the challenge of Project Marvel is that it is trying to do many things. 1. Save the Alamodome, which was a bold “build it and they will come plan” a quarter century ago but needs work. 2. Expand the convention center, because we are losing pilgrims who are choosing Reading Abbey instead. I mean conventioneers going to Austin, but same idea. 3. Do something with the Confluence Theater. 4. Build a new Spurs stadium since they have a genuine superstar. 5. Connect the East Side and St. Paul Square with a land bridge. 6. UTSA hospitality school.
What would St. Cuthbert do? It could all be done, but it might take a miracle or six.
DECEMBER 19 UPDATE:
The Texas Historical Commission has approved a demolition permit for the Texas Pavilion/Institute of Texan Cultures building. The approval has a stack of stipulations before the permit can be issued, so still plenty of time for an injunction. The requirements of owner University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) include HABS documentation, interpretation, the potential rehab of another neglected Hemsifair ’68 building and an executed Memorandum of Understanding with the THC. Bad news always arrives during the holidays! Over, not over.
Texas Pavilion gets State Antiquities status!
And a demolition permit six weeks later….
The big news is the recent Texas Historical Commission vote to approve State Antiquities Landmark status for the Texas Pavilion/Institute of Texan Cultures building (Caudill, Rowlett and Scott, 1968). The building is managed by the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and earlier this year they announced their plan to demolish the Brutalist wonder in summer, 2025. The building was successfully nominated to the National Register of Historic Places earlier this year. The museum has moved out, so the building is eligible for 45% of rehab costs as an investment tax credit.
What now? The big question is the State Antiquities Code, which has special provisions for public institutions of higher education, like UTSA. Although this section of the code has never been implemented or tested, it does allow institutions of higher education to claim an educational need that can outweigh the landmark status. Given that UTSA’s public position is they want to demolish the building and sell the land, it is hard to see them making a relevant argument.
The city also has a secret plan for this area which has been named “Project Marvel”. Yes, really!
Interestingly, the University of Texas system allowed a junior high in Austin to be designated a State Antiquities Landmark, only to have its demolition approved administratively a month later. In that case, it was for a sports facility for the university, which is a better argument than land sale because it actually involves the university occupying the space.
A few things to remember:
- The State doesn’t need a demolition permit to tear down its own property.
- State Antiquities Landmark status – like any landmark status, does not prevent demolition – it only requires a review process. Which technically happened with the Austin building.
- UTSA is an HSI and they are tearing down the only downtown building by a Mexican-American architect. Ouch!
- All of the media coverage discusses the site as a new Spurs stadium. This has been going on for twenty months with precisely NO COMMENT whatsoever by the Spurs. Nada. zilch. zero.
No one is clear what happens next – do we get a hearing on the educational institution exemption? Does the THC get a demolition permit to review? Will UTSA wait until the new year to officially ask for demolition? Is Project Marvel part of the MCU? Stay tuned!!!
NOVEMBER 22 UPDATE!
Yesterday City management updated the City Council about Project Marvel and revealed renderings showing a new Spurs arena where the Texas Pavilion is currently. Project Marvel also includes an expanded Convention Center, a renovated Alamodome, more hotels, and a bridge or tunnel over I-37. Interestingly, the Austin project to bridge I-35 apparently hit a snag (60% cost increase) just a day earlier. Project Marvel also envisions a new 5,000 seat venue in the former Wood Courthouse, returning it to its 1968 role as a theater.
The enthusiastic press coverage quoted the Mayor, most of the City Council, the County Judge and various city officials. The Spurs, consistently, said nothing.
Oh, and the city promised that no taxpayer money would go to a sports stadium. The infrastructure maybe, but not the stadium. That is what they said. Yes, really.
(Well, that lasted a month – now they are gauging how much public money – see latest blog)
Overall the news simply confirms what “the news” has been speculating about for nearly two years. The Conservation Society response? We are still proceeding to defend Texas’ newest State Antiquities Landmark. Hey, it could be part of the plan – given ingenuity and imagination.
We are also not letting the excitement over a $4-$5 billion 15-year dream affect what we do in the next couple of months.
DECEMBER 19 UPDATE:
The Texas Historical Commission has approved a demolition permit for the Texas Pavilion/Institute of Texan Cultures building. The approval has a stack of stipulations before the permit can be issued, so still plenty of time for an injunction. The requirements of owner University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) include HABS documentation, interpretation, the potential rehab of another neglected Hemsifair ’68 building and an executed Memorandum of Understanding with the THC. Bad news always arrives during the holidays! Over, not over.
FEBRUARY 2025 UPDATE – Turns out Project Marvel has had some rewrites….