Another step in the process to tear down the Institute of Texan Cultures was taken with the announcement from the University of Texas at San Antonio on Friday that a demolition permit was secured.
The building was first named the Texas Pavilion for the 1968 World’s Fair, and it served as the Institute of Texan Cultures (ITC) since 1986, primarily as a museum featuring the diverse ethnicities and cultures of Texas. Its location at the far southeastern corner of downtown — far away from both the Alamo and the River Walk — left it far from the traditional currents of tourists coursing through the area.
But its size and proximity to downtown and I-37 made it a valuable piece of property. Over the last several years, UTSA floated ideas for monetizing the 13+ acres, and now a plan to demolish the ITC and build a new arena for the San Antonio Spurs to play — called Project Marvel — has taken root. The arena would be part of a larger development, encompassing properties on both sides of I-37.
Opponents at the San Antonio Conservation Society issued a statement lamenting the lack of public input in the process and the alleged lack of consideration to re-use the existing building in the new plans.
Courtesy photo
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Institute of Texan Cultures
The Conservation Society’s Lewis Vetter thought the process was not a good one: “First, being disappointed that the rush was made to move this forward, to demolish it, and there’s so many things that we still need to look at and to study. They’re rushing headlong to creating a very empty lot.”
He invoked a Joni Mitchell song to complete the image. “You take a paradise and tear it down and put up a parking lot,” he said.
He said there’s no agreement on a development deal. It’s all in the planning stages, he said, and no one has yet signed on the dotted line.
“I was there during the council briefing on this project, and I heard a lot of responses from the council members that it’s not a shoo-in, that this is what we need to build a fourth arena,” Vetter said.
This would be the fourth arena that’s been built for the San Antonio Spurs to play in.
The larger development — Project Marvel — would also extend across I-37, and other development would follow.
Despite the momentum clearly being on the side of demolishing the ITC, Vetter said it’s not a done deal, and he cited the efforts of a grass roots group.
“The Friends of the Institute of Texan Cultures Building, the coalition that’s been formed, involving us and quite a few other groups, are looking at ways that we might challenge it yet,” he said. “It’s safe to say we’re not done fighting.”
