SA: City Considering One Facility for Police, Firefighters and Courthouse
 

Not sure if any of you know this but the city is seriously considering building one downtown facility that would house not only a new federal courthouse but a new police HQ and new fire fighters HQ. What is everyone's opinion on such a building?

I think it would be great because the old police HQ looks like it came out of a 1970's miami porno lol. keep the police happy and the work will show it self same with SAFD

Hopefully they build up instead of out

Since it'll be downtown, I'd think they'd have to go up.

Courthouses are notorious for having high ceilings. So it could be a highrise for sure. The federal courthouse being planned in Austin has just 7 floors, but is said to be 135 feet tall. Of course plans may change since that project has yet to break ground, but that gives you an idea of the height.

The thing with all federal buildings now though is that there is a federal law that says all federal buildings, including federal courthouses have to be set back 50 feet from any street that they border. This is not necessarily a bad thing since it shrinks down the footprint of the building on its block. This means the building will have to be taller to get the same amount of space. I'm curious to see how that would work out with those other uses. I wonder if those other uses would also have to be at least 50 feet from the street too, since they're part of the same structure? If they do, then that would mean even more height. If San Antonio needs the same mount of space as Austin's and assuming the block is the same size as our courthouse, then it could end up being a 10+ floor building, and maybe more.