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State board approves historic listing for Institute of Texan Cultures structure

The Texas Historical Commission’s State Board of Review on Saturday unanimously approved listing the Institute of Texan Cultures on the National Register of Historic Places.

The next step is for the Texas Historical Commission to review the board’s findings and submit a request to the National Park Service for such a designation, according to Kathy Krnarvek, president of the San Antonio Conservation Society.

The board decision comes little more than two months after the Conservation Society confirmed that it would push for such protection for the structure, one of the last remaining pavilions from the HemisFair ’68 World’s Fair.

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Such a designation would provide financial incentives for the building’s owner, including a tax credit, to preserve the 155,000-square-foot structure.

“It’s a way for communities, investors and developers to examine opportunities to retain a building that is deemed important,” said Betty Bueche, a member of the Conservation Society coalition that’s worked to get the building on the national register.

The University of Texas at San Antonio currently owns the ITC building. In October, Veronica Salazar, chief enterprise development officer and senior vice president for business affairs at UTSA, said the university was evaluating options for the building and the museum inside it. Among the possibilities mentioned was the development of a new ITC museum near the Alamo.

Salazar told me roughly three months ago that UTSA had entered into a memorandum of understanding with the city of San Antonio and with 1859 Historic Hotels, owners of a site behind the Crockett Hotel, that would allow the university to conduct due diligence on the real estate. That process, she said, could take up to six months.

If the building is added to the national register its owner would need to apply to the state to make any material changes to the structure.

“It does not mean the building can’t be demolished,” Bueche said. “It could still be demolished.”