Gorgeous. Great addition to downtown. Thanks for sharing, Raul!

Looks awesome! It has one extremely minor flaw: under the UTSA sign, there is a slight inconsistency in the size of the gap between about the 7th and 8th horizontal white bands from the bottom (even with the tops of the windows). That's it. Otherwise it looks glorious.

https://www.expressnews.com/news/loc...r-17593004.php

Finally got some details and a preliminary design on the next UTSA building along the creek. Seems like this one will be around the same height (if not a little taller) with the same design motif. Looks like they'll even have a good sized plaza integrated in.

https://i.ibb.co/txKJRCB/utsa.jpg

https://www.expressnews.com/news/loc...r-17593004.php

CWalk beat me to it. Edit just to say that this is great for the city. That old jail was such an eyesore and added nothing to downtown life.

Here is the article from Express News. Looking to break ground Summer of 2023. More cranes coming to downtown! Now if we could only get something to break the 500ft mark.

The University of Texas at San Antonio got the green light Thursday to continue its downtown expansion with a $124 million new building along San Pedro Creek.

The Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Careers (IEC) building - also dubbed the San Pedro II - is the next phase of ongoing construction that began across the creek with the soon-to-open School of Data Science and the National Security Collaboration Center, or San Pedro I.

The UT System Board of Regents approved the final part of its funding Thursday, authorizing $72 million from bond proceeds backed by the system’s Permanent University Fund, which will pay for the project along with $52.4 million from State of Texas Tuition Revenue Bond proceeds approved by the Legislature last year.

The main goal of the IEC, officials said, is to create spaces that encourage economic development and students’ economic mobility through career-focused programs, networking and internship opportunities, especially in high-demand interdisciplinary fields such as cybersecurity, computer and data sciences.

“It’s just a place for our students to gather, learn and connect with businesses downtown,” UTSA Chief Financial Officer Veronica Salazar said. “It’s also to complement the programs that are already in San Pedro I…. one focusing on security and one focusing on connecting the students and businesses all around the cyberspace and careers.”

Preliminary designs call for a six-story building with about 180,000 square feet for classroom and lab space, open multipurpose spaces and conference rooms that could serve students, entrepreneurs and the general community.

“This expansion of our downtown footprint reflects our intentionality in situating our academic offerings and learning experiences in the heart of our city’s business community,” said UTSA Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Kimberly Andrews Espy. “Employers directly benefit, as well, through first access to talented students.”

The university has already secured Overland-Gensler as the architects, Salazar said. The next step is to secure a construction manager and, if all goes as expected, the university will break ground by the summer of 2023.

“It will be about a 24-month construction period, so we are looking at maybe the end of 2025 to deliver the project fully,” Salazar said. “We are right on schedule and moving forward.”

The building will likely open in the spring of 2026, she said, to ensure officials have time after completion to furnish it and move in faculty and staff first - just like at San Pedro I, which is slated to welcome students in the spring.

A preliminary design for the building has been developed, but only for illustration purposes.

Considering the volatility of the current construction market, a more realistic look at what can be done with this budget and time frame awaits the hiring of the construction manager, Salazar said.

“One we have our construction management, then we’ll know what we are going to do,” she said. “But we are already looking at strategies to mitigate that cost escalation or even procurement of materials that we already know have been impacted.”

The IEC building will be located directly across from the School of Data Science on the site of the former Bexar County jail, which the university purchased earlier this year from the county.

Like its neighbor, it is expected to include features that invite the public through the use of glass walls and outdoor spaces that lead to the new San Pedro Creek Culture Park.

“This investment of over $124 million extends our efforts, launched in 2018, to support national security, cybersecurity, and data sciences here in San Antonio,” UTSA President Taylor Eighmy said in an announcement. “We continue to drive work force development and job creation in this ecosystem.”

Were there any more renderings in the article? or just the one from the cover.

https://i.ibb.co/HVZXk3T/utsa-ii.jpg

Found another one in this article:
https://saheron.com/utsa-iec-building/

Any news with UTSA downtown?

We're at the halfway point of summer. Still no ground broken?

They previously said Summer was when ground would break. There may have been some delays on bidding or maybe archaeological studies have slowed them down. I'm sure it will start soon. Maybe some people in the construction world will know what the schedule is.

i'm still wondering if there were ever any updated renderings posted anywhere.

gabetx posted this photo the other day. You can see (if you zoom in) that the lot is clear and it looks like a fence is up. Google Maps shows the lot cleared too.

The University of Texas System Board of Regents recently approved an update to the funding for the San Pedro II development project, previously approved in November 2022.

The UT System follows a prescribed funding and approval process for major building projects. With this latest step in the process, the San Pedro II project is now able to move from the design development phase to the construction phase.

Overland Partners, in collaboration with Gensler, is leading the design vision and development of the project. Teams will now begin preparing the site for construction, with an official groundbreaking scheduled for early 2024.

https://www.utsa.edu/today/2023/08/s...le-future.html

Thanks for sharing! Glad to hear this wont be too far behind the Continental project - I like how this new design still compliments the first building and is even scaled up a bit (looks like eight stories now)

https://i.ibb.co/S3dSsYq/spii1.png
https://i.ibb.co/nBg1WCc/spii2.png
https://i.ibb.co/ns9qJLQ/spii3.png

https://i.ibb.co/S3dSsYq/spii1.png

Love this building. I think this comes close to being the nicest building UTSA has, rivaling the SEB on the main campus. Heck, I think it might even be one of the better looking buildings in downtown, especially from the angle in this picture.
UTSA has nailed the designs on these new downtown buildings. They blend in with downtown well, but have a sophistication to them that makes them still feel like university buildings.

There will be an official groundbreaking for San Pedro II this evening- couldn't find word on the estimated completion date but the final design does seem to be the 8-story building in the most recent renderings posted above.

https://www.bizjournals.com/sananton...expansion.html

https://i.ibb.co/TKVVWrc/san-pedro-i...6-681-59-0.jpg

Here is the link from UTSA:
https://www.utsa.edu/president/event...nPedro-II.html

EXCELLENT DESIGN!!!:cheers::yes::tup:

It appears the preliminary design was to take up more of the block no? This new version with more height is nice, but the plaza from previous renderings is gone sadly. Might not be a popular opinion, but I much prefer the preliminary design.

I think it's the same design as seen from opposite sides. So I think we agree because I prefer the opposite side.

Originally they assumed the County would be willing to demolish its building on the south side of the block. The County said no. I want the preliminary design too because it created a green space between the creek and Casa Navarro, which is nice.