Amid the broader Alamo redevelopment plan, a $5 million donation from the Texas Cavaliers will add a new building to the Alamo grounds: an education center.
WestEast Design Group, a San Antonio-based firm, has been selected to provide design services for the building.
Construction will begin on the Texas Cavaliers Education and Research Center in early 2023. The WestEast Design Group will be designing the center in partnership with Alamo Trust Inc., according to a press release from the trust.
The Cavaliers, a group best known for supporting local charities and staging the annual Fiesta river parade, made a five-year pledge of $5 million in February to help fund the structure, making history as the “largest charitable donation ever made to Remember The Alamo Foundation,” according to the trust.
The building will be on the southeast corner of the grounds and incorporate the existing Alamo Hall and the Annex with a pavilion between the buildings, according to Jonathan Huhn, director of communications.
The education and research center will be established on Alamo grounds with the hope of being a learning environment, focused on preserving the mission’s nearly 300-year history.
Educational programming will be located inside the new structure, with a research center for educators and students, ranging from pre-K to doctoral candidates. Among some features, the center will have a field trip hub, technology, classrooms for workshops, lecture space, a distance learning studio, a new agricultural garden and an outdoor learning pavilion.
After construction is complete on the Exhibition Hall and Collections Building, work will begin on the education center, which is scheduled to open by late 2023.
“Currently, about 140,000 students annually visit the Alamo,” said Kate Rogers, executive director of the Alamo Trust. “When the new building is completed at the end of 2023, it will significantly increase the academic resources at the site and help achieve our goal of hosting 250,000 students each year.”
