The City’s Historic and Design Review Commission gave conceptual approval Wednesday to San Antonio Independent School District’s proposed new central office headquarters, to be located adjacent to San Pedro Creek and Fox Tech High School.
When completed, the office will allow SAISD to consolidate 30 departments spread across six district facilities. The plans approved Wednesday by HDRC indicate the three-story facility will cover 140,000 square feet.
The district is operating on a short timeline because it sold the land where SAISD’s current offices sit in Southtown to the group that redeveloped the Pearl. SAISD is leasing the Southtown property while it constructs the new offices and plans to move into the new facility in August 2020.
A final decision has not been made on the location of green space that will sit adjacent to the new facility. Trustees have discussed two options: locating the space on the side of the property closest to the Fox Tech campus and on the side of the property closer to the creek. The board plans to vote at next week’s board meeting on the location of the green space, a district spokesperson said.
The HDRC reviewed general design ideas and principles such as scale and setback, but specific design details are not binding at this stage of the planning process.
HDRC members approved City staff’s recommendations that SAISD increase the landscape buffer along West Quincy and Camaron streets to conceal a proposed parking lot. Because the proposed site is located close to San Pedro Creek, which is an “area known to contain significant historic and prehistoric archaeological deposits,” City staff also recommended that an archaeological investigation be required.
