The oldest university in the city recently opened the doors of a new building, a project eagerly led by its new president, Winston Erevelles, long before he officially stepped into the role.
“I love to build, you know,” Erevelles said during a recent morning tour of the new building, only months after succeeding former president, Thomas Mengler.
Nestled between the cherished Pecan Grove and a math-engineering building at St. Mary’s University, the Blank Sheppard Innovation Center is a $20 million facility with labs and meeting rooms named for individual donors, including the Erevelles family, and a longtime chemistry professor, Bro. Bill Chewning, S.M.
The building is named for 1967 St. Mary’s alum Leland Blank and his wife Sallie Sheppard, both engineering educators at Texas A&M University, who donated $2 million for the facility.
The center is one of an estimated $640 million worth of newly built or in-progress developments at institutions of higher education across San Antonio, a reflection of market conditions favorable to institutional construction in recent years.
Designed for robotics, smart manufacturing, data science, machine learning and engineering design, the three-story Innovation Center at St. Mary’s provides multiple collaboration spaces for various programs and also houses the university’s new nursing program and nursing simulation labs.
Previously the professor of engineering and dean emeritus of the School of Science, Engineering and Technology at St. Mary’s, Erevelles first began working on the project in 2009.
“It became apparent that among the many things we needed to pay attention to, facilities rose to the forefront,” he said. “People needed better teaching spaces, research spaces for work with students, project spaces, interdisciplinary spaces to germinate ideas, places for us to do projects for industry and so many other things. So we needed to start growing these spaces.”
Growing the university established in 1852 means a combination of renovation and building new, he said. St. Mary’s debuted a new drone lab in 2021.
Faculty and staff are just starting to get settled into the Innovation Center and students are finding their way to its patios on the edge of the campus quad. Classes will begin there during the upcoming spring semester.
The amiable president is proud of the partnerships he helped forge to bring both the building and the new nursing program to completion, from University Health and other local hospital systems to the nonprofit Catholic Worker House.
A few staff have taken to calling the amiable leader, “el presidente,” a job he said he relishes for the opportunity to give back to an institution that has supported him.
“I feel incredibly privileged to serve this community, serve our students, serve folks here in this role,” Erevelles said. “The exciting part is the opportunity to have an office where you can make change happen.”
Here’s a look at projects underway at other San Antonio universities:
Trinity University
The private liberal arts university has several projects underway, including a $4.5 million restoration of the historic William Knox Holt Center at 106 Oakmont Ct.
Crews are installing new windows, doors and roofing, and refreshing the interior spaces of the venue, relocating a parking lot and adding a new courtyard.
In addition, Trinity is working to improve its outdoor Coates Esplanade, a $2 million project estimated to be complete in the spring, and to build a new $33 million, 2-story welcome center, to open in summer 2026.
University of Texas at San Antonio
The $130 million companion to the UTSA National Security Collaboration Center and School of Data Science building at 506 Dolorosa St., which opened in 2023, is under construction and expected to be complete in 2026.
As another step in the university’s continual expansion into downtown San Antonio, San Pedro II will be a 180,000-square-foot facility with programs that connect students with experiential learning and career engagement opportunities, according to a university spokeswoman.
It will feature the nation’s first college dedicated to advanced technologies, like artificial intelligence, cyber security, computing and data science. On Thursday, UTSA announced that the financial services firm has given $2 million to establish a student success center and data repository in the new college.
UTSA also recently acquired One Riverwalk Place, a towering building formerly occupied by USAA and located at 700 N. St. Mary’s St. The building sits adjacent to the UTSA Southwest Campus, formerly the Southwest School of Art, which was acquired by the university in 2022.
At the main campus, a new residence hall is under construction with an opening date set for fall 2025. Blanco Hall will be a 155,00-square-foot student housing facility and feature a mix of single- and double-bed units, accommodating 594 students.
University of the Incarnate Word
The work that began in late 2023 to renovate the former AT&T Building at Broadway Street and Hildebrand Avenue into classrooms and offices for the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) continues with completion expected in December 2025.
The 9-story building will be home to the Liza and Jack Lewis Center of the Americas, the School of Math, Science and Engineering, and the School of Media and Design. The student health center and campus police department also will be moved into the building along with other university offices, classrooms, meeting spaces and student services.
The estimated $70 million renovation project on the 10-acre property adjacent the main campus expands the 143-year-old university’s footprint by 20%, said a UIW spokesman.
Palo Alto College
Funded through a combination of the 2017 and 2022 bonds and Alamo Colleges District tax notes, the Natatorium, Wellness and Multigenerational Center at Palo Alto College is a $52 million project that kicks off in April.
Plans call for the facility to feature fitness and multipurpose rooms, indoor aquatics and a 50-meter Olympic-size swimming pool, classrooms and indoor basketball and volleyball courts. The 90,000-square-foot facility will feature new and renovated meeting and recreational space open to the public.
Located on the South Side, the campus is expected to be completed in 2027.
Also planned is a $7.6 million veterans center providing support services, study space, training, and recreational and communal areas for former servicemembers. The center is adjacent to the natatorium and is being built on the same timeline.
Our Lady of the Lake University
The university is working through plans to renovate and restore its Chapel Auditorium, a space within the 1923 Sacred Heart Chapel building listed on the National Historic Register.
Located on the lower level of the chapel building, the auditorium serves as a frequent gathering space for the campus and the West Side community. It is the site of the 1968 Commission on Civil Rights hearings dealing with issues faced by Mexican Americans.
A construction timeline for the auditorum restoration is pending but completion is expected by 2026.
The university also has renovation work going on in its science building to create both a Makerspace/STEM Lab and a kinesiology lab.
