The Institute of Texan Cultures (ITC) building is a rare example of a surviving work of large-scale world's fair architecture.  It anchors the southeast corner of Hemisfair, the largest urban park in San Antonio, Texas. The building is one of three permanent structures constructed for HemisFair ‘68 that contribute to making the park one of the most intact world’s fair sites in the U.S.

Commissioned by the State of Texas in 1967, the ITC building originally served as the Texas Pavilion. It housed a groundbreaking museum that showcased the diversity of Texan cultures, educating generations of visitors from 1968 through May 2024.   The building’s presence and the museum’s scope led to the establishment of the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) in 1969. 

Houston-based architects Caudill Rowlett Scott (CRS) designed the three-story, 180,000 SF Brutalist landmark. Constructed of unfinished limestone and aggregate concrete, the ITC gives the impression of an inverted Mesoamerican temple rising from behind earthen berms.   It was among CRS’s largest and most visited buildings, although it remained their only San Antonio commission.

The firm’s innovative designs and approaches to architectural practice attracted national attention in the middle decades of the twentieth century.  CRS partner William Merriweather Peña, one of the few prominent Mexican American architects of the time, made significant contributions to the ITC’s design, and the firm’s success, by pioneering the concept of architectural programming.

The ITC building’s prominent downtown location, visible from a major interstate highway, and its distinctive physical characteristics make it an irreplaceable feature of the local landscape.  The ITC is a designated local landmark and contributes to the HemisFair Historic District.  It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, representing one of fewer than 4% of National Register sites that reflect Latino history. 

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) announced plans to demolish the Institute of Texan Cultures building in the summer of 2025, and the museum is temporarily closed. Having decided to relocate the museum, UTSA has no further use for the structure and wants to optimize the sale of the land to pay for the construction of a new museum and parking garage closer to the Alamo in the heart of downtown.  

In February 2024, the University of Texas Board of Regents allowed UTSA to enter an exclusive option with the City of San Antonio to redevelop the ITC site. This precluded marketing the building to a private developer capable of taking advantage of the National Register tax credits for rehabilitation. Numerous local investigative reports indicate the demolition of the building by UTSA will aid a speculative economic development program by the City, which includes the special benefit of a new arena for the corporate NBA franchise, the San Antonio Spurs.

As a state entity, UTSA can bypass the local historic review process for demolition, while City officials cannot.  Concerned preservation advocates and Mexican American/Latino heritage groups maintain that demolition of the ITC is unnecessary.  2023 assessments done for UTSA confirm that the building is structurally sound and can be adapted to five different categories of uses compatible with the City’s redevelopment goals, sans construction of a redundant sports arena across from the Alamodome.  The ITC is an irreplaceable landmark of national significance eminently suited to be repurposed, as other world’s fair structures have been worldwide. 

In May 2024, Preservation Texas named the Institute of Texan Cultures building to its list of Texas’s Most Endangered Historic Places. The Texas Historical Commission recently approved the building’s State Antiquities Landmark designation, which gives the commission the authority to review a demolition request. Unfortunately, the code governing the review process grants universities special considerations. The future of the building is highly dependent on the weight of public opinion to persuade UTSA to seek a buyer or lessee willing to explore innovative options for reuse.