by Adolfo Pesquera
San Antonio (Bexar Co.) – Alamo Community College District is expected to receive conceptual approval Wednesday to construct its new administrative complex.
Ford, Powell & Carson and WestEast Design Group, the architectural firms, have presented plans to the Office of Historic Preservation, which has recommended approval, and the Historic and Design Review Commission has scheduled to pass them on consent.
ACCD has long maintained administrative officers at 811 West Houston, a crime ridden area, and in the 700 block of South Flores Street at Sheridan Street. Operations at both sites function in antiquated and condemned buildings.
The new site at 2222 N. Alamo Street is just off the up-and-coming Broadway corridor on a historically significant tract to the southeast of North Alamo Street and Cunningham Avenue. The site provides the opportunity to consolidate 465 employees from the West Houston, Flores/Sheridan and Pat Book Road sites.
On May 17, the Board of Trustees awarded Skanska USA Building Inc. a Construction Manager-at-Risk contract for a District Support Operations Complex for the Guaranteed Maximum Price of $45 million. In July, the board approved the need for a debt issue of up to $55 million for the construction project.
The board approved the recommendation of the Citizens’ Advisory Committee to go with the 2222 N. Alamo St. site in September 2015.
ACCD proposes construction of a two-story building on the north end of 45,984 square feet; a three-story building to the south of 168,140 square feet; a two-story parking garage bordering Josephine Street (the southmost boundary) of 58,800 square feet; and two surface parking lots.
Other site improvements include landscaping, interpretive landscaping of the acequia parth, water features, an outdoor amphitheater, and site signage. The site is part of the Acequia Madre de Valero, a Spanish colonial era waterworks structure that serviced The Alamo when it was still a functioning mission.
In more recent times, the site was Playland Park. The total land area is 12.6 acres.
The proposed three-story building is set back 24 feet from its nearest property line. The proposed new construction has a left setback of 124 feet, right set back of 10 feet, and a varying rear setback ranging between approximately 25 feet and 150 feet.
The site plan includes natural vegetation, swales, outdoor commons, trails, acequia pathways, and buffers around mature trees. The approximate foot print of each office building is 64,000 square feet.
OHP staff said, “The acequia will is incorporated into the site design by carving away at diagonal section of the first and second floors of the building where the acequia crosses the structure. This area will be treated as an interpretive landscape, with a water feature and site signage telling the history and impact of the Acequia Madre. Where the buildings are interrupted by this site feature, an outdoor amphitheater will stem from the acequia plaza. An archeological investigation by Raba Kistner is currently in progress. The findings of the report will be available at a later date.”
OHP also recommended of the acequia that, “The preferred treatment plan will be to leave it as a natural drainage ditch per its original construction during the Spanish-Colonial time period. Any later additions, such as concrete, should be retained. Treatment plans should be reviewed by the Texas Historical Commission and Office of Historic Preservation.”
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adolfo@virtualbx.com
