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  #1  
Old Posted Aug 23, 2007, 9:00 PM
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sirkingwilliam sirkingwilliam is offline
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UTSA Construction Update

Thanks to Tim Gannaway for the Under Construction portion.

UTSA as it exists today


Masterplan for UTSA 1604 Main Campus



UNDER CONSTRUCTION
  • Laurel Village (housing) $39 million
  • Rec. Center Expansion $45.7 million
  • Parking Garage/Energy $30 million
  • Student Cafe Expansion $5 million
  • Engineering building $82.5 million
  • University Center Expansion $33.3 million
  • 125-acre Land Purchace Expansion $25 million
  • UTSA Athletic Park $60 million
  • 5-Story South Campus Parking Garage $15 million

Recreation center expansion - Courtyard with new pool and lazy river


East Campus - Construction should begin within the year






Campus Parkway and Bridge - Connecting Central Campus with soon to be U/C East Campus


Bell Tower at Bridge with Parkway runng below


UTSA's Future Sports Complex


A masterplan for this land is going being done.

To include
  • baseball stadium
  • softball stadium
  • soccer stadium
  • track and field stadium
  • tennis stadiums
  • multiple practice fields
  • parking for at least 1,000 vehicles
  • multi-purpose facility
  • multiple locker and training rooms

Last edited by sirkingwilliam; Aug 24, 2007 at 4:08 AM.
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  #2  
Old Posted Aug 23, 2007, 10:46 PM
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Cool. I'd like to see more of that bridge. Looks interesting.
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  #3  
Old Posted Aug 23, 2007, 11:33 PM
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Yeah I'm looking most forward to the bridge too
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Old Posted Aug 24, 2007, 2:35 AM
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Those rendering were prior to the 125 acres UTSA purchased earlier this year. The land purchased is going to be used for most, if not all, the athletic facilities.

Most of the Master plan will remain the same HOWEVER, the proposed Football Stadium, Arena, Soccer Stadium, Baseball and Softball stadiums will be moved from the main campus to the 125 acres purchased (a short 2 minute ride). Assuming UTSA gets a football team in the near future, they wanted to divert any traffic from the main campus to the new land.

Great post sirkingwilliam. My wife is currently attending UTSA and it's obviously changed since I attended a year and a half ago. With all the construction going on, it's nice to see that they have some sort of master organizational plan for the growing student body. They still haven't mastered the parking situation, although that seems to be a problem with most major universities.
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  #5  
Old Posted Aug 24, 2007, 1:31 PM
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That master plan has been out for close to 5 years if not more. Some of the ideas are really great, but in reality much of it will not see the light of day. I say this cause i have a good friend who works at UTSA, and we discuss "new construction" every time we meet up. I would love to see all that stuff go up, but not all of it will. But there is always hope...


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Old Posted Aug 25, 2007, 3:55 AM
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They've been talking about a lot of that stuff since I was there in 2000-2003
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  #7  
Old Posted Aug 25, 2007, 9:39 PM
kornbread kornbread is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Complex01 View Post
That master plan has been out for close to 5 years if not more. Some of the ideas are really great, but in reality much of it will not see the light of day. I say this cause i have a good friend who works at UTSA, and we discuss "new construction" every time we meet up. I would love to see all that stuff go up, but not all of it will. But there is always hope...
Well, of course. It's that way with the master plan of anything.

They have to be able to pay for everything and they have certain buildings prioritized. As time goes on, they may find they need more of one thing and less of another. Or, the money may not be available.
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  #8  
Old Posted Aug 25, 2007, 10:52 PM
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East Campus will begin construction later this year. That is a sure thing.
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  #9  
Old Posted Aug 27, 2007, 9:37 PM
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Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam View Post
East Campus will begin construction later this year. That is a sure thing.



Were are you getting this information from. It is obviosuly incorrect. Unless you can prove it, with facts then i will believe it, until then you are wrong. I did some searching myself, and found nothing that says "East Campus" is under construction or anything is slated to start this year. The only thing was this::

"The UT System Board of Regents approved the construction of a $5million thermal plant on east campus. There was also a road built already connecting the remote Parking Lot # 13 off Valero Way to the main part of the 1604 Campus." Thats it, that is nothing, no new housing, research, academic buildings.

Even the Office of Facilities website says nothing about it??????

Have a great day...
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  #10  
Old Posted Aug 28, 2007, 1:49 AM
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Originally Posted by Complex01 View Post


Were are you getting this information from. It is obviosuly incorrect. Unless you can prove it, with facts then i will believe it, until then you are wrong. I did some searching myself, and found nothing that says "East Campus" is under construction or anything is slated to start this year. The only thing was this::

"The UT System Board of Regents approved the construction of a $5million thermal plant on east campus. There was also a road built already connecting the remote Parking Lot # 13 off Valero Way to the main part of the 1604 Campus." Thats it, that is nothing, no new housing, research, academic buildings.

Even the Office of Facilities website says nothing about it??????

Have a great day...
maybe he has inside sources (?)
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  #11  
Old Posted Aug 28, 2007, 1:43 PM
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Well my source comes str8 from the UTSA heart. And when they say something they know what they are talking about. I am done talking about this.

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  #12  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2007, 12:38 AM
TXlifeguard TXlifeguard is offline
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OFPD is notorious for not updating it's website. Sometimes it takes them six months to make their monthly update, yet they have a staffer who's main responsibility is to update fac/staff/students on projects and such. They do a horrible job at it. With 6 major construction projects going on, the least they could do would be a blog or some shit with weekly updates, percentages completed on projects, whats going on this week, etc. Since were (i'm taking some grad classes there right now) footing the bill for 4 of 6 of these projects through student use fees, the least they could do is communicate with us. Hell, they OWE us that much. They'll ramble to the student paper a few times a semester about pending projects, but they act like they are doing us a big favor with info updates. If it wasnt for the student fee projects, most of them wouldnt have jobs with the university. I find their attitude disrespectful and paternalistic.

/rant.

So who the hell knows what is planned and what isnt. The 2020 plan (title of the master plan) is only a guide tho. It was dramatically re-done in 2004 and they have already veered from it; for example, the rec center is larger and further west than called for (only slightly) and the new dorms/student apartments (Laurel Village) is on the other side of Walter Brennan Blvd. from where it was supposed to go due to costs associated with elevation changes at the original location. (the new location looks to have the exact same damn elevation changes, but I'm no surveyor, so whatever). Also, the new Sam Barshop Drive, linking the north and south campus on the west side of the university will be built further east than what the the 2020 plan called for.

The map of UTSA 'as it exists today' is dated to 2004, and does not show the presence of completed projects including the Garage 3 (the parking garage on the north side of campus visible from Loop 1604), the Roadrunner Cafe dining hall, the three new recreational intramural fields, the intramural field house, the Valero Way parking lots, or the East Campus connector road.


Maybe Complex01 does have some inside info. But dude, dont get all butt-hurt cause people want to know sources. It happens all the time on this board cause others like to talk about 'potential' projects as if they had already broken ground. All of us here in SA have had our hearts broken about 15 times this last year over design and height changes in the convention center hotel, the Vidorra, etc. Also, were visual folx. Where there are references, there are usually more renderings, etc. As you know, we dig that shit.

I do like the renderings for the east campus stuff. I'm not doubting your source, but if construction began on the east campus stuff, it will be the tinyest of baby steps over there. This is for several reasons; 1) There is absolutely NO infrastructure over on that part of campus, save a road they just put in (East campus connector road). It is not part of the new electrical distribution loop, is not serviced by any of the steam or chiller plants, and has no sewer, gas or water service. Sewer service can be reached by tying in to the main line under UTSA blvd, which was just upgraded three years ago. Water can come from the line running east of the campus under Valero Way. Gas and electrical service would have to be extended from the central campus, under the arroyo. That whole area has minimal topsoil, so there would have to be monumental drilling through the limestone just to lay services. They'll have to do all that anyhow someday, but that cost would be shouldered by the university and would run into the tens of millions of dollars. Sure they could fold that cost into an initial building project over there, but I would suspect that they would try to build out some of the rest of the core campus (north of the business building and HSS, south of the arts building, etc) before they start on the east campus, just to save some money. You know, putting off the huge associated expense as long as they could. But hell, if space for the sciences and engineering (the programs slated to be located on east campus) is that badly needed, they might have to move faster, but that brings issue #2...

Funding. There is no currently identified or allocated funding for buildings on the East Campus. It hasnt even been identified as a priority by UTSA to the UT System through the 2011 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). (See: http://www.utsystem.edu/bor/meetings.htm) Can they add things to it, I'm sure, but from 2001 to present, UTSA has completed, or is building about a half a billion dollars worth of projects on the 1604 campus alone. East campus, just to get going is going to be expensive. Page 47 of the 2020 Master plan has a schedule of construction, expected funding, and completion dates through the end of the plan. It is available at http://www.utsa.edu/ofpd/1604%20mast...site/main.html

I'm also intrigued as to where the 5-story 'south campus' parking garage is going to be built. It dosent even appear in the 2020 plan. I am curious about the construction timeline...

Finally, the university has scheduled the "We've got game" student referendum on athletics funding (also known as the 'football vote') for September 11-12. The university has created a promotional video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aYOwQ0Pkq4

They got my vote.
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  #13  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2007, 12:43 AM
TXlifeguard TXlifeguard is offline
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Timely...

Just saw that UTSA's director of Facilities will be leaving UTSA on August 31 to accept a position with the A&M system. Hopefully his replacement will make communication with fac/staff/students the priority that the current dude didn't.
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"We marched five leagues over a fine country with broad plains, the most beautiful in all of New Spain. We camped on the banks of an arroyo. This I called San Antonio de Padua, because we reached it on the day of his festival." - General Domingo Teran de los Rios, June 13, 1691, in a letter to the King of Spain on the occasion of the founding of San Antonio.
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  #14  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2007, 3:32 AM
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[QUOTE=TXlifeguard;3037244]OFPD is notorious for not updating it's website. Sometimes it takes them six months to make their monthly update, yet they have a staffer who's main responsibility is to update fac/staff/students on projects and such. They do a horrible job at it. With 6 major construction projects going on, the least they could do would be a blog or some shit with weekly updates, percentages completed on projects, whats going on this week, etc. Since were (i'm taking some grad classes there right now) footing the bill for 4 of 6 of these projects through student use fees, the least they could do is communicate with us. Hell, they OWE us that much. They'll ramble to the student paper a few times a semester about pending projects, but they act like they are doing us a big favor with info updates. If it wasnt for the student fee projects, most of them wouldnt have jobs with the university. I find their attitude disrespectful and paternalistic.

[QUOTE]

I know this is important to you, as it would be to me as well. But to be honest 99.9% of the students could care less, hell most of them don't even really know what their fees are going towards. Their top priority is getting the projects done on time...not updating the students. If enough students complained, then Im sure it would become a high priority. Here at A&M there are AT LEAST a dozen or so major projects either underway or on the board. A&M does have a construction on campus page, but its basically an overview of the projects. The only way I get updates on construction projects is through my profs and students who are in the know (Im construction science btw)
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  #15  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2007, 5:07 AM
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Has the new logo been released?
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  #16  
Old Posted Aug 29, 2007, 7:21 AM
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Originally Posted by sirkingwilliam View Post
Has the new logo been released?
I tried contacting someone about that previously but haven't heard any response. The logo they currently have on goutsa.com is just the roadrunner's head as opposed to the full body shot. You'll notice that the navy blue is darker as well as the orange. IMO, this is the new logo they just never really made a big deal about it.

On another note, I also left another email about a rendering that didn't make much sense to me. Below is a picture of Laurel Village, a new on-campus student housing that's almost complete.

What I noticed is a 5-6 story parking garage in the background. Currently, there is a parking garage but it's only 2 stories. Did they plan on a 5-6 story but scaled back to only 2 (I hope not parking is miserable their)? I vaguely remember someone telling me that they built that garage with the capability of expanding it to 5 stories but I'm not really sure how that works. Anyways, with the limited amount of parking spaces on the north side of campus, it'd be nice to see them build another parking garage or update the one we currently have.
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Old Posted Aug 29, 2007, 7:35 AM
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They got my vote.
And they would have mine except I graduated. My wife currently goes there, so I marked it down on my calendar to make sure she votes on "ASAP".

Thank you for giving us the link to the athletic video. It's important that this vote gets approved because regardless of your degree, universities as a whole are unfairly judged by athletics. I'm all about building equity in my degree, as should everyone who attended/graduated from UTSA.

If this vote gets approved, they will be moving out of the Southland Conference (thank god). My best guess is that Conference USA would be a logical destination, seeing that we are not competitive enough for any one of the 6 major athletic conferences, including the Big 12. But we need this vote peeps, San Antonio is the ONLY major U.S. city without a Division I collegiate football team. It's embarassing and long overdo.
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Old Posted Aug 29, 2007, 9:38 AM
TXlifeguard TXlifeguard is offline
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Originally Posted by BSofA04 View Post
And they would have mine except I graduated. My wife currently goes there, so I marked it down on my calendar to make sure she votes on "ASAP".

Thank you for giving us the link to the athletic video. It's important that this vote gets approved because regardless of your degree, universities as a whole are unfairly judged by athletics. I'm all about building equity in my degree, as should everyone who attended/graduated from UTSA.

If this vote gets approved, they will be moving out of the Southland Conference (thank god). My best guess is that Conference USA would be a logical destination, seeing that we are not competitive enough for any one of the 6 major athletic conferences, including the Big 12. But we need this vote peeps, San Antonio is the ONLY major U.S. city without a Division I collegiate football team. It's embarassing and long overdo.
Yeah, I've heard that C-USA would be the destination conference. Southland is a shithole.

That rendering with the garage always confused the hell outta me, because the present garage is only 2 stories, and Laurel Village was supposed to be across the street from where it is now. So when they released the rendering, they did so without explanation (cause OFPD likes to half-ass it like that) and I kept thinking it was a really crappy drawing of Chisholm. It was only two months later that I read in the Paisano that it was the garage I was looking at.

There has been discussion of expanding the two-story garage, but the un-sourced information posted here specifically called the garage a "South-Campus Parking Garage". The existing garage in question is decidedly on the north half of campus. It's actually one of the northern-most structures on that campus, so I am all confused, as usual.

The other key to deciphering OFPD groundbreakings is to add six months to ANY project when they first announce the beginning of a project.

And Yeah, texboy you're right. I've figured out that I am one of about 14 people on that campus who give a shit about construction and stuff. I'd think more people would take an interest, especially when they are in their cars hunting for spots taken up by all the projects. Not me tho. Got my garage permit for the second year in a row. No hunting for me. Best $260 I ever paid.
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  #19  
Old Posted Aug 30, 2007, 12:35 AM
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Originally Posted by TXlifeguard View Post
There has been discussion of expanding the two-story garage, but the un-sourced information posted here specifically called the garage a "South-Campus Parking Garage". The existing garage in question is decidedly on the north half of campus. It's actually one of the northern-most structures on that campus, so I am all confused, as usual.
I tried emailing them a couple times for any updates/answers and they still haven't replied. No surprise. You seem to have a great understanding of what's going on around campus so if you hear anything new let us know, it's much appreciated. Thanks again.
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Old Posted Aug 30, 2007, 8:32 AM
TXlifeguard TXlifeguard is offline
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I tried emailing them a couple times for any updates/answers and they still haven't replied. No surprise. You seem to have a great understanding of what's going on around campus so if you hear anything new let us know, it's much appreciated. Thanks again.

Will do. I was on the original planning committee for the rec & wellness center back in 95/96, have a good friend who was on the 2020 Master Plan committee, and several friends who are on the board of directors for the alumni association. So I'll hear stuff on occasion. I'm fascinated with the original construction of the campus, (on the early pages of the above sourced master plan) regarding the layout, walkability, and how they realized the unique opportunity they were in to do something unique. And they did. The original central core of the campus (JPL, HSS, MS, Science, Arts, and Physical Plant buildings) are one of the largest groupings of Brutalist architecture in the southern or southwest US (UT-Austin has some great Brutalist buildings too).
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