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Built originally as the Texas Pavilion for Hemisfair ’68, what San Antonians know as the Institute of Texan Cultures (ITC) is now closed, and it may be nearing demolition.
But the Conservation Society is trying to use the law to keep that from happening.
The group's Lewis Vetter announced on Wednesday that the Society has taken a new step to preserve the ITC.
“What happened this morning is we filed a lawsuit involving the University of Texas at San Antonio, and the City of San Antonio, with the objective of stopping the demolition that's occurring today,” Vetter explained at a news conference.
“We have seen major systems being removed from the structure, HVAC systems and a number of other things,” he said. “It's a very destructive process that they're using.”
The ITC was originally deeded to the University of Texas System to be used for the public. But Vetter said UTSA is doing an end-around to circumvent the law.
Universities are allowed to demolish buildings to build new educational ones, but the city intends to build something else entirely.
“The nature of our lawsuit is that the city and UTSA are not following the rules prescribed for buildings such as this,” explained Art Martinez de Vara, the group's attorney.
He added: “Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act prohibits preemptive demolition of historical buildings with certain designations, including the one that it has, and so you're not supposed to be demolishing a building without first conducting certain studies, such as feasibility of reuse."
“That deed restriction is for the building to be used, and that's why we say, make that part of the Project Marvel,” Vetter said. Project Marvel is what the city is calling the sports and entertainment district it will build after the ITC is demolished.
“We made numerous open records, public information requests to the city and university to disclose any agreements or anything that may otherwise have exempted the city, and of course, they didn't respond,” Martinez de Vara added.
In a statement, UTSA said that it is the university's policy to not comment on pending litigation. It added: “Our efforts to redevelop the Texas Pavilion property have been and will continue to be in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.”
Martinez De Vara said the Conservation Society expects to file an injunction to halt the demolition in the coming weeks.
