Campuses
From 2006 to 2009, UTSA completed over $250 million in construction projects. The school underwent an extensive remodel in 2009 of older buildings including the JPL, HSS, and MS buildings. North Paseo Building, a $15 million office building, started housing ROTC operations when it opened in October 2011. A new ceramics studio broke ground in 2009 and two adjacent science buildings underwent $24 million in renovations. The $83 million Applied Engineering and Technology building opened in 2009. The East Parking Garage, a $30 million 5-level parking garage, is planned to open July 2012. It will also include a coffee shop, apparel shop, and office space. Dining services at UTSA also expanded in 2008 continuing through 2011. New additions include two Starbucks, Panda Express, Taco Cabana, Burger King, and Chili's Too. Other new services on-campus include a hair salon, technology store, UPS store, and DVD rental kiosks.
The Main Campus, the oldest and largest of the three, was born out of a 600 acre donation to the University of Texas Board of Regents. It proved to be so controversially remote to the city (at the time) that many San Antonians nicknamed it "University of Texas at Boerne" or "UT Boerne". The Main Campus opened its doors in 1975. Prior to that, classes were held at the Koger Center at Babcock Road and Loop 410. Roadrunner Cafe, the university's first dining hall, was erected in 2005. In 2006, UTSA acquired a 125 acre swath of land on Hausman Road to build its future athletics complex. Named "Park West", the site brings the Main Campus up to 725 acres in total. Up until 2009 it was known as the "1604 Campus", at which point it was renamed the "Main Campus" so as to better reflect its importance within the university and community as a whole. Students can live at one of the campus' four housing complexes: Chisholm Hall, Laurel Village, Chaparral Village and University Oaks. In addition to the upcoming San Saba Hall, three new residence halls are under construction and should be complete by 2022. The UTSA Master Plan, the university's structural plan for the future, focuses on developing the Main Campus in several key areas. Its plans for the campus include the expansion of academic facilities, major growth in on-campus amenities, implementing a long-term strategy for parking and the establishment of a college town.
The Downtown Campus is located in Downtown San Antonio and houses the College of Public Policy, the College of Architecture and the Texas State Data Center. In early 1993, the demolition of Fiesta Plaza made way for what would become the Downtown Campus. While construction was underway, the campus made its temporary home at Cypress Tower on Main Street, offering its first classes in January 1994. Its permanent location on I-10 and Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard (formerly Durango Boulevard) was completed in 1997. Today, the Downtown Campus is composed of four buildings, a 19,000 square foot library and parking for over 2,200 vehicles all in over 18 acres of space. It boasted 6,824 students in 2012, 4,188 of which take classes at both the Main and Downtown Campuses. A new bus-rapid transit line, VIA Primo, is scheduled to open in late 2012. This will allow students to quickly commute between the UTSA Main Campus and the Downtown Campus. A streetcar is also planned that will connect the Downtown Campus to the HemisFair Park Campus. The Master Plan states that some of goals for the Downtown Campus include the expansion of on-campus amenities, the reinforcement of the campus' identity and the growth of civic spaces.
The UTSA HemisFair Park Campus, also in Downtown San Antonio, stands as the third branch of UTSA, holding the Institute of Texan Cultures museum. The ITC (as it is also known) was originally built for HemisFair '68 and turned over to the University of Texas System afterwards. The system designated it as a campus of UTSA in 1986. It currently serves as a valuable asset for historical research, housing both UTSA's archives and an impressive historic photography collection with over 3,000,000 images. The City of San Antonio is currently developing a long-term strategic plan for HemisFair Park, and the university is still considering multiple options for its own vision of the facility.
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