Re-purposed Buildings in San Antonio, Texas


During a visit to San Antonio, I was blown away by the number of re-purposed older buildings the city has employed.  And I'm not writing about the re-purposing of the Alamo into a tourist destination.

 First site I became aware of was the Southwest School of the Arts. The school is located in the former Ursuline Convent and Girl’s Academy. The site has two campuses.  The first is in the refurbished buildings of the first school for girls in San Antonio and houses the ceramic and fibers studios (along with a small museum.)  


The second campus is cattycorner on the other side of the street housing the contemporary exhibition galleries and its high-tech classrooms for photography, metals printmaking, digital imaging, paper and books. 


This building us a re-purposed Sears and Roebuck automobile repair facility.

 This corner of Navarro St. and Augusta St must be the epicenter for re-purposed buildings in San Antonio.  The two buildings above are joined by the San Antonio Public Library on the third corner of this intersection. 


Look at that building!  It is the former main Sears building. It is more art than architecture.

A few blocks from this site, is Artpace, which I am told was a former automobile dealership and Firestone Tire store. (no picture)

 The showcase of all re-purposed buildings in San Antonio has to be the San Antonio Museum of Art that is housed in the former Lone Star Brewing Company.

Outside this building was an interesting sign I took a picture of.


Ponder that.




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