In a surprise move last Friday, The Texas Historic Commission granted State Antiquities Landmark status to the University Junior High School building — a 91-year-old building most recently home to the University of Texas School of Social Work but eyed as a location for a UT football practice facility. All said, this is not expected to delay finish of new practice facility once demolition stsrts. Apparently
Kevin Eltife had a strategy of not contesting the process for designation, rather letting it go through as quickly as possible to then simply adhere to the now stricter permitting policy.
Lily Kepner
Austin American-Statesman USA TODAY NETWORK
The Texas Historical Commission on Friday granted State Antiquities Landmark status to the University Junior High School building — a 91-year-old building most recently home to the University of Texas School of Social Work but eyed as a location for a UT football practice facility.
The State Antiquities Advisory Board recommended the building for landmark status in April after a UT alum submitted an application. The advisory board’s recommendation delayed UT’s scheduled demolition of the building over the summer, and the commission’s designation Friday further prevents UT from making significant alterations to the property before obtaining a permit from the commission, Chris Florance, the commission’s communications director, told the American-Statesman.
“We were shocked and utterly delighted,” Barbara Anderson, a retired social work professor who had worked in the building for 25 years and co-founded the “Save the Past for the fUTure coalition,” which created a petition against the demolition, told the Statesman in an interview after the commission’s vote Friday at its quarterly board meeting in Tyler. She and six others who testified before the commission wore homemade shirts with pictures of the historic building.
The landmark status doesn’t bar UT from demolishing the building, but it adds a more rigorous permitting process before any changes can be done. Depending on UT’s action, it could initiate an administrative hearing to determine if the space’s historic significance outweighs its benefit to UT’s educational
mission, Florance said.
The University Junior High School started from a joint partnership between UT and Austin school district in 1933 to train teachers and meet the city’s growing demand for schools. With its Spanish Revival design, it sits on the southeastern corner of campus sandwiched between athletics facilities and towering legacy oak trees.
George Dahl was the architect. Dahl, who was advised by Paul Phillipe Cret, was also the architect of other prized UT buildings such as the UT Tower.
University Junior High School was a leader in desegregating schools in Austin in the 1950s, and it is home to the 1990s mural “Heart and Soul” by Raúl Valdez celebrating social work. The building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2001 — a designation that does not block demolition but recognizes the building’s storied history. Since 1994, it has been the home of the School of Social Work, though UT officials confirmed at the commission’s meeting Friday that the social work staff had relocated to a temporary location about eight weeks ago.
The application for State Antiquities Landmark status was submitted by Edwin Bautisa, a UT alum. Bautisa read about the planned demolition in the sports section of the Statesman while eating lunch at Littlefield Café last spring. Then a graduate student, he visited the building and felt strongly connected to its history.
“When I went inside of it, I just felt like an immediate connection to the space and the history of it,” Bautisa said. “The State Antiquity Landmark designation was something that was seen, in my view, as a last stop effort to make UT understand that this building means more to the community than they think it does.”
What’s UT’s response?
UT could have contested the designation ahead of the July meeting, seeking an administrative hearing, but it did not. UT spokesperson Mike Rosen has said the institution respects the process and is committed to capturing the history in other ways, such as through a 20minute documentary created in December.
Kim Barker, UT’s preservation planner, said at the meeting that the building’s use for academic purposes is impractical as it’s farther from the majority of academic buildings at the center of campus. UT System Board Chair Kevin Eltife told commission board members that UT has a history of prizing preservation — the university plans to make an exhibit from the building’s artifacts, build a fountain to celebrate UT’s first Black students and create a “360 virtual video” of the building.
“It should not be lost on anyone the millions and millions of dollars the UT System spends on preservation,” Eltife told commissioners at the meeting before the vote, pointing to other UT System renovation efforts like the restoration of the UT Tower. “But there does come a time when it just isn’t feasible to maintain and keep the building. ... We can leave it and let it sit there, but it’s not in the best interest of the university.”
UT has said the building would be too cost-prohibitive to renovate, with 2015 estimates exceeding $50 million, but Bautisa said the university’s recent renovations such as the Hogg Memorial Auditorium — also designed by Cret — and UT Tower’s planned $70 million renovation prove the university has the resources to protect it.
“It really just goes beyond a building, but really a connection that can’t be severed to the past. Because it can never be replaced,” Bautisa told the Statesman before the commission’s vote.
Kathy Armenta, a retired UT social work professor who taught in the building for 20 years and co-founded “Save the Past for the fUTure coalition” with Anderson, said she is “overjoyed” by the commission’s vote.
“We’re fighting, trying to keep it, keep it alive,” Armenta said in an interview before the vote. “We always felt like it was football versus social work, but now it’s football just versus history.”
The grassroots effort to save the building is supported by University Junior High alumni, Austin’s Historic Landmark Commission and the Asian American Cultural Center. This year, Preservation Texas also named the University Junior High School on its list of Texas’ Most Endangered Places, writing that demolishing it for a football practice field “disregards the building’s architectural, historical, and cultural significance.”
Armenta, who wove the building’s history into her classes, is fighting in her retirement for its preservation so that others can see “this point in history where UT was doing the right thing” — especially in light of state lawmakers’ attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion on college campuses, she said.
“History is important for understanding our story and for acknowledging and celebrating the significant events that have contributed to the progress that we’ve made so far and the things that we don’t want to do again that are bad,” Armenta said. “The building represents a point in time where there was a big effort to provide justice through education, and the university was a part of it. And that’s significant.”
What’s next?
UT Athletics’ current practice field is about a 10-minute walk from Moncrief-Neuhaus stadium — or a short charter bus ride away, which coaches typically opt for. If UT is successful in arguing its case for the building’s demolition, a new football practice facility would take the place of the University Junior High School building, and the School of Social Work would eventually relocate to the building that currently houses the McCombs School of Business, which will move to its new location, Mulva Hall, when that building opens in 2028.
Bautisa drove to Tyler, about 230 miles northeast of Austin, early Friday to testify before the commission. If the building is saved from demolition, he hopes it can have better public accessibility and engagement about its history with the local community.
Anderson and Armenta hope the commission’s vote encourages UT to reconsider its plan to demolish the building and that it serves as a rallying cry for more people to join the movement to preserve it.
“It’s a public university, and we the people have a stake,” Anderson said.
UT BUILDING
from page B1 to page B9
Artist Raul Valdez visits the mural he painted that is displayed in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas on May 11, 2023. MIKALA COMPTON/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
From left, Liz Nowicki, Barbara Anderson, Juanramon Rubio, Edwin Bautista, Berri McBride, Kathy Armenta and Richard Armenta are part of the “Save the Past for the fUTure” coalition seeking to preserve the former University Junior High School building. PROVIDED BY LIZ NOWSKI
Kevin Eltife had a strategy of not contesting the process for designation, rather letting it go through as quickly as possible to then simply adhere to the now stricter permitting policy.
Lily Kepner
Austin American-Statesman USA TODAY NETWORK
The Texas Historical Commission on Friday granted State Antiquities Landmark status to the University Junior High School building — a 91-year-old building most recently home to the University of Texas School of Social Work but eyed as a location for a UT football practice facility.
The State Antiquities Advisory Board recommended the building for landmark status in April after a UT alum submitted an application. The advisory board’s recommendation delayed UT’s scheduled demolition of the building over the summer, and the commission’s designation Friday further prevents UT from making significant alterations to the property before obtaining a permit from the commission, Chris Florance, the commission’s communications director, told the American-Statesman.
“We were shocked and utterly delighted,” Barbara Anderson, a retired social work professor who had worked in the building for 25 years and co-founded the “Save the Past for the fUTure coalition,” which created a petition against the demolition, told the Statesman in an interview after the commission’s vote Friday at its quarterly board meeting in Tyler. She and six others who testified before the commission wore homemade shirts with pictures of the historic building.
The landmark status doesn’t bar UT from demolishing the building, but it adds a more rigorous permitting process before any changes can be done. Depending on UT’s action, it could initiate an administrative hearing to determine if the space’s historic significance outweighs its benefit to UT’s educational
mission, Florance said.
The University Junior High School started from a joint partnership between UT and Austin school district in 1933 to train teachers and meet the city’s growing demand for schools. With its Spanish Revival design, it sits on the southeastern corner of campus sandwiched between athletics facilities and towering legacy oak trees.
George Dahl was the architect. Dahl, who was advised by Paul Phillipe Cret, was also the architect of other prized UT buildings such as the UT Tower.
University Junior High School was a leader in desegregating schools in Austin in the 1950s, and it is home to the 1990s mural “Heart and Soul” by Raúl Valdez celebrating social work. The building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2001 — a designation that does not block demolition but recognizes the building’s storied history. Since 1994, it has been the home of the School of Social Work, though UT officials confirmed at the commission’s meeting Friday that the social work staff had relocated to a temporary location about eight weeks ago.
The application for State Antiquities Landmark status was submitted by Edwin Bautisa, a UT alum. Bautisa read about the planned demolition in the sports section of the Statesman while eating lunch at Littlefield Café last spring. Then a graduate student, he visited the building and felt strongly connected to its history.
“When I went inside of it, I just felt like an immediate connection to the space and the history of it,” Bautisa said. “The State Antiquity Landmark designation was something that was seen, in my view, as a last stop effort to make UT understand that this building means more to the community than they think it does.”
What’s UT’s response?
UT could have contested the designation ahead of the July meeting, seeking an administrative hearing, but it did not. UT spokesperson Mike Rosen has said the institution respects the process and is committed to capturing the history in other ways, such as through a 20minute documentary created in December.
Kim Barker, UT’s preservation planner, said at the meeting that the building’s use for academic purposes is impractical as it’s farther from the majority of academic buildings at the center of campus. UT System Board Chair Kevin Eltife told commission board members that UT has a history of prizing preservation — the university plans to make an exhibit from the building’s artifacts, build a fountain to celebrate UT’s first Black students and create a “360 virtual video” of the building.
“It should not be lost on anyone the millions and millions of dollars the UT System spends on preservation,” Eltife told commissioners at the meeting before the vote, pointing to other UT System renovation efforts like the restoration of the UT Tower. “But there does come a time when it just isn’t feasible to maintain and keep the building. ... We can leave it and let it sit there, but it’s not in the best interest of the university.”
UT has said the building would be too cost-prohibitive to renovate, with 2015 estimates exceeding $50 million, but Bautisa said the university’s recent renovations such as the Hogg Memorial Auditorium — also designed by Cret — and UT Tower’s planned $70 million renovation prove the university has the resources to protect it.
“It really just goes beyond a building, but really a connection that can’t be severed to the past. Because it can never be replaced,” Bautisa told the Statesman before the commission’s vote.
Kathy Armenta, a retired UT social work professor who taught in the building for 20 years and co-founded “Save the Past for the fUTure coalition” with Anderson, said she is “overjoyed” by the commission’s vote.
“We’re fighting, trying to keep it, keep it alive,” Armenta said in an interview before the vote. “We always felt like it was football versus social work, but now it’s football just versus history.”
The grassroots effort to save the building is supported by University Junior High alumni, Austin’s Historic Landmark Commission and the Asian American Cultural Center. This year, Preservation Texas also named the University Junior High School on its list of Texas’ Most Endangered Places, writing that demolishing it for a football practice field “disregards the building’s architectural, historical, and cultural significance.”
Armenta, who wove the building’s history into her classes, is fighting in her retirement for its preservation so that others can see “this point in history where UT was doing the right thing” — especially in light of state lawmakers’ attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion on college campuses, she said.
“History is important for understanding our story and for acknowledging and celebrating the significant events that have contributed to the progress that we’ve made so far and the things that we don’t want to do again that are bad,” Armenta said. “The building represents a point in time where there was a big effort to provide justice through education, and the university was a part of it. And that’s significant.”
What’s next?
UT Athletics’ current practice field is about a 10-minute walk from Moncrief-Neuhaus stadium — or a short charter bus ride away, which coaches typically opt for. If UT is successful in arguing its case for the building’s demolition, a new football practice facility would take the place of the University Junior High School building, and the School of Social Work would eventually relocate to the building that currently houses the McCombs School of Business, which will move to its new location, Mulva Hall, when that building opens in 2028.
Bautisa drove to Tyler, about 230 miles northeast of Austin, early Friday to testify before the commission. If the building is saved from demolition, he hopes it can have better public accessibility and engagement about its history with the local community.
Anderson and Armenta hope the commission’s vote encourages UT to reconsider its plan to demolish the building and that it serves as a rallying cry for more people to join the movement to preserve it.
“It’s a public university, and we the people have a stake,” Anderson said.
UT BUILDING
from page B1 to page B9
Artist Raul Valdez visits the mural he painted that is displayed in the School of Social Work at the University of Texas on May 11, 2023. MIKALA COMPTON/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
From left, Liz Nowicki, Barbara Anderson, Juanramon Rubio, Edwin Bautista, Berri McBride, Kathy Armenta and Richard Armenta are part of the “Save the Past for the fUTure” coalition seeking to preserve the former University Junior High School building. PROVIDED BY LIZ NOWSKI
