Urban

CAST TECH is a high school within a high school.  Located on the campus of Fox Tech in downtown San Antonio, they offer the typical fundamental classes you would find in a standard high school plus a focus on coding, cybersecurity, gaming, entrepreneurship, business & design.

Each year in early June, thousands of designers from across the country and beyond descend upon Chicago to attend what many consider to be the most important event of the year for the commercial design industry – NeoCon.

If you aren’t familiar with the iconic modern furniture company, Knoll International, then allow us to take you on a journey through a piece of design history with a local connection. The company was founded by Hans Knoll in 1938 in New York City, and after his death in 1955, his wife Florence Knoll took over as head of the company.  Florence Knoll was not just a business owner but a forward-thinking designer.

Last year was a great one for M!SA as we continued to highlight many different talented local people and projects!  Below are our top 5 most viewed articles of 2018!

One of San Antonio's newest public parks, Confluence Park, opened in early 2018 with a flood of praise and news coverage spanning across the globe. This praise also extended into a prestigious design award.  In January 2019, Confluence Park won an A.I.A. (American Institute of Architects) 2019 Institute Honor Award for Architecture.

McCullough Avenue is a major thoroughfare into downtown San Antonio. As it intersects downtown, various entities that serve the surrounding community are found here such as healthcare, faith-based, nonprofits, and businesses.

Named the 5th fastest growing law firm in the nation by Law Firm 500, local Patel | Gaines is on the fast track to the top. Not only do they offer their clients innovative strategies to their commercial real estate challenges, but their new building, due to open in Spring 2018, is a physical manifestation of these innovative strategies as well. After working for several well-established law firms in the nation, Rahul Patel and Grant Gaines found themselves disillusioned by the corporate structure of the law practices in which they worked.

Shade. It is something that San Antonians desperately seek out as respite from the grueling heat and sun. Even those who design multi-story buildings in an urban South Texas environment rely on shade devices to help with solar gain. One common exterior strategy for shading is to use the overhang of the roof, but for a multi-story commercial building this can prove to be a challenge, and vegetation or high-tech glass only goes so far.

One recent rainy morning, MiSA had the pleasure of meeting the folks with CREO Architecture for coffee at Estate Coffee Company just East of downtown to discuss this city-on-the-rise and it’s promising future. We discussed their individual experience, how CREO came to be, and their vision for the future.  

If you have not had a chance to be a patron of the new La Panaderia downtown off Houston Street, then ándale because you are in for a treat! You may have been to the location off of Broadway, but the location off East Houston Street is special, not only because of the food, but the design and operations as well.