UT Austin considers demolition of historic building on campus

Historic building at UT may be demolished

Time is running out to keep an Austin historic building on UT campus from becoming a thing of the past.

AUSTIN, Texas - "Save the past for the future." That is the message from a group trying to keep the wrecking ball away from a historic building on UT campus.

The Hicks School of Social Work building is located about a block away from DKR Stadium. The University of Texas plans to knock down the Hicks building and use the site for a new athletic field.

The building was once the "University Junior High" and was the first racially integrated school in Austin, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Inside the main lobby of the Spanish Revival building is a large mural painted by renowned artist Raul Valdez.

In an op/ed article, co-written by former UT professor Barbara Anderson, the university was asked to keep the building in place. Anderson spoke to FOX 7 about the campaign to save Hicks.

"I think we continue to lose the concrete evidence that the past here is important. The past tells us a richer story about who we are today. I can't imagine going to Florence, Italy and just seeing markers of where the Pizza Palace was," said Anderson.

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The building is in need of repair, but Anderson believes it can still provide a service to the university and the community.

"People have a pretty fatalistic view of their capacity as individuals to create change. And I think what we would like to do is encourage people not to give up and to think that until that wrecking ball smashes the building, this is not a done deal," said Anderson.

A website was created to provide information about the building and the campaign to save it.

Using the site for an athletic field is not a fair trade, according to Anderson.

"I think what's so startling about this is this magnificent building with its history, with its trees and its art. They're going to be destroyed so that you can have another practice field for football," said Anderson.

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University officials say the School of Social Work has outgrown the building. The program is being moved, in late May, into what is currently the McCombs School of Business, which is also being relocated. In a statement sent to FOX 7, a spokesperson said UT will honor the site's historical significance as part of the new athletic facility.

Read the full statement below:

"Relocation of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work represents a significant long-term investment in a perennial Top 10 academic program that outgrew its current space more than a decade ago and requires a modernized facility. The prominence of the school’s future location, in the heart of the UT campus in what is currently the McCombs School of Business, will enhance the stature and accessibility of our Social Work academic programs and allow the school’s entire operations, currently spread across three separate buildings, to be housed in a single space. The school’s current building is beyond its useful life and will be replaced with infrastructure that is best suited for our limited campus footprint. Honoring its historical significance as the first racially integrated school in Austin is of great importance to our University and surrounding communities and the University is committed to doing so as part of a new Athletics facility and in the School of Social Work’s future, permanent home."