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BUILDING
Architectural Design of the
Bexar County Medical Society Building
A tribute to the rich history of San Antonio
By Frederick “Tex” Liedtka, Chesney Morales Architects
On the first meeting with BCMS we were given a tour of their
existing, leased offices. As I was getting familiar with the style and
personality of the organization and taking note of the room sizes
and requirements, I was struck by the fact that this medical society
not only provides professional support, advocacy, continuing edu-
cation, social and community activities to the medical community,
but they are also the archivists that record and preserve the rich his- Texas architecture with modern energy efficiency, building systems
tory of medicine, medical technology and medical professionals in
South Texas and San Antonio. As the vision and character of the
new building was discussed with Stephen Fitzer, the CEO of BCMS,
it was clear that their new home was to stand out, to be welcoming
and was to reflect the history and traditions of San Antonio.
As good stewards, BCMS and their planning and design team en-
visioned this building not only as a new home but also saw it as a
real-estate commodity to accommodate future growth, to generate
revenue and accrue value as a commercial property that is compet-
itive in today’s market. We designed this as a multi-tenant building
with the first floor open for leasing and with BCMS occupying the
second floor.
DEDICATION
BCMS and the design team brought their sophisticated develop-
ment knowledge, disciplined fiscal approach and creative solutions
throughout the duration of the project. Or in other words, good de-
cisions were collectively made by the team and we kept this project
in budget. The result is a blend of new technology with regional
colonial mission style that incorporates the iconic forms of South
and methods. The Interior was designed with ample bookshelves to
hold their medical library. The hallways were expanded and trans-
formed into galleries to display the history of the medical society.
We recently received photographs of the finished building and
were pleased and amazed on how similar they are to the initial design
rendering. This accomplishment reflects the skill, talents and effec-
tiveness of the ownership, design team and contractors’ construction
team. On behalf of myself and Javier Zamora, who was the Chesney
Morales point person with the construction team, we are grateful
for the opportunity to design such a unique, quality structure for
the medical society and the residents of Bexar County.
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