The Plaza de Armas project is a set of four historic buildings dating to the 1880s and 1890s, which were combined into one larger office complex in 1979 totaling approximately 58,000 square feet. The City of San Antonio purchased the building in 1987 and occupied it until October 2011 when the departments housed in the building were relocated in anticipation of the current improvements project. Ford, Powell & Carson Architects teamed with Byrne Construction Services for this Design-Build project; the goal of the improvements project was to renovate the Plaza de Armas building to house the Office of Communications and Public Affairs and the Department of Culture and Creative Development, which included the design of two television studios.
The first floor houses a new 2,400 square foot multipurpose space curated by the Department of Culture and Creative Development and two 2,200 square foot televisions studios, one for Public Access and one for Government Access. The building housing the television studios has a completely new steel structure floating between the existing masonry party walls to provide sound isolation for the studios. The studios sit on a sound isolated floating concrete slab to further enhance the acoustics. A state-of-the-art Skyfold Door divides the two studios, which can be combined for larger performances and events. A twin suite of control rooms, editing suites and green rooms serve the two studios.