Increasing Capacity to Save Animal Lives: Canine Stray Kennel for the City of San Antonio Animal Care Services

Animal Care, Architecture, Civic Building, Planning, Work in Progress

We are pleased to announce the approval by City Council of our project fee to design a supporting Stray Kennel facility at the City of San Antonio’s Animal Care Services southwest-area campus. “It is meaningful to have the opportunity to support the animal care community through architectural design of this much-needed expansion in services for intake dogs,” notes Billy Lawrence, AIA.

On May 1, 2025, San Antonio City Council approved a budget for our firm to proceed with design of a new 52-kennel, 7,880 square-foot stray dog adoption kennel facility. Preliminary architectural design, based on our completed site analysis and master plan, will provide a basis for cost estimation to begin the development process.

The proposed scope of the Stray Kennel is to expand the department’s capacity to shelter intake animals for longer holds, positively impacting the live release rate – a key metric in the public conversation around animal welfare. Potential amenities include spaces to welcome the public to view and interact with adoptable strays. The building layout, as envisioned, is subdivided into four kennel areas, constructed to handle the wear and tear of animal habitation and cleaning processes, and optimized to meet the Association of Shelter Veterinarians’ high operational standards. The building profile and exterior material specifications anticipate an easy fit into the existing campus design language of metal and stucco.

Expanding the 2007 Footprint: New Master Plan Analysis and Veterinary Hospital

Established in 2007, the southwest side campus of the City of San Antonio Animal Care Services (ACS) is undergoing a growth cycle. In 2023, we collaborated with ACS leadership to design a campus master plan supporting anticipated growth in demand for services over the coming decades. Since then, we have enjoyed several opportunities to lead architectural design for the next expansion phase, beginning with the plan’s centerpiece, the veterinary hospital. The 14,500 SF, state-of-the-art veterinary hospital represents a major expansion in services. In additional work with ACS, we have focused on optimizing campus infrastructure: we have proposed a renovation to the 3,000 SF existing clinic, provided services for a campus-wide electrical resiliency generator upgrade, and added offices for growing numbers of administrative and shelter staff.