The Henry B Gonzalez Center – A San Antonio Roofing Study

The Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center

The next San Antonio commercial roofing masterpiece that I want to cover today is the Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center.

You’ve probably seen the Convention Center. It’s located downtown near the Hemisfair Tower and has a 1,600,000 square feet footprint and hosts around 300 events per year. It includes 203,000 square feet of meeting space, 2 ballrooms (one of which is the largest in Texas at 54,000 square feet), and 4 exhibit halls. It was built in 1968 as part of the HemisFair ’68 World Fair.

Here’s what I learned about the Henry B Gonzalez Center’s roof and why I view it as a San Antonio Commercial Roofing icon:

• In the 1980s, a gravel asphalt roof was installed on the Center
•  In 2009, that existing asphalt system was replaced with a brand new TPO roof installation
•  In 2016, a new insulated TPO roof system was installed
• As part of the 2016 roof install, a waterproofing system was constructed
•  In 2018, a claim was created by for a roof replacement after an April 2018 hail storm inflicted severe damage to the roof
• The San Antonio City Council approved the roof replacement project
• Currently the roof is in the process of being replaced

It makes sense that a roof of that size would require so much up-keep. Unfortunately, it’s all too common of an occurrence around San Antonio, both from a commercial and residential roofing standpoint – severe hail storms tend to do a number on roofing systems on San Antonio’s roofing.