The groundbreaking event held for the City of San Antonio’s Material Innovation Center (MIC) was held on November 8, 2022. A culmination of more than a year of partnership development with Port San Antonio, the MIC’s groundbreaking brought together City and Port leadership, reuse advocates, and deconstruction stakeholders to celebrate the launch of the center + the passage of the City’s deconstruction ordinance. The groundbreaking also highlighted an advanced architecture studio at UTSA, who displayed their work focused on utilizing salvaged building materials to design small-scale housing, using the MIC as a learning laboratory.

In addition to the serving as event coordination lead, I drafted press releases for media requests; wrote speaking points for all speakers; designed promotional flyers and performed targeted outreach; designed reuse-themed buttons as attendee giveaways; painted the “Choose to Reuse” sign used during the event; and created handmade, commemorative wooden “houses” for VIP attendees out of reclaimed lumber.