Latino Heritage Internship Program

The Latino Heritage Internship Program (LHIP) is a partnership with the National Park Service and Environment for the Americas designed to provide internship opportunities for young adults, with an emphasis on Latinos, in a variety of career fields. The program helps raise awareness of public lands, including national parks, and engage the next generation of stewards.

Summer 2024 Project

The selected intern(s) will produce Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) measured and interpretative drawings of the Alazán-Apache Courts Leasing and Community Center Building and select historic structures associated with this endangered public housing complex in San Antonio, Texas. The interns will also write a short-form HABS historical report on the structures under the guidance of a HABS Historian and others familiar with the site. There will be a 5-day trip to the site to undertake field measurements by hand and with a laser scanner. Travel expenses will be reimbursed by HABS/HAER/HALS.

The internship will provide the students with marketable skills that will further their professional career in architecture, historic preservation, and the use of new technologies. The position requires ability in hand-sketching and hand-measuring in the field, the production of detailed, as-built, measured drawings of the Alazán-Apache Courts in AutoCAD. The selected interns will learn about various documentation methods such as photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanning, including being introduced to several new software programs. The HABS team will produce standard two-dimensional architectural drawings (site plans, floor plans, elevations, sections, and architectural details, etc.) to HABS standards. There is potential for some drawing in 3D and 3D modeling. The interns will also write a short-form HABS historical report on the buildings being recorded under the guidance of a HABS historian and/or others knowledgeable in the history of "Los Courts." Upon completion, the documentation produced will be transmitted to the HABS/HAER/HALS Collection at the Library of Congress where it will be permanently archived and made available to a world-wide audience online. The internship position is supervised by a permanent architect of the Heritage Documentation Programs (HABS/HAER/HALS) staff.

The Site

Opened in 1940-41, the Alazán-Apache Courts—aka Los Courts—is the oldest and largest extant public housing complex in San Antonio. Located in the city’s predominately Mexican American Westside, and conceived at a time when housing, schools, and public facilities were legally segregated, Los Courts have provided affordable housing for San Antonio’s working poor, in an area where historically families have struggled with poverty, lack of municipal services, severe flood conditions, and high death rates. The Alazán-Apache Courts not only introduced critical infrastructure to the Westside, but for nearly 80 years have provided a critical safety net for thousands of people who have contributed to the growth of the city, a city that is currently experiencing a growing affordable housing crisis.

Los Courts appeared on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places” in 2020 hoping to raise awareness of this threatened and endangered site. Although the courts provide the San Antonio community with affordable housing and represent a part of Mexican-American history, the San Antonio Housing Authority is planning to demolish some of these historic structures.

How to Apply

Last updated: December 20, 2023

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