The Scobee Education Center is the merger of two entities dedicated to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S.T.E.M.) education. These two facilities are the Francis R. Scobee Planetarium, which has been a primary school field trip destination for over fifty years, and the local chapter of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education (Challenger Center). The Challenger Center was founded by the families of the Space Shuttle Challenger calamity to carry on the crew’s mission of education.

It was challenging to integrate the Scobee Education Center into the San Antonio College Campus; since it is bordered by the Chemistry Building on the north, the central plant on the east, student parking on the south, and a pedestrian mall on the west.  The primary issue was fitting 21,000 square feet of new building in this constricted space while providing viewing angles for the existing planetarium dome, a local landmark.

This obstacle was overcome by creating a triangular main gallery to provide excellent views of the dome from the pedestrian mall. The dome was then set in a sloped steel truss that bisects it. Glazed on one side, this truss acts as a setting for the “jewel” of the center, the planetarium.