The Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center is located in downtown San Antonio along the banks of the San Antonio River Walk.
The facility is the central component of the city’s successful convention industry. The center, named for the late U.S. congressman Henry B. Gonzalez, hosts more than 300 events each year with over 750,000 convention delegates from around the world.
The original convention center was built as part of HemisFair '68 by a joint venture of two general contractors Darragh & Lyda Inc. of San Antonio, Texas and H. A. Lott Inc. of Houston, Texas, but has been significantly altered and expanded since then. Today it is a 1,300,000 square feet (120,000 m2) state-of-the-art facility with 203,000 sq ft (18,900 m2). of meeting space, 3 ballrooms, 4 contiguous exhibit halls over 440,000 sq ft (41,000 m2). and the adjacent 2,500-seat Lila Cockrell Theatre, a performing arts venue, which is part of the original construction.
A new 1,003-room convention center hotel and condominium tower, The Grand Hyatt San Antonio, designed by the renowned architecture firm Arquitectonica, opened in 2009.