How to find house plans for existing home in San Antonio (city hall, houses)

[austins.dad]

I am looking for plans to an existing home built in the 1970's it suffered a fire a few years ago and I am curious as to what is different about it now as opposed to prior to the fire. Anyone have any ideas or a contact person that can help?

I have checked with City Hall, they tell me that they keep them only for 1 year. It has been about 2-3 years since the fire I think.

[iliveinsa]

If you know the architect or builder that might be a good place to start.

If it was only a few years ago you can probably get some info by checking the aerials on google maps and bing maps to see what it looks like (their aerials are typically a few years old, and make sure you check various angles and heights, as they may be from different time periods.)

Finally, if there are similar houses in the neighborhood, often a few different plans were built by the same builder, so you can knock on a neighbor's door.

[TrapperL]

The likelihood of you finding plans on a house built in the 70's are about as good as finding the correct numbers to the lottery. The odds are about the same if the house was built in the 90's. Builders are always updating plans and a house down the street may have a bath option or ceiling option yours does or does not have. Yer kinda outa luck on this venture. But I'll give you a hint, very few houses were designed by architects back in the 70's in SA. Most were plans drawn up by a designer and David Gonzalez, who is still around, designed tens of thousands of them.

[iliveinsa]

So you are probably thinking, "well in the movies, how are they always able to log onto some computer and get detailed specifications for any building including the size of the air vents they plan to shimmy down?" You are right. But just decide to suspend your disbelief and enjoy the movie.