The west wing of the Texas Tech Library, completed in 1975 in Lubbock, Texas, and designed by Atcheson, Atkinson, Cartwright and Rorex; Stiles, Roberts, Messersmith and Johnson; and Schmidt, Tisdel and Associates.
Photographer: Ben KoushModern Architecture Is Bigger in Texas
An expansive new book on the adventurous mid-century buildings of Texas tracks the cultural reach and style innovations of a state coming into its own.
Pulling together a survey of the best modern architecture in Texas is a tall order. After all, the state is known for its striking skylines, built by the likes of Philip Johnson and I.M. Pei, whose gleaming corporate towers were beamed into millions of American homes as the backdrop for the prime-time 1980s soap Dallas. Yet Texas also has its own quiet thread of Frank Lloyd Wright–style Americana, with firms such as MacKie and Kamrath elaborating a Lone Star dialect of the Prairie School idiom. And then there’s O’Neil Ford, in a category all his own, a designer who drew his inspiration from common ranches and homes built by Texans over centuries, a vision that still inspires architects today. Where to even start?
Undaunted by the scope of the task, architectural historian Kathryn E. O’Rourke and architect Ben Koush joined forces to produce Home, Heat, Money, God: Texas and Modern Architecture (University of Texas Press, May 7), a new book that tackles the spirit, industry, artistry and swagger of Texas as manifested by its mid-century buildings.