Tag Archives: Alexander Architectural Archive

Eugene George Papers document historic preservation in Texas

What do the Magoffin Adobe in El Paso, the Moody Mansion in Galveston, and a Revolutionary War battlefield in Yorktown, Virginia, all have in common?

Magoffin House, El Paso Moody Mansion, Galveston Yorktown Battlefield, Virginia

They’re all historic preservation projects undertaken by noted architect and former UT faculty member Eugene George — and they’re all documented in the Walter Eugene George Collection at the Alexander Architectural Archive.

With 12,000 slides, thousands of negatives and photographic prints, hundreds of architectural drawings, and approximately nine linear feet of professional records, the Eugene George Papers are a window into the field of historic preservation in Texas and beyond.

Page from George's photo records
Page from George’s photo records

George’s approach to historic preservation is intensely scholarly, and his voluminous reference files provide a resource for students and scholars interested in all areas concerning historic preservation.  The George Collection also contain a wealth of photographic materials, which add a visual dimension to the record of his activities as a practicing architect, scholar, educator and photographer.  Beginning in 1979, George extensively documented each of his photographs, assigning each a frame number and logging the subject, date, and technical information.  In addition to providing evidence of historic preservation projects in process, the photographic materials are a rich visual resource for architecture, landscapes, and cultures around the world.

Muqarnas Dome at Generalife, Granada, Spain

Look for an updated finding aid online soon, and don’t miss a new digital exhibition in December for more details on George and his career.

Documenting vernacular architecture in Texas

Earlier this summer, I wrote about processing the Wayne Bell papers. Because of my resulting familiarity with his work, I went on to work with the records of the Winedale Historical Center, the historic preservation program in the School of Architecture that Bell directed for many years.
When we interviewed Bell, we asked about the unique challenges of preserving historical sites, especially when a property or features of it have deteriorated beyond repair. His answer? You can preserve by creating a historical record. Throughout the Winedale Historical Center records are field notes, site plans, drawings, photographs, oral histories, and other materials kept safe in the Alexander Architectural Archive, documenting important information about buildings from across central and south Texas.

Zimmerscheidt-Leyendecker House field book
Field book entry, Zimmerscheidt-Leyendecker House

You hope that, with good preservation work, the building will remain. Sometimes, however, disaster strikes. In 1981, just five years after UT historic preservation students worked on the Zimmerscheidt-Leyendecker House in Colorado County, an arsonist destroyed the property. The students’ records are now that much more valuable to maintaining the cultural memory of this home.
By Amanda Keys, processing assistant in the Alexander Architectural Archive and School of Information student focusing on archival enterprise and special collections

Karl Kamrath, Architect and Collector

Karl Kamrath exhibition on view at the Architecture & Planning Library Reading RoomKarl Kamrath exhibition on view at the Architecture & Planning Library Reading Room

“Karl Kamrath: Architect and Collector” will be open in the Architecture & Planning Library Reading Room in Battle Hall through March, 2010.

Houston modern architect, Karl Kamrath (1911-1988) collected and consumed information on Frank Lloyd Wright and organic architecture, and then incorporated his own articulations of Wright’s principles in built form. His interest in organic architecture was evident in projects that blended into the landscape while satisfying the individual needs of his clients.

This exhibit highlights several of these projects through drawings and photographs from the Karl Kamrath collection in the Alexander Architectural Archive. Evidence of Kamrath’s collecting practice is displayed through books and journals selected from the Library’s Special Collection of published material.

Karl Kamrath, Architect and Collector continues a series of student-curated exhibitions held at the Architecture and Planning Library, drawing from rare and unique resources used during their research.

This exhibit reflects the scholarship of Katie Pierce, who recently completed her master’s thesis in architectural history on Kamrath. Pierce was also the lead processor of the Kamrath archive while earning her Masters degree at the School of Information. She is now an IMLS Doctoral Preservation fellow in the School of Information.

Katie Pierce stands by one the cabinets displaying drawings and artifacts from the Karl Kamrath Collection.Katie Pierce, curator, stands by one the cabinets displaying drawings and artifacts from the Karl Kamrath Collection.

Collection of Prominent Texas Architect Donated to University of Texas Libraries

The University of Texas Libraries has acquired a collection of materials belonging to Houston architect and Frank Lloyd Wright devotee Karl Kamrath (1911-1988).

The materials, donated by Karl’s children– Eugenie Mygdal, Jack Kamrath, Karl Kamrath Jr., and Tom Kamrath–will join an earlier lot donated to The Alexander Architectural Archive.

The collection, which includes business papers, project records, correspondence, original architectural design drawings, photographs, prints and ephemera, provides insight into the prolific Texan’s work, much of whose modernist design aesthetic paid homage to Wright.

The strengths of this archive are in its design drawings and post-construction photographs, including some of Kamrath’s award-winning projects such as the Kamrath residence of 1939, Temple Emanu-El in Houston, the Houston Fire Alarm Building, M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, and the Contemporary Arts Association in Houston.

Karl Kamrath grew up in Austin and earned his bachelor’s degree from The University of Texas. In 1934, he moved to Chicago, where he worked for the architectural firm Pereira and Pereira, the Interior Studios of Marshall Field and Co. and the Architectural Decorating Company.

In 1937, he and another former graduate of the university, Frederick James MacKie Jr. opened their own architectural firm, MacKie and Kamrath in Houston, Texas. MacKie and Kamrath were among the first Houston architects to follow a modernist approach to design for which they received national recognition.

Kamrath left the firm from 1942 to 1945 to serve as a captain in the Army Corps of Engineers. Shortly after his return in 1946, Kamrath met Wright and immediately became an advocate of Wright’s Usonian architecture style.

Kamrath became a member of the American Institute of Architects in 1939 and was elected to fellowship in the institute in 1955, and at various times served in an adjunct capacity at the University of Oklahoma, The University of Texas, Texas A&M University and the University of Oregon. He was also a founder and served on the board of the Contemporary Arts Museum from 1948 to 1952.

“Our archive already contains a strong collection of Frank Lloyd Wright-related work,” says Frederick Steiner, dean of the School of Architecture. “The Kamrath Collection enhances the depth of Wright-related materials and will benefit architectural scholars for generations to come.”
The sister collection for the office of McKie and Kamrath, including the bulk of the office files, job files and construction documents, resides at the Houston Metropolitan Research Collection of the Houston Public Library.

The Kamrath archive is projected to be processed and available for use by patrons by August 2007.

William A. Storrer collection donated to the University of Texas at Austin

Storr
William Allin Storrer at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY. William A. Storrer Collection.

Noted Frank Lloyd Wright scholar, Dr. William Allin Storrer, has donated his manuscript, research and reference archive to the University of Texas at Austin Libraries. The collection consists of photographic prints, negatives, slides, drawings, papers, books and periodicals that led to his groundbreaking publications: The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: a Complete CatalogThe Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: a Guide to Extant Structures; and The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion. Storrer chose the University of Texas at Austin because of its School of Architecture’s “focus on organic and environmentally viable architecture and because of the presence of Wright scholars Anthony Alofsin and Richard Cleary among its faculty.”

The Storrer Collection joins nearly one hundred other archival collections consisting of more than a quarter of a million drawings and thousands of photographs and related materials in the Alexander Architectural Archive and more than 88,000 volumes in the Architecture and Planning Library.

Marin County Hall of Justice
Frank Lloyd Wright. Marin County Hall of Justice, San Rafael, CA (S.417). William A. Storrer Collection.

Storrer produced the first comprehensive catalog, along with a definitive numbering system, of Wright’s nearly 500 built works. The 3rd edition of the Catalog identifies in photo or drawing every extant constructed project. It also incorporates the maps and directions from his earlier Guide (1991). Storrer’s Companion (1993) provides an additional textual component, plans, and photographs, as well as new documentation on nearly 100 properties that have been destroyed. The range of this documentation makes his publications essential tools for all Wright scholars.

“The Storrer Collection represents the most comprehensive documentation of Frank Lloyd Wright’s built work that has ever been assembled outside Wright’s own archive,” states Alofsin. “It will provide generations of scholars with an incomparable foundation upon which to base future Wright research and study. Having the Storrer collection in the Alexander Architectural Archive confirms the University of Texas at Austin as the primary location for advanced scholarly research on Wright, America’s best known architect and a major cultural figure of the twentieth century.”

interior of residence
Frank Lloyd Wright. Interior of the John Storrer residence, Hollywood, CA (S.215). William A. Storrer Collection.

“Dr. Storrer’s generous contribution marks a significant opportunity for the School of Architecture,” emphasizes Dean Fritz Steiner. “With Storrer’s appointment as Adjunct Professor of Architecture, the University of Texas at Austin now offers graduate students seeking to pursue advanced scholarship on Frank Lloyd Wright unparalleled expertise and a range and depth of archival materials found at no other institution of higher education.”

Once processed and cataloged, the Storrer collection will be available by appointment within the Alexander Architectural Archive.

Exhibits highlight architectural information resources and services on the UT campus

Two exhibits highlighting architectural information resources and services available to students, faculty, staff and the general public on The University of Texas at Austin campus are now on view: “Architecture and Planning Library Collections and Services” in the Main Building ground floor corridor and “Timeless Treasures” in the entrance floor lobby of the Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL). Both exhibits will be up through October 2003.

The PCL exhibit features materials from the Architecture and Planning Library’s Special Collections and its Alexander Architectural Archive. Included are architectural drawings, photographs, models, scrapbooks and other unique artifacts from the archival collections, as well as pop-up books and rare titles such as the two oldest books in the collection: a 1568 edition of Philibert de l’Orme’s Premier tome de l’architecture and a 1570 edition of Andrea Palladio’s I Quattro libri dell’ architettura. Both are originally from the library of architect Paul P. Cret, the architect of the Main Building.

The Main Building exhibit highlights the collections, services and facilities of the Architecture and Planning Library and the Alexander Architectural Archive located in Battle Hall, a 1911 building designed by architect Cass Gilbert and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Alexander Architectural Archive – the largest repository of architectural records in Texas with more than 90 collections containing over 300,000 drawings and 1,600 linear feet of papers, photographic material, models and ephemera – documents thousands of projects in Texas as well as many in New York, Chicago, California and Great Britain.

O’Neil Ford drawings donated to UT Austin’s Alexander Architectural Archive

Drawings of the noted Texas architect O’Neil Ford (1905-1982) have been donated to the Alexander Architectural Archive at The University of Texas at Austin by his widow, Wanda Graham Ford. The gift includes 5,540 original architectural drawings, 5,484 prints, 40 presentation drawings, 39 presentation sketches, and 63 sheets of photographic materials.

The donation covers Ford’s work through 1966 (at which point he went into partnership with Ford Powell & Carson) and complements an earlier gift to the Alexander Architectural Archive of Ford’s office files, personal papers, and books.

O’Neil Ford emphasized the integration of crafts and the use of native materials in his designs. His larger, most notable projects include the restoration of La Villita and designs for the new campus for Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and Skidmore College in New York. Among his honors were appointments to the National Council on the Arts in 1968 and to the American Council for the Arts in Education in 1975. The first endowed chair in the School of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin was named for O’Neil Ford.

It will take several years to fully process and catalog this extensive collection of materials. Access to the O’Neil Ford materials within the Alexander Architectural Archive, a unit of the General Libraries of The University of Texas at Austin, is by appointment only.

Extensive Maya architectural research archive donated to the General Libraries

The largest, most exhaustive and fully documented visual record of architecture of the Lowland Maya area in the world has been donated to the General Libraries Alexander Architectural Archive at the University of Texas at Austin. The George F. and Geraldine D. Andrews Papers, donated by Mrs. Geraldine D. Andrews, represent the life work of Prof. George F. Andrews (1918-2000) of the University of Oregon, and his wife, Gerrie.

“The Andrews Papers– along with the recently acquired library of Prof. Linda Schele donated by her husband David – makes UT Austin one of the major locations in the world for the study of Maya architecture and culture,” said Harold Billings, director of General Libraries.

In the late 1950s, Prof. Andrews and his wife visited the Yucatan for the first time. For the next 40 years they were to devote their professional lives to the study and documentation of Maya architecture. This extended investigation produced the Andrews Papers, a modest name for a remarkable collection that includes an architectural data bank covering 850 buildings at 240 archaeological sites in the lowland Maya area.

The collection consists of three main components: (1) approximately 3,500 pages of descriptive data covering both exterior and interior architectural, decorative, and construction features; (2) more than 2,500 architectural drawings (sketches, maps, plans, sections, elevations, details, and restored views); and (3) several thousand photographs showing the buildings in their present form, which ranges from partly destroyed to substantially excavated and partly restored.

As Prof. Andrews noted shortly before his death,

“. . . perhaps the most important aspect [of what he referred to as the Architectural Data Bank] . . . is that the data from every building or site considered has been put into the same standardized form, making comparisons of individual buildings, building complexes, specific sites or entire regions relatively simple. For example, features such as base moldings, medial moldings, and cornice moldings can be compared at both inter-site and intra-site scales since the data for all sites is recorded in the same format and drawings have been made at the same scale. . . . anyone interested in Maya architecture from any point of view would find the data bank of considerable value as a basic research resource for comparative architectural studies, investigations of architectural details and construction techniques, or in making areawide studies of stylistic attributes, building forms, or site-level patterns of settlement.”

Prof. Andrews directed his first field project at the site of Comalcalco, Tabasco, Mexico, with the support of the Ford Foundation. He and his wife also served as members of the Sayil, Xculoc, and Xkipch archeological projects.

Prof. Andrews retired from full-time teaching in 1980 and devoted the next 20 years to full-time research and study of the Maya. He was the author of numerous monographs including Maya Cities: Placemaking and Urbanization (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1975) and a three-volume collection of his important essays and studies entitled Pyramids and Palaces, Monsters and Masks (Lancaster, CA: Labyrinthos, 1993-1999).

The Andrews Papers are currently being inventoried in the Alexander Architectural Archive. For more information please contact Beth Dodd, Curator, Alexander Architectural Archive, or Nancy Sparrow, Curatorial Assistant, at (512) 495-4621. For general information on the Alexander Architectural Archive consult: http://drupal.lib.utexas.edu/apl/aaa

General Libraries acquires Cret Library

The General Libraries has acquired the library of Paul P. Cret (1876-1945), the architect responsible for The University’s 1933 Master Plan, the design of the Main Building and UT Tower, and 18 other buildings on the UT campus.

The collection totals approximately 700 volumes published between 1560 and the 1930’s plus 43 albums, portfolios, and boxed sets of photographs. The books, many of which are rare, are mostly large, folio-size, and profusely illustrated. Many are in their original leather or cloth bindings. Most of the books are classic texts still in use today by architects and architectural historians.

Included in the collection are offprints, exhibition catalogs, prospectuses, annual reports, monographs, trade and industrial materials catalogs, journals, and periodicals regarding architecture and planning, housing, restoration, and bridges. The photographic materials consist of documentation of the work of Paul P. Cret and his successor firm. The books in the Cret Library will be housed in the Architecture and Planning Library. Photographic materials will be cared for in the Alexander Architectural Archive.

The Cret Library was acquired with funding from the Martin S. and Evelyn S. Kermacy Collection Endowment, the School of Architecture, the General Libraries, and the UT System Academic Library Collection Enhancement Program (ALCEP).

“This is a magnificent collection of great historic value to UT Austin and of current value to a range of architectural historians and practicing architects,” said Harold Billings, Director of General Libraries. “With the addition of this collection and the continuing expansion of the Alexander Architectural Archive we now have one of the major architectural resource centers in the nation on our UT Austin campus.”

In 1907 Paul P. Cret founded what became the most successful beaux-arts architectural firm in Philadelphia. In addition to his work on the UT Austin campus, he designed such prestigious edifices as The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., the Rodin Museum, and The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. While practicing architecture, Cret also headed the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania for over 30 years. After Cret’s death in 1945, his four partners assumed the practice under the partnership of Harbeson Hough Livingston & Larson (renamed H2L2 in 1976). The Cret Library was acquired from H2L2. It is highly unusual that a collection of this type and size should survive in its entirety.