Explore UT, that carnival of an open house, that invasion of miniature wide eyed students and their exhausted parents, whose scale rivals the world’s fair, will be held on campus one month from today on Saturday March the 5th. In order to do our part to help recruit some new students for the university and the School of Architecture, we at the Architecture and Planning Library have prepared a few quasi educational sideshows. There will be materials for coloring, a game to test your knowledge of fictional architecture, and a clown who will show you how to make a simple book. The activities will be held in the library’s reading room in Battle Hall from 11-5, except the book making which will be held from 12-3. If you don’t care for activities, then the classical beauty and grandeur of Battle Hall should be reason enough to pay us a visit, and should also be far more compelling to an impressionable young student than any game could be. Come explore our library!
Tag Archives: open house
Open House: Welcome to the Architecture & Planning Library!
It’s one of our favorite times of the year once again: the arrival of both new students and familiar faces for the beginning of the fall semester! We’ve had a great summer here at the Architecture & Planning Library, but we always feel a little empty without students mulling about our stacks or studying in our Reading Room throughout all hours of the day.
To welcome new UTSOA students, the Architecture & Planning Library will be hosting an Open House tomorrow between key orientation presentations. Details are as follows:
What: Architecture & Planning Library Open House
Where: Battle Hall – both the Library and Archive will be open for visits!
When: Tuesday, August 26th from 5:00-6:00pm, between scheduled orientation sessions
Why: To introduce you to your ultimate best friend in research for the next few years!
For incoming students planning on attending UTSOA’s orientation activities, you’ll notice that 5:00-6:00pm is directly between the mandatory orientation welcome and Dean Steiner’s back-to-school address at 6:15pm in the Jessen Auditorium. During that time, Dean’s Ambassadors will be offering tours of the Libraries and Resource Centers pertinent to life at the UTSOA. We invite you to stroll in at any time during that hour to explore both our stacks, Archive, and Reading Room. Did we mention we’ll have cool refreshments and warm cookies as a reprieve from the busy schedule of activites?!
Both new and returning students are happily welcomed. We can’t wait to see you there!
Alexander Architectural Archive Open House
The Alexander Architectural Archive welcomes you to an open house featuring the the work of O’Neil Ford.
When: August 28-30, 2013 – 9am to Noon & 1pm to 4pm
Where: Alexander Architectural Archive (basement of Battle Hall)
James Riely Gordon lecture and open house
Wednesday, March 7th, the University of Texas School of Architecture’s Spring Lecture Series will feature Chris Meister. Chris recently published his book James Riely Gordon: his courthouses and other public architecture. Chris’ research took him near and far, but he spent a significant amount of time investigating Gordon’s core collection held at the Alexander Architectural Archive. In conjunction with the lecture, which will be held in Goldsmith Lecture Hall 3.120 at 5pm, the Archive will open its doors from 10am to 4pm that day to share some Gordon gems. The open house will also extend after Chris’ lecture, from 6 to 7pm.
The Gordon collection is an amazing resource and Chris has done a fine job scratching the surface for scholarship. Gordon was also an early proponent of copyright, passive energy design, professional associations, and the development of building codes in NYC.
Hope to see you there!
Our Landmark Library: Battle Hall at 100
EVENT: The Centennial Celebration for historic Battle Hall on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. The event is free and open to the public.
WHEN: 5-8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 11, 2011.
WHERE: The University of Texas at Austin. Opening remarks by Lawrence Speck in Jessen Auditorium, Homer Rainey Hall (map) at 5 p.m., followed by a reception in the Architecture & Planning Library, Battle Hall (map).
BACKGROUND: Battle Hall, a building that was part of the original Forty Acres at The University of Texas at Austin, will be celebrated this week upon the 100th anniversary of its completion.
The School of Architecture, the Texas Exes and the University of Texas Libraries will host the Centennial Celebration.
“Battle Hall is special to this campus not only because of its prominent location and detailed facade, but because of its long history of housing varied programs and people from the UT community,” says Frederick Steiner, dean of the School of Architecture. “A comprehensive restoration plan is in the making, and it is our hope to retain the building’s history as we focus on the future.”
Renowned architect and W.L. Moody, Jr. Centennial Professor in Architecture Lawrence W. Speck will provide opening remarks in Jessen Auditorium in Homer Rainey Hall. Attendees are then invited to an open house and reception after the talk in the Architecture & Planning Library and its Alexander Architectural Archive in Battle Hall. This will include self-guided tours of the building, light refreshments and a cake-cutting to commemorate the anniversary.
Designed by newly appointed University Architect Cass Gilbert in 1910, Battle Hall was completed in 1911 for approximately $280,000. Beyond serving as the university’s first independent library building (later known as “the Old Library”), it was also the first home to the new College of Fine Arts (1938) and later to the new Barker Texas History Center (1950), bringing together for the first time the University Library’s archives and rare books collections. In 1973, when the Barker Center vacated the building, it became home to the Architecture Library and was renamed for former university president Professor William J. Battle.
The building was the first designed for the campus in the now-familiar Spanish-Mediterranean Revival style, and in 1970 it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 2007, Battle Hall was listed by the American Institute of Architects as one of the top 150 architecture projects in the organization’s “America’s Favorite Architecture” poll.
Today, Battle Hall is home to the Architecture & Planning Library, the Alexander Architectural Archive and the School of Architecture’s Center for American Architecture and Design.
“A century ago, Battle Hall opened its doors as the first independent library building on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin, and since then it has provided the space and resources needed to fuel creativity, research and innovation at the university and beyond,” says Fred Heath, director of the University of Texas Libraries. “With the past as prologue, this grand historic building and its service to the students, faculty, researchers and appreciative public will continue for another century and more.”
The Centennial Celebration will be accompanied by the exhibit “Our Landmark Library: Battle Hall at 100,” featured in the Architecture & Planning Library’s reading room. The exhibit revisits the history of the university’s first dedicated library space on campus through imagery drawn from sources including the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, the Alexander Architecture Archive, the New-York Historical Society and the Library of Congress. An accompanying online exhibit offers additional images and information conveying the story of the building from conception to completion.
The exhibit will be on display in the Architecture & Planning Library in Battle Hall through May 2012.
Open House at the Alexander Architectural Archive
The Alexander Architectural Archive welcomes you to an open house featuring Design Drawings by School of Architecture students from the Archive.
Aug. 25 – Aug. 27
9am to noon & 1pm to 4pm
The archive is located in the basement of Battle Hall.
School-wide Open House iPod Raffle Winners
Raffle winner and graduate architecture student Chris Emens receives his prize from the Architecture and Planning Library’s Head Librarian Beth Dodd.
Undergraduate architecture student Walter Medrano and graduate architecture student Chris Emens were the winners of this year’s school-wide open house raffle. The event provided an opportunity for students to discover nine of the school’s rich resources showcasing collections, programs, facilities, and expert staff. School of Architecture students were required to visit each participating site in order to become eligible for the raffle. Two iPod Shuffles were generously donated by the Campus Computer Store.
Both Walter and Chris found the open house event to be a valuable experience making them aware of the wide variety of resources available to students. Participating locations included the Alexander Architectural Archive, the Architecture and Planning Library, the Career Services Center, the Center for Sustainable Development, the Computer Lab I/O Central, the Design Lab (Woodshop), the University Co-op Materials Resource Center, Materials Lab and Conservation Lab, and the Visual Resources Collection.
