Cite Winter 1985-1986 UH Architecture Building To Be Dedicated CUSTOM FURNITURE) 909 West 22nd • Suite A • Houston, 77008 • (715)880-8987f

Jilt t 3ns

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Atrium, University of Houston College of Architecture Building, John Ouisie's • Open Tuesday thru Saturday Burgee Architects with and Morris»Aubry, architects 8 Sunset Boulevard • Houston • 713/528-2 (Photo by Paul Hester)

The University of Houston's College of Beyond compilation of the final punch Architecture will celebrare 40 years of list, prededication activities include a architectural education with an academic major student social event and the festival, scheduled for }-9 February 1986, opening of a gallery exhibition to be kicked off by the dedication of its documenting the history of the College of new-old building (John Burgee Architects Architecture. Dedication is scheduled for 3 with Philip Johnson and Morris*Aubry February, with a week of lectures, Architects). With move-in scheduled for symposiums, and social events to follow. the Christmas-New Year's break and A special announcement of Dedication spring classes to begin in the Johnson Week events will be sent to all interested building, anticipation of the events is individuals. To have one's name placed on rising, with planning lagging somewhat the mailing list, telephone the College of behind. Architecture at 713/749-1187.

Peter Wood BROADCASTING

UH Texas Studio The Leader in Professional Sound & • Investigates American Villages Communications since 1958. • Public Address, Paging, Intercom Sound Masking Emergency Evacuation Peter J. Zweig, director of the Texas • Environmental Music by Muzak and YESCO Studio, and 10 graduate students from UH will collaborate with Charles W. Moore, Sales • Installation • Service O Neil Ford Professor of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin, and 10 students from the graduate school at UT Austin on a study of the architecture of villages.

The studio will invesrigare the phenomena of the American village, assemble a documentary exhibition in April 1986, and design projects that capture the identity and place of the American village. To further the educational process, the program will offer a field trip to Mexico, as well as the Charles W, Moore and Peter J. five regions of Texas. Visiting critics will Zweig in a front-porch seminar include J.B.Jackson; Michael Graves, with UT and UH students at FAIA; William Mitchell, professor of the Winedale (Photo by Dietmar TAFT BROADCASTING CORP computer program at UCLA; Peter Froehlich) 4808 San Felipe Road Schneider, dean of architecture at Houston, Texas 77056 Louisiana Tech University; and Kent Bloomer, author, architect, and professor (713)622-1015 .it Yale University. Lectures will be open to the public. For more information, call the College of Architecture, University of Houston, 713/749-1187. 6 Cite Winter 1983-198(1 Bordersville Building •O^IIBBBSQEIQEI Completed New Office/Retail Space In The Heart Of The Rice Village 28,000 SQ.FT. Available m Free Parking m For more information and leasing call Mr. Reid at 520-6064

Spring Well An attractive convenient way to dispense pure water Human Resources Building. Three H Neighborhood Service Center, Borderspille, 1985, John Zemanek. architect (Photo by Paul Hester) (Perfect for 5 gal. The tenth and final building of the Three containers) H Neighborhood Service Center in Porcelain with Bordersville, an advocacy planning project begun in 1969, was completed in May of blue strip this year. The new building houses local $62.50 offices for state public welfare programs, including a food-stamp certification FETCHES ships-anywhere l center. Architect John Zemanek received an AIA Honor Award in 1978 for his design of the complex which was hailed as a model example of the advocacy planning FETCHES process. Hand Craftad American Gifts Bordersville, a ramshackle community of 220 families located north of Houston, 2015 B West Gray was the victim of the city's annexation Houston 77019 plan in the late '60s to assemble large Axonometric drawing of site plan. Three H tracts of land for the construction of Neighborhood Service Center * J* 713/524-4484 Houston Intercontinental Airport (see Cite, August 1982, "New Water Mains, center. The program included a meeting Mall G>me to Bordersville"). The hall, recreation hall, library, clinic, day- annexation boundary cut through care center, public bath, guest rooms, Bordersville, annexing 180 houses and manager's quarters, and shops. Plans and leaving 40 outside the city. "With models were produced and presented for annexation came the notices to pay city discussion to the community and the taxes," recalls Zemanek. "But when the CCAN board, and the study committee EVANS-MONICAL residents asked for city utilities, they were voted to implement the project. informed that only newly annexed communities of 200 or more families were Initial funding of $45,000 was secured AND KNOLL. eligible." from four private agencies in April 1970, but the project was delayed by the lengthy Prompted by protests from residents, process of securing land and building then-mayor Louie Welch enlisted the permits. A second grant of $196,000 came University of Houston's Graduate School from the Economic Development of Social Work to cosponsor a program to Administration of the Department of bring representatives of the Bordersville G>mmerce, and land finally was acquired community together with public officials from the local school district. Zemanek, VISUALLY CAPTIVATING and representatives of the business sector together with consulting architect Out of these meetings came the Alexander McNabb, structural engineer Committee on Coordinated Action in George Cunningham, and several former Neighborhood (CCAN), with Zemanek students from the University of Houston's serving as chairman of a subcommittee on College of Architecture finalized the the physical environment and housing. design and produced the contract documents. Obstruction began in 1974 In September 1969, Zemanek took his and, except for the building completed UH architecture design students to this year, the complex was finished and Bordersville and they began to work with ready for occupancy in 1975. a Neighborhood Council committee to formulate a program for a community Bruce C. Webb RDA Spring Events

The Rice Design Alliance will embark on Memory and Invention." Speakers and an array of public programs for the dates to be announced. All lectures will be Spring of 1986. held at 8 PM in the Brown Auditorium of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. To Architects Fireside Chats, a series of reserve tickets, telephone the RDA ar informal presentations by three Houston 713/524-6297. Admission charged. architectural firms of their work and working methods, is planned for early The Rice Design Alliance and IES Travel spring. Organizing the events are Danny Group plan a tour of Charleston, South Samuels, Richard Keating, and William F. Carolina and Savannah, Georgia for late Stern. All presentations will occur in the May 1986. Barrie Scardino and John Jury Room in M.D. Anderson Hall on the Lingley are organizing the tour. For more campus of Rice University, Admission is information, telephone IES Travel Group free to RDA members with reservations; at 713/526-5171. there is an admission charge for non- members. Limited searing. For Available for purchase is the first Rice information and reservations, telephone Design Alliance architectural guidebook, EVANS-MONICAL the Rice Design Alliance at containing three, self-guided, walking nn 2750 KIRBV DRIVE HOUSTON. TX 528-2075 OPEN 9-6. MON.-SAT 713/524-6297. tours of the museums-Rice University- Hermann Park area. Called Houston's For its spring lecture series, organized by Cradle of Culture and Environs, it was Drexel Turner and Richard Keating, the prepared by the Anchorage Foundation of Rice Design Alliance explores "The City: Texas. Photographs are by Paul Hester. Cite Winter 1985-1986 DART Chooses Subways

In a bold move, the Area Rapid Transit (DART) board adopted subway plans for downtown Dallas and the North Central Expressway corridor on 27 August 1985. This action committed DART to Nltih the construction of three subways totaling five miles in length in downtown Dallas and an additional three miles of subway north from downtown under the North Central Expressway to Mockingbird Lane. This decision was just the latest in a series RESULTS! which the DART board has made in A Sterling Opportunity moving forward with plans to build about 150 miles of rail transit in Dallas by the year 2010. •M'l'i""! DART was created by voters in Dallas and 1J suburban communities on 13 August 1983. At that time, voters A great concept doesn't do approved an $8.75 billion plan to build a model mass-transit system in Dallas and a you a bit of good if there I percent sales tax to fund transit- are no results. authority operations and improvements. m, ii>, -., Since initiating operations in January 1984, DART has moved ro rapidly expand Invest in Houston's history with this bus operations in Dallas and the unique National Register property. Built Why don't you let our surrounding areas and also has begun fntptrtv 1916-19. Former home of Gov. Ross Sterling. concepts create great work on implementing the rail plan. Magnificent Alfred Finn-designed porch. results for you through 4500 + square feet on half acre. 1 block off Montrose in Museum Area. Newly innovative and effective The plan passed by the voters provided renovated as architect's office. Many marketing & advertising for the construction of light-rail transit in custom details. Good parking. Ready design. 12 major suburban corridors. Light rail to occupy. was chosen as the most flexible and the most cost-effective transit mode (a choice Walk to: confirmed by an independent study funded Museums Galleries by the Dallas City Council). Light rail, the Bell Park Sidewalk cafes transit technology which receives its Hermann Park Chelsea Market power from an overhead source, can be Pam Wilson Graphics applied in a variety of configurations. In Rice University Shops September 1984, after reviewing transit U. of St. Thomas technology options, the DART board (713) 840-00Q2 A selected the "pre-metro" mode of light rail. Generally, the pre-metro approach to Daniel-Jaffe Property, Inc. light rail emphasizes high-speed, high- 4614 Montrose Boulevard • Houston, Texas 77006 performance operations. Grade crossings are usually minimized with this approach (713) 528'2828 and the preferred track alignments are usually separated from vehicular traffic.

DART continued progress on the rail plan in February 1985, by selecting the joint venture of Parsons, Brinckerfoff, Quade & Douglas and DeLeuw, Cither & Company (PBDC) as the general engineering consultants for the project. This engineering joint venture then began design work on the rail system.

A major issue left unresolved in the ,. Jul'" original DART service plan was the system plan in downtown Dallas. As approved, the service plan provided for rail in the 12 major suburban corridors joining to approach downtown Dallas . ii>>iit from six different directions. The interconnections of these six lines and the station locations in downtown Dallas are issues which had been under study for the last year. A second unresolved problem was the configuration of the rail project in RESTORING TEXAS '*" the congested North Central corridor Raiford Stripling's Life and where both DART rail plans and State Architecture Highway Department expressway- widening plans could not be easily Michael McCullar accomodated. A range of alternatives for Foreword by Frank D. Welch this corridor had been under study for over eight months. The DART board action in late August resolves both these ecades before il became fashion- issues and the adoption of the two subway D able to restore historic build- plans means that DART can move ahead ings, Raifoni Stripling was applying with the development of the system. The his architectural and sleuthing skills current schedule calls for 69 miles of rail to the Greek Revival structures of in place by 1995. The first line, still not San Augustine, die French LcgaUon selected, is to open by 1988 or 1989. in Austin. Ashton Villa in Galveston, Independence I lull at Washington- The implications of the DART board on-die Brazos, and die Spanish Pre- action are clear. Most important, the sidio La Hahia in Goliad. This warm, DART board in selecting the subway plan personal memoir of the feisty yet has shown its willingness to bear higher initial capital costs if this will produce a viiually reclusive Stripling heralds better quality transit system for the long the stale's scsquieentennial with a term. The selected plan will offer beautifully illustrated record of one convenient, rapid service and will not man's salvaging of Texas architec- threaten the environmental quality of the ture. 8 % x 10V«. 196 pp. 24 color. inner-city areas. The selected plan will 62 h&w photos. #29.95 allow the light-rail system to run right to population and employment centers in o downtown Dallas and along the North g Central Expressway, but any negative environmental impacts will be minimized. Saks Fashion Center Texas A&M University Press 1800 Post oak BouJevartt Houston I Jrawer C Jeffrey Karl Ochsner 713/627-74115 College Station, Texas 77843-4-354 Chocolate Bayou Theater Gets New Playhouse

Model of Chocolate Bayou Theater, William T. Cannady and Associates, architects (Photo by Paul Hester) The Chocolate Bayou Theater Company of 249-seat proscenium theater and a 149- Houston will move before the end of 1985 seat "black box" theater. To keep costs into a new, purpose-built theater designed low (the budget is $420,000), warehouse for it by William T. Cannady and construction is being employed. The Associates. Located at the corner of exterior will be surfaced in corrugated Bremond Avenue and Bagby Street in the metal. G>rrugated fiberglass will be used South End, the Chocolate Bayou Theater for vaulted skylights above the public is a 14,000-square-foot building promenade. containing two performance spaces: a RDA Sponsors Mayoral Debate

Editor's note: The following article was apparently was unaware of the research written prior to the mayoral election. by William H. Whyte and others on downtown street life showing the clear As part of its continuing series of need for such ground-level uses. Whitmire symposiums on civic issues in Houston, said she might be willing to consider such the Rice Design Alliance on 15 October an ordinance, but noted that Houston 1985 sponsored a debate between the two should not blindly copy other cities. principal mayoral candidates. Mayor Kathryn J. Whitmire and former mayor The third panelist, civic activist Macey Louie Welch, The format of the debate Reasoner, asked how the candidates would included questions from a panel who involve citizens, not just development focused on the candidates' concepts and interests, in the planning of the city. proposals for the built environment of Mayor Whitmire claimed that the Houston. planning process for the five-year capital improvements program that she initiated The symposium was introduced by had involved the citizens. She also stated Andrew John Rudnick, executive vice- that the single-member council districts president of the Houston Economic had led to much more citizen Development Council, and was moderated involvement. Welch recalled a series of by O. Jack Mitchell, dean of the School of "town meetings" which he conducted Architecture at Rice. Each candidate when he was mayor as evidence of his opened with a six-minute introductory ability to involve citizens in decision statement. Louie Welch focused on three making. primary areas which he judged important to the quality of Houston's environment: The panelists' questions were followed by jobs; mobility; and community integrity, five questions taken from the audience. including the quality and security of These focused on planning for a west-side Houston neighborhoods. Welch argued airport; enhancing the physical thai the Whitmire administration was attractiveness of the city; land-use failing in all three areas. Kathy controls and the possibility of zoning; Whitmire's opening remarks pointed to public art; and flooding. In their few her view that Houston is doing better and points of agreement, both candidates thai her administration had been praised the downtown skyline and the responsible for preserving the city's good collection of public art in the city as being "business climate," improving its major assets, and both candidates said it infrastructure, and offering a positive was too late to consider zoning. Kathy quality of life. Whitmire cited the recent series of city ordinances controlling certain types of The first panelist, Daniel K. Hedges, businesses as an example of land-use former U.S. attorney, now with Porter control without zoning Louie Welch and Clements, asked about planning and argued for protecting neighborhoods by location of new public buildings, inquiring enforcing deed restrictions and the ciry's especially whether long-term potential building codes. benefits to the public were taken into account and whether contributions from In their concluding remarks, the developers were required when these candidates appeared to concentrate on developers benefit from city-financed their differences. Whitmire cited what she improvements. Whitemire cited planning called "misstatements" in her opponent's for the George R. Brown Convention presentation and then said that her Center, for Houston Intercontinental administration had a superior record for Airport, and for the system of police mrning plans into reality - for actually command centers as evidence of her getting projects built. Welch argued that administration's commitment to planning the critical issue was the lack of jobs for for the long term. Welch argued for Houstonians and that the Whitmire building excess capacity in the city's administration had not really done infrastructure to support growth for 20, anything to turn the economy around, 30, or even 50 years. Both candidates stated that requiring developer Although each candidate cited positions contributions should be required from and achievements, neither appeared to developers who benefit from city- offer a clear, broadly-based vision for the sponsored improvements. future of Houston. Neither candidate seemed to see his or her achievements as The second panelist, Truett Latimer, part of a broader strategic approach for former director of the Texas Historical the built environment of the city as a Commission, now a development and whole. Perhaps the city needs to develop a preservation consultant with the City broad "Goals for Houston" process (such Partnership, focused on downtown as similar processes which produced the Houston and asked whether Houston Target 90 Plan in San Antonio and a should consider an ordinance requiring similar plan in Dallas) before a broadly- retail and/or restaurants in the ground based consensus for a comprehensive floors of new buildings to support a better strategy for Houston's built environment street life. Similar ordinances have been can emerge, Perhaps after the beginning enacted in New York, San Francisco, of the new term, the mayor will consider Seattle, and other cities. Welch adamantly initiating such a process to bring the city opposed such an ordinance arguing that a together as we head into the 21st century, building owner is the best judge of what uses to include at ground level. He Jeffrey Karl Ochsner Cite Winter 1985-1986 Crocheron Compound Restoration Environmental Signage and Design Consultants

The Crocheron Compound is a restoration in that buildings are not only Library, Health Facility community of 19th-century Texas restored historically to a particular period Educational and Corporate structures that have been restored and but also are altered or modified by the Signage Programs and adapted for 20th-century man. Located on installation of modern conveniences. This Project Management a 30-acre site in Bastrop, Texas on the emerging perspective undoubtedly will Colorado River at the old San Antonio foster healthy exchanges between those Road juncture, it is an ambitious who advocate renovation with restoration project conceived and financed modifications and those who are inclined by Gerald R. Wagner. Wagner, in toward the more traditional approach to conjunction with Clay Terrell, president restoration. of Restoration People, endeavored to incorporate within the project features Traditionalists believe that a building that are sensitive to the community, the should be preserved on its original site, interaction of the compound to the street, restored to a specific point in history, and and the making of architecture as objects serve as an example of some historic of art. The project is intended to function event, person, place, or architectural as an artist colony, but also will serve as a genre. Those who advocate restoration laboratory wherein students can study with modifications believe that the habita- early Texas architecture. tion of a building is the preeminent con- sideration in restoration and that habita- The completed site will consist of 20 tion may take many forms: house-house, The Design Office of structures. Seven buildings already have castle-museum, brewery-art gallery. The Steve Neumann & Friends ' . been moved there and restored, including critical issue is the presence of human the Crocheron House, the Wolf-Wilheim beings, which maintains the balance of 3000 Ftichmond Ave.. Suite 103 the house, fosters the spiritual union Houston. Texas 77098 House, the Mathis-Skalitsky House, the Telephone: 713/629-7501 University of Houston graduate student Jones-Powell House, the Fowler House, between architecture/land/man and, most ]uha Pihlaskari at work on restoration of the Wilson Log House, and the Venghous importantly, returns the architecture to its a log building in the Crocheron Log House. Each structure is sited as it intended use: shelter. It is this perspective Compound {Photo by V. Nia was originally. which guides development of the Cro- Dorian-Bechnelj cheron Compound. Last summer several University of Houston students participated in the Because of the inclusion of modern con- development of the site. Their hands-on veniences in the restored structures, the involvement included development of the project provides a laboratory wherein the master plan, preparation of registration effects of comingling modern technology documents for the state and national and traditional restoration techniques can registers, participation in the chinking of be implemented, observed, and analyzed. log cabins and the cutting of stones for a The debate over which approach is more fireplace - all while residing on the appropriate is certain to result in a better compound in a restored 19th-century understanding of the manner in which structure. restoration and preservation should be pursued and the goals and objectives that Work at the Crocheron Compound such projects should seek to accomplish. consists of modifications to and restoration of the structures. This V. Nia Dorian-Bechnel approach differs from traditional So near. Biggest by far. Minutes from your office is one of "Our size in this neighborhood is a Houston's major banks - with full distinct advantage to you as a banking services, and many of the city's professional. We 're a major league most respected and seasoned banking bank with seasoned bankers you pros. Our specialty is you - the can trust." professional - and we've created some Lee Stein, outstanding special accounts and President & CEO services with your name on them. Please find time for an InterFirst Bank Fannin officer to call with specifics - and some excellent ideas for your financial management. A call to Pete Fisher, 790-1000, brings us running.

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