Cite Fall 1990 Citelines Preservation Update: Downtown Houston V. Nia Dorian Becnel Mrs. Esperson entertains guests for 1949-1990 tea in her private roof garden atop the Niels Veronica Nia Dorian Becnel, assistant Esperson Building, February 1 9 2 6. professor of architecture at the University of Houston, died Saturday, 10 November 1990. at St. Joseph's Hospital after suffering a stroke. She was 41 years old. Nia Becnel was a leader in the preservation movement in Texas. Since 1985 she had directed the preservation studies program at the vation. This is not because of the new University of Houston's College of Archi- "Main Street, Texas" brick skin by Morris tecture. She served on the Minority Architects, but because a new jail, though Heritage Task Force of the National Trust indispensable to the county, is the last for Historic Preservation, the Task Force on thing the struggling warehouse-bayou Preservation of Historically Black Colleges district needs to encourage its development and Universities of the U.S. Department of into a city attraction or viable residential the Interior, the City of Houston Archeo- and office area. No amount ol expensive iogical and Historical Commission, and the landscaping could possibly counterbalance board of directors and advisory board of the jail's detrimental effect on the future of the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance. its neighbors. Her broad interests were reflected in her memberships on the boards of directors of Perhaps the most significant current DiverseWorks Artspacc, the Acres Homes rehabilitation project involves the Niels Community Development Corporation, Esperson Building (John Eberson, 1927), and the Rice Design Alliance. At the once the tallest building in Houston, and University ol Houston she was a member the adjoining Mellie F.sperson Building and former chair of the University Under- I here are few things as good for architec- Department of Architecture, its austere (John and Drew Eberson, 1941). Suzanne graduate Admission Review Committee, tural preservation as a real estate bust, but classical facade was a sharp contrast to the LaBarthc and William E. Boswell, Jr., of president of the Black Leadership Network, in Houston's case the bust came too late. exuberant fantasies of the great Houston Genslcr and Associates/Architects arc and a member of the university's Under- Fifty years of wild economic growth have movie palaces of the 1920s, which have, reconfiguring the ground-floor lobbies and graduate Council. At the time of her death, almost completely erased a century of sadly, all disappeared. The building is being storefronts close to the original plan and she was involved in the organization of the downtown Houston's history. Lewis rehabilitated by developer Gary Warwick redoing the upper-floor corridors in period Freedmen's 'Town/Fourth Ward Neighbor- Mumford once wrote that the unrestricted with the help of designer Kirk Eyring and style. There are no plans yet to reinstate the hood Association. proliferation of parking lots was more architect Barry Moore as consultant. It will dramatic double-height main lobby of the Niels Esperson Building, but one hopes the damaging to our cities than the bombs that be renamed the Majestic Metro (in order to Nia Becnel was a passionate advocate of 1 owners will decide to restore this once devastated London during the Blitz. In a take advantage of an existing sign) and will preserving the historic heritage ol African- recent aerial photograph of downtown initially function as a nightclub and exuberant entry. A delightful secret of the building is Mrs, Esperson's 13th-ftoor Americans, Much of her scholarly research Houston the truth of this observation conference center. While the rehabilitation was devoted to tracing continuities between becomes painfully graphic. Dozens of work now nearing completion has been office, maintained since her death as a virtual time capsule. West African ornamental design and blocks of the city grid have been cleared to carried out on a very low budget and is building typologies and those ofTexas and patiently await the next boom as surface sometimes lacking in refinement, the the southern United States. She was instru- parking lots. The result is almost surreal: undertaking is admirable, and the increased Houston desperately needs a legal mecha- mental in numerous efforts ro document, gleaming skyscrapers emerge from fields of traffic in the area will be enormously nism to preserve historically significant preserve, and interpret the African-Amer- asphalt and weeds, while at their feet some beneficial for neighboring restaurants. buildings. Presently there is nothing that ican cultural heritage ofTexas, including of the city's most engaging buildings slowly can legally prevent an owner from demol- the history of slave-buili buildings on the deteriorate. A number of turn-of-the- A few blocks to the east, the reconstruction ishing even a designated historic landmark, Lcgg-Ervin Plantation near Nacogdoches, century commercial structures have of the Pillot Building has just been com- and the penalty for demolishing any and of African-American-built buildings managed to survive along the northern pleted. Built in 1860 and located diago- building without a permit is an insignifi- relocated from Liberty County to the edge of downtown, but without any legal nally across the street from the county cant fine. It is imperative that every legal plantation and ranch museum at Baylor mechanism to prevent their destruction courthouse, the building was destroyed by avenue be explored in order to decelerate University. During 1988 and 1989 she their future is uncertain. Buildings as the neglect and indifference of the county the destruction of the city's architectural supervised the reconstruction ol the Rcis significant as the Rice Hotel (1913) and government. The ground-floor cast-iron heritage. A significant increase in the log cabin on the campus ol Koltcr Elemen- the Houston National Bank Building storefront is all that remains of the original, penalties for demolishing buildings without tary School in Houston. She had in (1928) have been vacant and in peril for but the three-story brick exterior has been a demolition permit, combined with a preparation a book on slave-built architec- more than a decade. recreated by Morris Architects. While one moratorium on the granting of such ture in Texas, which Texas A&M Press will may argue that a fake building is preferable permits for historic landmarks, could be publish. Mrs. Becnel was a graduate of the a useful interim safeguard until a strong Market Square, one of Houston's two to another surface parking lot, the decision University of Houston. As a student, she preservation ordinance is enacted. original public squares laid out in 1836, to incorporate a "crumbling brick wall" participated in the organization of SHAPE has been the beneficiary of considerable design on its west facade adds insult to Community Center, efforts spearheaded by the Downtown injury. It is ironic that the building whose Raphael Longoria intended demolition prompted the crea- Houston Association and DiverseWorks, Nia Becnel s dedication to preservation was tion of the Greater Houston Preservation Notes whose heroic plans to transform the square activist rather than antiquarian in nature. Alliance in the seventies has now acquired with works of art and a performance space As Omawali Lithuli observed in a eulogy the quality of an amusement park replica. The dry in Hiftoiy{Ncvi York: Harcourt, Brace & are about to bear fruit. However, a plaza is World.1%1), p. 47. delivered ar her funeral, "Nia Becnel was no more than a void in a city when it lacks not a bystander." She bitterly opposed the the perimeter-defining walls that give it efforts of the city of Houston and the spatial character and the human inhabi- Housing Authority of the City of Houston tants that are the very reason lor its to destroy Fourth Ward and Allen Parkway existence. Market Square's perimeter build- Village, and she organized opposition to ings have been falling at a disastrous rate these efforts by bringing together con- since the late 1960s, robbing it not only of cerned members of the Fourth Ward historical and spatial identity but also of ma community with students and professionals vitality. On its western and southern edges who shared her recognition of the critical not a single original building is still left importance this neighborhood holds for standing. Last year's fire in the W. L. Foley Houston. Mrs. BecneTs intense sense of Dry Goods Company Building endangered Above: The Pillot Building in 1983. community loyalty grew out of her the squares most important corner and Right: Pillot Building reconstruction, connections to Acres Homes, the lower- caused the relocation ol DiverseWorks 1990, Morris Architects with Barry income, semi-rural black community on away from the neighborhood. And the Moore, restoration architect. Only the Little York Road where she grew up. In corner building once occupied by the Stage cast-iron architectural elements of the 1989 she, her husband, Edwin Robert Door Cafe is about to be demolished. 1860 building remain in place. Becnel, and their children, Sheshe Malkia Taylor and An/a Falme Becnel, moved In 1988 a task force was formed to find In a time when Disney-style versions from Third Ward, near the University of ways to revitalize the Main Street/Market of urban settings are proliferating, it is Houston, back to Acres Homes. Her Square Historic District. Its efforts resulted essential for historic districts to retain funeral, held in the crowded confines of the in a master plan by Team HOU Architects their integrity, since authenticity is their Boyd Funeral Flome, was followed by that addresses the many vacant blocks in greatest strength. The many empty sites burial in the Dorian family plot at Paradise the area and a comprehensive marketing should be filled wirh buildings respectful of Cemetery in Acres Homes.