The Texas Society of Architects has an extensive archive of material, with issues of Texas Architect dating back to when it was little more than the society’s newsletter. The magazine began its evolution into something more like what our members would recognize today in the 1950s. In honor of our new Texas Architect website, we are taking a trip through our publication’s history. Explore the gallery of covers selected from each decade of its existence.
In the near future, our archive page will be an increasingly robust destination for readers to explore the Society’s history and the history of architecture in Texas. For now, please enjoy some of the magazine’s most striking covers.
Which cover do you prefer? Is there a decade you would like to see more from?
2 Comments
I really enjoyed this look back at past covers – the urban design speculation on the future of Austin from the 80’s was particularly fun.
In 1959 I was at Texas Tech, College of Architecture, (actually the “department of architecture” at that time). I do not remember the first time I was introduced the the Texas Architect, but feel sure it was at Tech. This prompted a few of us to (pilgrim) to Austin for Board meetings, an annual meeting, etc., meeting architects and students from other universities, (or colleges as was Tech at that time). Little did we know, at that time, many of the people we met would become “leaders” of the Society, locally and at the State level.
I served on the TSA Board for a number of years, first as a “Chapter rep”, and later as a officer of the Board. These were the most valuable years of my career. Upon opening my office in the early 1970’s I found out how valuable those early contacts I made with other architects around the state, and national as well. Every major decision I made regarding the establishment of my firm was confirmed, or changed before the decision, by architects I had met through TSA/AIA. Needles to say, I required every employ in my employment to join the local Chapter, encouraging extending to State.
And, as the years went by, Suzanne and I enjoyed the annual meetings, State and National, visiting with these colleagues, watching their family grow, with the good, bad, and the ugly due to the ups/downs of the practice of Architecture. But, no matter how bad the practice became, the good out-weighed it, to the point of the low’s never coming to mind in thinking about my years of practice.