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Other
winners
2010
Kane, an 1890s "Folk Victorian" house in
Old Sixth Ward
2337
Blue Bonnet, a 1937 International Style residence
2421
Brentwood, a 1929 Katharine Mott-designed home
201
Main, the former First National Bank Building
Spire
Realty Group for its commitment to preservation downtown
1600
Westheimer, the former Imperial Plumbing Supply Building
3842
N. Braeswood, a 1960 modern office building
4916
Main, the former Weldon Cafeteria
Keck
Hall (Chemistry Building), Rice University
Girl
Scout Troop 12357, San Jacinto Council, for research
and assistance at Glenwood Cemetery
John
L. Nau III for his leadership in preservation
AIA
25 year award: Mies van der Rohe additions to the
Museum of Fine Arts |
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The 25 Year Award, presented annually by the American
Institute of Architects Houston, honors distinguished
architecture of lasting value. In addition to being a
fine piece of architecture, the building must be at least
25 years old, still in use for its original purpose, and
not substantially changed.
Receiving the 2003 Award from AIA Houston is Cullinan
Hall/Brown Pavilion of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
The addition, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in
two phases and completed in 1974, is his only Houston
work and the first work of its kind in Houston. Even more
significant than its distinctive style is its lasting
flexibility as a universal space. Multitudes of Houstonians
and visitors continue to enjoy the space as a thing of
beauty for those who simply drive by, as a setting for
memorable museum exhibitions, and — in its Brown
Auditorium — as a venue for major educational experiences.
At the opening of the new space in January 1974, Paul
Goldberger, architecture critic of The New York Times,
observed: "Mies' design is so refined — and
simply so beautiful — as to rise above the limitations
of an all too familiar idiom. It is one of Mies' most
stunning spaces, with a subtle curve of glass on one side
and on the other an internal balcony looking down into
the earlier gallery." The synthesis of classical
formal dignity and 20th-century industrial products was
an achievement of profound and significant invention.
In the 1999 edition of the Houston
Architectural Guide, published
by the Houston Architecture Foundation, Stephen Fox comments:
"It is a classic: precise, subtle, serene, and charged
with spatial grandeur, full of the 'nothing' to which
Mies paradoxically aspired to reduce architecture. It
is the finest modern building in Houston." After
25 years, it still is.
The jury of past presidents of AIA Houston included Preston
Bolton, FAIA, Morton Levy, FAIA, and Thomas L. McKittrick,
FAIA.
Next
winner: 2010 Kane >
Copyright 2003, Greater Houston Preservation Alliance
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