About Houston

Houston Reflections 1: Margaret Culbertson

Houston is a vibrant, crazy, fascinating, hodge-podge of a city. It is a "place of dreams," as photographer Geoff Winningham illustrates in his beautiful, clear-eyed book of the same title. Throughout Houston’s history, people have brought their dreams and often made them real. The city’s architecture, cultural riches, and international population will amaze you.

I have lived in Houston for over 30 years, if you include my time as a student at Rice University. During that entire span, I have found it an excellent place to live, but only in the later years of my tenure has it become a great place to visit. The ARLIS conference coincides with a time when many facets of the city, like a new light rail system, are coming together in a spectacular way. So consider yourselves lucky and make those plans to venture into Houston—a city unlike any other in all of Texas.

Houston first earned a gold star in my book back in 1969, when it was the only Texas city to host Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev on their national tour with the Royal Ballet. I consider myself privileged to have seen all five of their Houston performances, and the glow of that experience probably reinforced my decision to attend Rice and so begin my serious involvement with the city.

When I returned to Houston in the mid-1970s, after graduate school in New York City, it was a relief to find a cultural scene that I could almost keep up with, after having scrambled desperately to take advantage of New York’s possibilities. Things have changed! I cannot begin to keep up with Houston’s offerings any more – and I could not even if I were in my 20s again! The cultural promise in that late 1960s ballet visit has blossomed and downright flourished beyond anyone’s control.

But you cannot enjoy culture if you’re not properly nourished, and you will have no trouble finding great food in Houston. Later updates will provide more information, but I will confirm now that Houston’s restaurants equal the variety and quality of New York’s, with the bonus of being more affordable and providing a bit more space between tables. (Things are bigger in Texas, after all.)

Another attraction for those of you from places with serious winters: Houston is green—not ecologically, but literally. The city’s location in a subtropical zone and generous plantings of Live-Oak trees and Saint Augustine grass ensure that green is the dominant palette all year long.

Our conference website and links can inform you about the tremendous wealth of visual arts, performing arts, and architecture in the city. For a more personal perspective, here are five of my favorite spaces in the city that are within a fifteen-minute walk or a Metro train ride from the conference hotel.

1. Gallery 221, in the Museum Of Fine Arts, Houston, Beck Building. Paintings by Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Pissarro, and Vuillard, plus a tremendous view of the Museum District and Downtown skyline.
2. Houston Public Library’s Julia Ideson Building (500 McKinney), second floor atrium space and Texas and Local History Department. Built in 1926 and designed by Ralph Adams Cram with Spanish Plateresque ornament, the Julia Ideson Building’s interior provides a marvelous space for research and contemplation. Original woodwork and furniture are still in place, and Public Works Project murals from the 1930s adorn the walls. (There is also a portrait of Miss Ideson herself, the system’s first professional librarian and long-time director, in a chic black evening dress.) The library’s research collections are located in this building, and the circulating collections are in the newer building next door.
3. Rice University’s Academic Court, known familiarly as “The Quadrangle.” An allée of Live Oaks leads from the main gates to the monumental archway of Lovett Hall, the entrance to the Academic Court. It is best viewed from the far end, standing with your back to the Fondren Library, one of the less inspired buildings on the campus. The Court, Lovett Hall, and the Physics Building were designed by Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson and built 1912-1914. Ralph Adams Cram developed a delightful “Southern” eclectic style for these original buildings utilizing Byzantine, Venetian, and northern Italian detail. (For more information on the many outstanding buildings on the campus, see Stephen Fox’s Rice University, published by Princeton Architectural Press.)
4. Banking Hall and Lobby of the former Gulf Building, now Chase Bank. (712 Main Street) Built in 1929, designed by Alfred C. Finn, Kenneth Franzheim, and J.E.R. Carpenter, the three-story high banking hall with Art Deco detailing is a magnificent, expansive space that makes me want to open an account every time I go there. Benedict nickel ornament abounds, along with polished Siena travertine, richly patterned terrazzo, and murals by Vincent Maragliatti.
5. The view from the east side of City Hall, where 80 years of skyscraper architecture are spread before you. Sit on one of the benches and marvel at some of the most influential skyscrapers of the 20th century, including Philip Johnson’s Pennzoil Place and RepublicBank Center (now Bank of America Center), while in the foreground you have the 1939 Hare & Hare-designed Hermann Square. The lobby of city hall also is well worth a visit. Built 1939; architect Joseph Finger. (More information about Houston’s spectacular modern architecture can be found in Stephen Fox’s Houston Architectural Guide, and Stephen will be leading two of our architecture tours.)

No place is perfect. The Northeast has long gray winters, and Houston has its summers. Although Danny Deck in Larry McMurtry’s All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers loved Houston’s " . . . heat, her dampness, her sumpy smells," that is an acquired taste (or scent). But we are not inviting you here in August. In case you have forgotten, ARLIS is scheduled for April 1 through 6—a perfect time of the year to visit. Come join us for an outstanding conference in an exceptional city!

Books mentioned:

Winningham, Geoff. Place of Dreams: Houston, an American City. Houston: Rice University Press, 1986.

Fox, Stephen. Houston Architectural Guide. 2nd ed. Houston: American Institute of Architects/Houston Chapter and Herring Press, 1999.

Fox, Stephen. Rice University. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001.

McMurtry, Larry. All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers: a Novel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. (First published in 1972.)

Margaret Culbertson
Director, Hirsch Library
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston