Preservation Houston’s History in Print author series continues Thursday, March 6, as architect and University of Texas professor David Heymann discusses his book John S. Chase – The Chase Residence. Join us at 6:30 p.m. that evening as we explore the story of one of Houston’s most iconic modern homes and the visionary architect who created it.

Preservation Houston members are invited to celebrate the organization’s work in the past year, welcome new leaders and mingle with friends during the 2024 Member Reception and Meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 18.

The small town of New Harmony, Indiana, was an important site of Houstonian Jane Blaffer Owen’s architectural, art and cultural philanthropy. New Harmony is renowned as the site of two successive Utopian settlements during the 19th century: the Harmonists and the Owenites. More than 30 structures from the Harmonist and Owenite communities have been preserved alongside other historic buildings that Jane Blaffer Owen moved to the town and striking modern works she commissioned by Richard Meier and Philip Johnson.

Advance registration is strongly encouraged for this event.

Architectural historian Stephen Fox's new book The Architecture of Birdsall P. Briscoe examines Houston architect Birdsall P. Briscoe's country houses, offering a glimpse into the architect's methods and analyzing how Briscoe built a "social architecture" to frame his clientele during periods of economic expansion and contraction. Join Fox for a special History in Print author event as he recaps Briscoe’s significant work, followed by a Q&A with the audience.

Please note that advance registration is required for this online program.

Join Preservation Houston and author and architectural historian Barrie Scardino Bradley on Tuesday evening, May 4, for an online History in Print program featuring Bradley’s award-winning book Improbable Metropolis: Houston’s Architectural and Urban History.

Complex, controversial, and prolific, Howard Barnstone was a central figure in the world of 20th-century modern architecture. Recognized as Houston’s foremost modern architect in the 1950s, Barnstone came to prominence for his designs with partner Preston M. Bolton, which transposed the rigorous and austere architectural practices of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to the hot, steamy coastal plain of Texas.

Join Preservation Houston's David Bush and Jim Parsons on Tuesday evening, June 30, as they discuss their book Fair Park Deco: Art and Architecture of the Texas Centennial Exposition in a virtual History in Print author event.

Rediscover the architectural treasures of the Lone Star State when author/photographer Gerald Moorhead presents an illustrated lecture on his landmark book, Buildings of Texas: East North Central, Panhandle and South Plains, and West during History in Print on November 19.

Few American architects have had the opportunity to design an entire city. In the early 1940s, Alden B. Dow joined their ranks when Dow Chemical expanded its Freeport plant, prompting the construction of a new town for plant employees: Lake Jackson. In addition to model home designs, Dow produced plans for schools, churches, a movie theater and commercial buildings. His city plan and modern building designs formed the basis for the area’s growth in the decades that followed.

If you're looking for something new under the midcentury sun, Victor Lundy is a real find — an important yet underappreciated figure in the history of American architecture. Trained in both the Beaux Arts and Bauhaus traditions, he built an impressive practice ranging from small-scale residential and commercial buildings to expressive religious buildings and two preeminent institutional works: the U.S. Tax Court Building in Washington, D.C. (now on the National Register of Historic Places), and the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka.

In Lost, Texas: Photographs of Forgotten Buildings, architect and architectural photographer Bronson Dorsey takes us on a tour of abandoned buildings in Texas that evoke the mystique of bygone days and shifting population patterns. With a skilled photographer’s eye, he captures the character of these buildings — most abandoned and in a state of decay, though a handful have been repurposed as museums, residences or other functional structures.

In 1950, Greater Houston had just one freeway: the Gulf Freeway, the first sections of which were built immediately after World War II. Since then, more than 1,200 miles of freeways have been built in Houston and Harris County, and additional freeways are under construction. Highways have driven nearly every aspect of Houston’s postwar development, from the physical layout of the city to the political process that has transformed both the transportation network and the balance of power between the government and citizens.