Archive & Notable Collection

Joel Warren Barna served as editor of Texas Architect magazine, the official publication of the Texas Society of Architects, from 1985-1995. The collection reflects the research and writing of Joel Warren Barna's 1992 award winning book, The See-through years: creation and destruction in Texas architecture and real estate, 1981-1991. Documents include manuscript drafts, proofs, correspondence, research files, papers, photographs, and slides.

During the better part of the twentieth century, John Astin Perkins was considered "the decorator of choice" in Dallas and was credited with bringing New York Style to that city. With a career spanning 70 years, his work encompassed schools, clubs, homes, office buildings, hotels, and department stores. Drawings, photographs, ledgers, correspondence, awards, ephemera, scrapbooks, and published materials document the architectural and interior designs of John Astin Perkins.

John G. York (1914-1980) was a modernist architect who practiced in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. York was appointed to the faculty at the University of Oklahoma School of Architecture in 1960 and eventually became dean. The collection includes architectural drawings and manuscript material documenting York's work as a solo architect in Texas and his continuing career as an architect while teaching at the University of Oklahoma.

John Wesley Jones was an architect who worked primarily in Fort Worth, Dallas, and San Antonio, Texas. Working predominantly on residential homes, Jones' architectural style is noted for his mid-century modern focus. The collection contains architectural drawings that span the length of his career.

Kent S. Butler was an urban, rural, and regional planner, community activist, and assistant professor at The University of Texas at Austin from 1978 to 2011. The collection documents Butler’s teaching, consulting, and community projects. Record types include research and project files, proposals, permits, presentation notes, correspondence, and documents relating to Butler's administrative faculty positions.

Lawrence W. Speck Associates was founded in January 1980. In 1988, Speck entered into a partnership with Page Southerland Page, later merging his practice with Page in order to concentrate on his duties as Dean of The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. The collection includes correspondence, specifications, job files, drawings, photographs, financial documents, presentation materials that document Speck’s career as an architect and as Dean of the School of Architecture.

Scholar Lisa Germany has written on architecture since the early 1980's, contributing to publications such as Architectural Record, Harvard Design Magazine, Progressive Architecture, Texas Monthly, and Texas Architect. The collection documents Germany’s scholarship on the career of architect Harwell Hamilton Harris. The collection also contains records created by Harris, and his wife, Jean Murray Bangs Harris.

Lucy T. Shoe Meritt began her career as a student, teacher, and scholar of classical archaeology and architecture in 1915. The collection includes documents reflecting her many publications (at different stages of publication), drawings, correspondence, personal papers, and photographic materials.

Ludwig Weinman (1867-1945) was a German-born architect who practiced in Fort Worth, Texas and the surrounding area. The collection consists of working drawings representing Weinman's architectural designs produced between 1890 and 1929.

Architectural drawings (prints), photographs, slides, maps, student work, and exhibition panels cover the core subjects of European architecture of the 19th and 20th centuries, particularly the Austrian Secession and the German Jugendstil. The materials were collected by Professor Martin S. Kermacy during his tenure as a Fulbright Lecturer at the Technische Hochschule Wien during 1955 and 1956. In addition, the collection includes 92 exhibition panels for "Art Nouveau and Vienna Secession.