High Noon Talk: Home, Heat, Money, God
February 5, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm
Join us for a captivating look at how Texas's unique landscape shaped modern architecture.
Event Details
Take a mid-day break with our free High Noon Talks! Discover interesting, and often untold, stories of Texas at our casual lunchtime series.
Dive into key architectural works, the challenges of designing for extreme climates, and balancing innovation and tradition in Texas's most iconic structures with the authors of Home, Heat, Money, and God: Texas and Modern Architecture. From sweltering heat to the oil-driven economy, architect Ben Koush and professor and architectural historian Kathryn O’Rourke unravel the complexities behind Texas's built environment.
The book conveys the breadth and diversity of the state’s outstanding body of modern architecture, built as Texas became a major force in national politics and an economic powerhouse. The book is thematically organized on social history and includes more than 250 of Koush’s photographs. Koush and O'Rourke will examine major works of architecture and ways that historic preservation, Texas’s rich legacy of architectural photography, and an imperative to write an inclusive, accessible work of architectural history defined the project.
Authors Ben Koush and Kathryn O'Rourke will be available to sign copies of the book, which can be purchased on site, after the High Noon Talk from 1–1:30 p.m.
This program is FREE to the public.
Kathryn O’Rourke is a historian of modern architecture and Grace Slack McNeil Professor of American Art at Wellesley College, where she directs the Architecture program. She is the author of Modern Architecture in Mexico City: History, Representation, and the Shaping of a Capital, Home, Heat, Money, God: Texas and Modern Architecture, and editor of O’Neil Ford on Architecture. Her current book project is Archaism and Liberalism in Modern Architecture. Prior to coming to Wellesley, O’Rourke taught for 15 years at Trinity University in San Antonio. She has served on the executive committee of the Society of Architectural Historians, the State Board of Review of the Texas Historical Commission, and the board of directors of Centro San Antonio.
Ben Koush is a graduate of Columbia University and Rice University. He is a registered architect and interior designer in Texas with two decades of architectural experience. He has a special interest in the preservation of modern architecture and is a founding member of Houston Mod, which has won numerous local and state awards. His architectural writing appears in Architects’ Newspaper, Cite magazine, and Texas Architect. He currently serves on the Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission.
Public programs at the Bullock Museum explore relevant history and celebrate the culture that has shaped our modern world. Through engaging discussions, live performances, and experiential activities visitors are invited to see local connections and discover how Texas fits into a broader national story.
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The Bullock Museum, a division of the Texas State Preservation Board, is funded by Museum members, donors, and patrons, the Texas State History Museum Foundation, and the State of Texas.
