I Love Buildings Many of us can name multiple reasons for being drawn to our chosen professions, but architectural historian Stephen Fox has only one. “I love buildings,” he said. “That’s the whole reason.” Fox graduated from Rice with a B.A. in 1973 and earned a degree in architecture here two years later. “After I graduated, I knew I did not want to be an architect,” Fox said. “Architectural history was of much more interest to me.” For three years after he graduated, he assisted architect Howard Barnstone, who was writing a book about Houston architect John F. Staub. Following that, he worked with Drexel Turner ’69, then assistant to Rice Dean of Architecture O. Jack Mitchell, on a research project called the Houston Architectural Survey, a database of research on historical architectural sites in Houston. More historical architectural research and writing followed, including work for Turner on a book on the 19th-century Galveston architect M.J. Clayton. Fox, who began teaching in the Rice School of Architecture in 1990, is now the author of six books and numerous book chapters, articles and essays. Among the books are several on Rice architecture, notably “The Campus Guide: Rice University” (Princeton University Press, 2001). “The Rice campus is regarded as one of the great examples of the American university campus,” he said. “Its designer, Ralph Adams Cram, was one of the outstanding American architects at the beginning of the 20th century, and Rice’s buildings have always been distinctive because of Cram’s Byzantine-influenced architecture.” In describing Lovett Hall, Rice’s most iconic building, Fox said, “Cram saw Lovett Hall not only as a precedent for what future buildings at Rice ought to be, but also as a model for architecture in a hot, humid Southern setting. As exotic as Cram’s architectural theme was, he was very careful to build Lovett Hall with materials that were rooted in its location. The brick was made from clay from Buffalo Bayou, the base course of the building and all the exterior floor surfaces are Texas granite, and the marble is an Ozark marble. It was a very daring way to imagine what an architecture for Houston and Rice might be.” But as much as Fox appreciates Cram’s style, he’s not bound to it. “I’m least comfortable with architects who feel they can simply replicate Cram’s architecture,” he said, “and I tend to applaud the architects who stretch the most.” Brochstein Pavilion is one of his favorite new buildings. “This is a brilliant building and fully in the Cram tradition of great architecture,” Fox said. “Architect Thomas Pfeiffer and landscape architect James Burnett designed a building and landscaping of extraordinary simplicity and refinement.” Another favorite is Herring Hall, by Cesar Pelli, which Fox said
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stemmed from the postmodern reaction against modern architecture typical of the 1970s and 1980s. “Although it’s an architecture that is now held somewhat in low regard,” he said, “it’s beginning to be reassessed critically and will come to be recognized as one of the great buildings of that period in the nation.” Fox also is fond of Dell Butcher Hall. “Antoine Predock’s design for Butcher Hall is in Rice tradition, but it also resulted in a very imaginative and inventive building that deals very successfully with an extremely difficult site and is very mindful of the experience of the people who occupy it.” Fox said that the Rice architectural style has influenced the architectural heritage of Houston, but in a sequence of cycles rather than continuously. One of the earliest influences was Cram’s avenues of live oak trees, which were carried into surrounding neighborhoods by Cram’s protégé William Ward Watkin, who stayed at Rice to become the founding professor of architecture. Watkin also designed other buildings in Houston and carried Rice’s architecture beyond the city as the master planner for Texas Tech University in Lubbock. But Watkin’s most important role, Fox said, was as a public figure and a professional leader. “Rice architecture faculty also have pursued the role of leadership, not just locally, but nationally and internationally,” he said, “through both their architectural work and their academic careers. This is a direct reflection of Watkin’s influence.” Fox’s current project is an update of his “Houston Architectural Guide” (Herring Press, 1999) that will reflect the extensive body of new buildings that have been constructed at Rice since the book’s initial publication. —Christopher Dow