In 1973-74, Galveston Historical Foundation (GHF) hired Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown to develop a plan for the Strand Historic District. The firm completed the plan that served as a guiding concept for much of the early efforts to preserve Galveston's historic architecture. GHF has put together an in-depth discussion on Post-Modernist architecture in Galveston. Held at the Texas Seaport Museum, this event will feature presentations from William Whitaker, Curator of The Architectural Archives at University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Kathryn O’Rourke, Historian of Modern Architecture at Trinity University. Noted author Ellen Beasley and past GHF Executive Director Peter Brink will also offer comment on Galveston in the 1970s and the island’s early preservation movement.
Tickets are $35 per person. This special Galveston Historic Homes Tour event will be held from 2-5 p.m. on Sunday, May 5 at the Texas Seaport Museum, Pier 22. For more information, visit galvestonhistory.org.
SPEAKERS
“NOT…A DEAD ARCHITECTURAL MUSEUM”: ROBERT VENTURI AND DENISE SCOTT BROWN’S ACTION PLAN FOR GALVESTON
William Whitaker, Curator
The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania
William Whitaker is curator of the Architectural Archives at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. He is coauthor (with George Marcus) of The Houses of Louis I. Kahn and recipient of the 2014 Literary Award of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. Trained as an architect at Penn and the University of New Mexico, Whitaker works most closely with the archival collections of Louis I. Kahn, Lawrence Halprin, and the partnership of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, in support of teaching, scholarship, preservation, and public engagement.
Whitaker is co-organizer for “Design With Nature Now” – a major program of exhibitions, conference, and public programs that highlight the dynamic and visionary approaches to landscape design and development in the face of climate change and global urbanization. The project takes as its point of departure the 50th anniversary of the landmark book, Design With Nature by Ian L. McHarg.
GALVESTON IS ALMOST ALL RIGHT: POSTMODERNISM AND THE TEXAS GULF COAST
Kathryn O’Rourke, Ph.D.
Historian of Modern Architecture and Associate Professor of Art History, Trinity University
Kathryn O’Rourke is a historian of modern architecture and is associate professor of art history at Trinity University. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. O’Rourke is the author of Modern Architecture in Mexico City: History, Representation, and the Shaping of a Capital (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016), which received the Alice Davis Hitchcock Award from the Society of Architectural Historians. She is the editor of O’Neil Ford on Architecture (University of Texas Press, 2019) and is at work on a book manuscript, Archaism and Humanism in Modern Architecture.
In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. O’Rourke is the secretary of the Society of Architectural Historians and vice-chair of the State Board of Review of the Texas Historical Commission. She serves on the Visiting Committee on Latin American Art at the San Antonio Museum of Art.