The Chase House Remembered: Tony Chase and Saundria Chase Gray in Conversation with David Heymann

On Thursday, January 14, 2021, Tony Chase and Saundria Chase Gray, with special guest Drucie Chase, joined in discussion with David Heymann, FAIA, Harwell Hamilton Harris Professor, The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, to talk about growing up in the modernist home designed by architect John Saunders Chase.

 

After a series of firsts—Chase was the first African American to enroll in and graduate from The University of Texas School of Architecture and in 1954 became the first African American registered as an architect in Texas—Chase completed a home for his family in 1959. The building was the first fully enclosed courtyard house in Houston. When Chase reconfigured the house in 1968, he transformed it into a great social stage. With the support of his wife Drucie, the house served as an epicenter for social, cultural, and political life in the city.

 

 

This event was presented by Rice Design Alliance together with AIA Austin, Austin Foundation for Architecture, AIA Houston, Architecture Center Houston, National Organization for Minority Architects (NOMA), and NOMA Houston.