In architecture, Texas Rangers refers to a group of
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
s who taught at the
University of Texas School of Architecture
The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture (UTSOA) is a college within The University of Texas at Austin, with its major facilities located on the main university campus in Austin, Texas. UTSOA's dean is Michelle Addington. I ...
in
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, from 1951 to 1958. The group is known for the development of an innovative curriculum that encouraged the development of a workable, useful body of
architectural theory derived from a continuous critique of significant works across history and cultures. The curriculum discouraged the sculpting and shaping of a building's mass in favor of the visualization and organization of architectural space.
History
The movement that brought about the Texas Rangers began with the appointment of
Harwell Hamilton Harris as the first director of the school in 1951. Harris, impressed by a new approach to design championed by the former
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...
member,
Josef Albers
Josef Albers (; ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College ...
, began recruiting architects to teach at his school whose approach to design and architecture were similar to Albers’. Among those Harris succeeded in attracting to the Texas School of Architecture were
Colin Rowe
Colin Rowe (27 March 1920 – 5 November 1999), was a British-born, American-naturalised architectural historian, critic, theoretician, and teacher; he is acknowledged to have been a major theoretical and critical influence, in the second h ...
,
John Hejduk
John Quentin Hejduk (July 19, 1929 – July 3, 2000) was an American architect, artist and educator of Czech origin who spent much of his life in New York City. Hejduk is noted for having had a profound interest in the fundamental issues of shap ...
,
Robert Slutzky,
Werner Seligmann, Lee Hirsche,
Bernhard Hoesli, Lee Hodgden,
Irwin Rubin
Irwin Rubin (1930–April 8, 2006) was an American artist and educator known for his colorfully painted wood constructions.
Biography
Irwin Rubin was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1930. He studied at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, the Cooper Union ...
,
Jerry Wells
Jerry may refer to:
Animals
* Jerry (Grand National winner), racehorse, winner of the 1840 Grand National
* Jerry (St Leger winner), racehorse, winner of 1824 St Leger Stakes
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Jerry'' (film), a 2006 Indian fil ...
,
John Shaw and W. Irving Phillips, Jr.
References
Review of Alexander Caragonne's book, "The Texas Rangers: Notes from the Architectural Underground", The MIT PressHistory of the Texas School of ArchitectureThe Texas Rangers: Notes from the Architectural Underground, by Alexander Caragonne
Further reading
* Caragonne, Alexander, ''The Texas Rangers: Notes from the Architectural Underground'', (Cambridge MA and London: MIT Press, 1995) {{ISBN, 978-0-262-03218-6
* Germany, Lisa, ''Harwell Hamilton Harris'' (Austin TX: University of Texas Press, 1991), pp. 139–156.
Architecture educators
University of Texas faculty