Art Deco

In the afternoon, I had scheduled to join the fieldtrip of the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance. This month’s fieldtrip went past a number of Art Deco buildings in down town Houston. Surprisingly it was almost the same route I took whit the Photowalk group on November 7th.

I decided to bring a long lens because the Art Deco style knows a lot of details. Somehow the details didn’t really work out. I think the pace of the group is a little too fast for taking pictures. Even though the tour was very interesting and the tour guide was very knowledgeable about the topic. After all the fieldtrip is not a photowalk. At the end of the tour he sold a book about Art Deco he coauthored. The tour guide informed us that Art Deco was not a architectural style, but more a way to decorate buildings from different architectural building styles.

The picture below shows a group of windows from the Wilson Building (1018 Prairie Avenue, Houston, built 1932, architect William Ward Watkin). This building points the attention to the problem of buildings from which the owner let it fall into despair. Even though there are laws (in Houston) that prohibit this neglect, they are not enforced. Eventually, the building is a risk to e.g.pedestrians and therefore the building needs to be demolished.


update May 2nd, 2011:
New owners are restoring the former Wilson Stationery & Printing Co. Building (1932) in downtown Houston. A private partnership, 500 Fannin LLC, has hired Ziegler Cooper Architects to design the renovation. (source: www.ghpa.org) It will be quite a bit of work to return this building to its old glory.

The next picture is not an Art Deco building but just a nice shot I spotted during the fieldtrip. I don’t understand why some panels in the picture show a blurred reflection where others show a sharp reflection.


Greater Houston Preservation Alliance Walking Tour Program