254 Texas Courthouses and most of them Historic

I recently came across this site which documents the travels of architect Leonard Lane as he has criss-crossed Texas to visit and photograph the courthouses of all 254 Texas counties. Begun in May 2006, he has recently completed the circuit and has established this exquisite website that contains information on each and every one. I haven't been all the way through it yet, but the photographs are great and he often includes images of adjacent architecture. In my office, this website could cause a greater loss of efficiency than Facebook; easy to get lost in it. I encourage you to have a look. 

You can see it at www.254texascourthouses.net

Our contribution, the Erath County Courthouse, is shown here. 

Norman Alston awarded 2016 President's Medal from AIA Dallas

At their annual Awards Program and Holiday Party, the Dallas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects bestowed recognition on chapter members for their efforts on behalf of AIA Dallas and the community. Among those receiving recognition was Norman Alston, AIA, who received the President's Medal for outstanding service to the chapter and the profession. Norman had been active over the past 3 years in reorganizing the chapter's inactive Historic Resources Committee and improving the AIA's contribution in historic preservation at a time when the chapter was looked upon to provide leadership on multiple important preservation issues

More complete coverage of the awards is available here

Historic Preservation Tax Credits prove to be popular in Texas

As noted in Steve Brown’s recent article in the Dallas Morning News, property owners and consultant teams in Dallas and across Texas have used the available historic preservation tax credit programs both to improve the economic performance of their projects while simultaneously giving important 19th and 20th century historic buildings renewed roles in our 21st Century urban fabric. In this new publication, TEXAS: Creating Jobs, Building Communities, Preserving Heritage, unveiled earlier this month by the National Trust for Historic Preservation at their annual conference in Houston, Dallas is noted as the epicenter of this effort, with $371 million in Federal Tax Credit projects completed over the past 14 years. Some may find this result surprising given Dallas’ often repeated self-proclamation as a city that does not embrace either its history or the historic buildings that remain. This report, however, seems to repudiate that perception. Dallas has a rich architectural history with an historic building stock to match. The number, the prominence and the success of the projects in this report are clear indications that the re-invigorated interest in historic preservation that is thought to have begun in September 2014 may have actually been a logical outgrowth from a growing recognition of our valuable historic resources, a recognition that began in the late 1990’s. The popularity of these tax credit programs also indicates that commonly held fears about the restrictions that are thought to come with historic buildings, and the complexity of the regulatory requirements associated with the tax credit programs, are not barriers after all.

You can download a copy of the report from the National Trust here:

TEXAS: Creating Jobs, Building Communities, Preserving Heritage