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Cargando... The Courthouses of Central Texaspor Brantley Hightower
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The county courthouse has long held a central place on the Texas landscape ?literally, as the center of the town in which it is located, and figuratively, as the symbol of governmental authority. As a county ?s most important public building, the courthouse makes an architectural statement about a community ?s prosperity and aspirations ?or the lack of them. Thus, a study of county courthouses tells a compelling story about how society ?s relationships with public buildings and government have radically changed over the course of time, as well as how architectural tastes have evolved through the decades. A first of its kind, The Courthouses of Central Texas offers an in-depth, comparative architectural survey of fifty county courthouses, which serve as a representative sample of larger trends at play throughout the rest of the state. Each courthouse is represented by a description, with information about date(s) of construction and architects, along with a historical photograph, a site plan of its orientation and courthouse square, and two- and sometimes three-dimensional drawings of its facade with modifications over time. Side-by-side drawings and plans also facilitate comparisons between courthouses. These consistently scaled and formatted architectural drawings, which Brantley Hightower spent years creating, allow for direct comparisons in ways never before possible. He also explains the courthouses ? formal development by placing them in their historical and social context, which illuminates the power and importance of these structures in the history of Texas, as well as their enduring relevance today. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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 Google Books — Cargando...GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)725.1509764The arts Architecture Public structures Government CourtsClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio: (3.5)
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Brantley Hightower
The Courthouses of Central Texas
Austin: University of Texas Press
978-0-292-76294-7, hardcover, $45.00
192 pages; 92 color illustrations, 61 maps
Spring 2015
May is recognized each year as Preservation Month, an opportunity to highlight our shared heritage and why we should save it. The Courthouses of Central Texas by Brantley Hightower, an elegantly conceived and executed coffee-table book, volume 20 in the University of Texas Press’s Clifton and Shirley Caldwell Texas Heritage Series, features Texas’s beloved architectural confections: our distinctive courthouses. Handsome in its subdued burnt orange, black, and bone color scheme, Courthouses brims with sepia-toned photographs and architectural drawings of the fifty courthouses in the central Texas region, as well as the history of each, on matte heavy-stock paper.
Each courthouse in the central Texas region is addressed individually. From the fairly simple Italianate limestone of the Kendall County courthouse, the grand Renaissance Revival style of Bell County, the awkward mishmash of medieval towers and Second Empire style of Hamilton County, the Gothic drama of Bosque County, to the low horizontal modernism of Zavala County, each of these buildings is unique. “The collection of county courthouses built in central Texas represents a wide spectrum of architectural styles, approaches, and ambitions. This diversity is not random, but the product of the specific social, economic, and political forces in existence when a courthouse was designed and constructed. As such, each courthouse can be seen as a reflection of a particular community at a particular place and time.” For example, courthouses were situated differently depending upon whether the municipality was a Spanish land grant town or settled by Anglos or by immigrants from continental Europe. Size and style differed depending upon the availability of various funding options, the state of the economy, and current fashions. Entries for each courthouse are followed by a concise discussion of the architects, preservation challenges, and the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program.
Courthouses is not merely a pretty collection of photographs. From the poetic foreword penned by Max Levy to Hightower’s insightful social commentary on the significance of these public buildings for disparate societal constituencies, there is food for thought here as well. The courthouses of Texas were, above all, aspirational. As Max Levy, FAIA, notes in his foreword, “What…emerges is this architectural principle: that a single building, distinguished by its setting and composure, crafted with care and designed with meaning for its community, can affect an entire town.”
I suggest a road trip. Who’s in?
Originally published in Lone Star Literary Life. (