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GHPA is now Preservation Houston

March 12, 2012
GHPA

Greater Houston Preservation Alliance is getting a new name and a new home. After serious consideration, GHPA’s Board of Directors voted to shorten the organization’s name to Preservation Houston; the Texas Secretary of State and Harris County Clerk recently certified the change.
“Our name may be different, but our mission remains the same. Preservation Houston will continue to promote the preservation and appreciation of our shared architectural and cultural historic resources,” said Preservation Houston President Patty Porter. “The organization, the staff, the board and our membership will remain the same.”

On Monday, March 19, Preservation Houston will be in its new office at 3272 Westheimer Road, Suite 2, in the historic Lamar-River Oaks Building. The new contact information will be (713) 510-3990 and contact@preservationhouston.org. Preservation Houston is also in the process of upgrading its website. The new web address is www.preservationhouston.org.

The new name better reflects the organization’s current work.

Lamar-River Oaks Building“When GHPA was incorporated in 1978, Houston did not have a historic preservation ordinance, there were no historic districts and no local landmarks. Everyone had to work to get the fundamental tools in place,” said Preservation Houston Executive Director Ramona Davis. “Now our work is much more nuanced. The interests of the Old Sixth Ward Historic District are not necessarily the same as the Broadacres Historic District.”

“We’ll still form partnerships with other groups, but it’s going to be based on the specific project or program,” Davis said. “Of course, issues like the Alabama Theater and the Astrodome will always require broad-based grassroots support.”

With the new name comes a new image. Preservation Houston’s logo (above) incorporates a traditional key to reflect the organization’s efforts to preserve historic architecture. A leaf element represents preservation’s role in conserving resources by encouraging reuse rather than demolition.

GHPA has been in its current office in the JPMorgan Chase & Co. Building downtown since 1987. The move was precipitated when Chase Bank sold the historic building that many Houstonians know as the Gulf Building.

“We’ll always be grateful to Chase Bank and its predecessor, Texas Commerce Bank, for generously donating GHPA’s office space for more than 20 years,” Davis said. “It’s going to feel strange not coming here, but change is good. We have a new name, a new look and a new home.”

Find Preservation Houston at:
www.preservationhouston.org
facebook.com/preservationhouston
twitter.com/preshou

Lamar-River Oaks Building (1948, Raymond H. Brogniez). Photo by Jim Parsons.

Blast from the past

June 14, 2011
GHPA

A new archive feature on GHPA’s recently redesigned website allows you to research or reminisce about historic preservation in Houston. The archive includes GHPA newsletters dating back to the first edition in 1983. The publications document the evolution of the preservation movement in Houston and are good sources of information on historic buildings.

If you have any issues of the newsletter that are not on the website, please e-mail GHPA and we will make arrangements to scan your copy and add it to the archive.

GHPA, Rice to co-sponsor historic neighborhoods course

September 8, 2010
GHPA

GHPA members have an opportunity to learn about the history and development of some of Houston’s historic inner Loop neighborhoods and enjoy discounted registration for a fall semester course co-sponsored by Rice University’s Glasscock School of Continuing Education and Greater Houston Preservation Alliance.

The eight-week course is called “Historic Houston Neighborhoods.” Local historians, including Stephen Fox and Betty Trapp Chapman, will trace the birth, growth and, in some cases, rebirth of several close-in residential areas. Among the historic neighborhoods featured in the program are Broadacres, Shadow Lawn, Idylwood, Garden Oaks and Magnolia Park. GHPA’s Historic Neighborhood Resources Director Courtney Tardy will close the series with a discussion of preservation in Houston.

The course will be held on the Rice University campus on eight Monday evenings, September 13 through November 1, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. GHPA members may register for the discounted price of $160 for the course. Participants must register for the entire course; registration is not available for single sessions.

The continuing education program’s complete schedule and online registration information are available at www.gscs.rice.edu. The historic neighborhoods course number is 351m.

Photo: Westmoreland Historic District (photo by Jim Parsons)

‘Hill Country Deco’ set for fall release

January 11, 2010
GHPA

TCU Press of Fort Worth is publishing Hill Country Deco: Modernistic Architecture of Central Texas, a new book written and photographed by GHPA staff members Jim Parsons and David Bush.

The book will feature original and historic photographs of more than 100 Art Deco and Art Moderne buildings in San Antonio, Austin and surrounding communities, including the 1938 Herbert Bohn house in Austin (pictured). Mark Wolfe, executive director of Texas Historical Commission, contributed the foreword. Hill Country Deco will be released in October to coincide with the National Trust for Historic Preservation‘s 2010 conference in Austin.

Hill Country Deco was funded in part by a grant from the Fondren Endowed Preservation Services Fund for Texas of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The new book is a companion volume to GHPA’s Houston Deco, which was released in 2008.

Houston Deco is the basis for tours of downtown’s modernistic architecture that Bush and Parsons will conduct during Texas Historical Commission’s 2010 Preservation Conference, April 22 to 24 in Houston. The conference brochure and online registration will be available in February on the THC Web site.

Photo by David Bush