A New Book Celebrates a Texas Midcentury Gem—and the Trailblazing Architect Who Designed It
In 1952, John Saunders Chase became the first African American to graduate with an architecture degree in Texas. When nobody would hire him, he built his own legacy anyway.
In 1952, John Saunders Chase became the first African American to graduate with an architecture degree in Texas. When nobody would hire him, he built his own legacy anyway.
Several years before Rosa Parks made national news, and just two years before the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, John S. Chase graduated from college with a degree in architecture that came with zero guarantees.
Houston’s white architects stonewalled him from internships, but he took the licensing exam and became the first registered African-American architect in Texas. He went on to build an influential body of work—and it’s worth a much closer look.
John Saunders Chase stands in front of his family home in Houston, Texas, with two of his three children, Anthony and John Jr. The home is characterized by its low-slung brick form, and an experimental central courtyard that shifted the paradigm for Modernist architecture in Houston.
Courtesy of the African American Library at the Gregory School
In the upcoming book, John S. Chase—The Chase Residence, architect David Heymann and historian Stephen Fox take a magnifying glass to Chase’s trailblazing career, providing context to the history of Black architecture in the American South. They also explore how Chase impacted modernism through the design of his own family residence—a courtyard home inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe that pushed boundaries in Texas and beyond.
The original 1958 floor and plot plans of the Chase Residence convey the elevations and layout of the home. The design was a bizarre one for the 1950s— so much so that Chase’s wife, Drucie, was in tears when she first saw the home under construction.
Courtesy of the Chase family
A drawing by book author, professor, and architect David Heymann depicts the home and its central courtyard.
Courtesy of David Heymann
See the full story on Dwell.com: A New Book Celebrates a Texas Midcentury Gem—and the Trailblazing Architect Who Designed It
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