A NOD TO MOD
Houston’s modern architecture is subject of new book
The Le Méridien hotel, clad in turquoise panels, glows green at night, a colorful landmark in a downtown that’s been busy with construction in recent years.
Cranes building new skyscrapers and high-rises have dotted the landscape, but this luxury hotel was a completely different kind of project — the restoration of the 21-story Melrose Building on Walker Street, which saved what was the first modern office tower in Houston. Designed in the early 1950s by the Lloyd & Morgan architecture firm and its creative director, Arthur Evan Jones, the building won a medal of honor from the Houston chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1953.
Jones and the firm at which he became a partner in 1961 — it was Lloyd Morgan Jones in one of its iterations through the years — are the subjects of Ben Koush’s new book, “Constructing Houston’s Future: The Architecture of Arthur Evan Jones and Lloyd Morgan Jones,” sponsored by Houston Mod.
Koush, a Rice University School of Architecture graduate, first became acquainted with Jones when he wrote a story about him for Rice’s Cite magazine a decade ago.
Jones was in his 80s then, and Koush met with the modest and soft-spoken man four or five times for that article. Years later, a family member approached Koush about writing a book about Jones, hoping to preserve his legacy and document his contribution to Houston’s early modern scene, including his often overlooked role in the design of the Astrodome. Jones was 91 when he died in 2014.
Houston Mod, the nonprofit that works to promote and preserve modern archi-
tecture in the city, got onboard to publish it as the latest in their series of books about notable modern architects. Other Houston Mod books have focused on the work of Hugo V. Neuhaus Jr., the Neuhaus & Taylor architecture firm, Donald Barthelme and William R. Jenkins.
Koush’s new book has already garnered attention, winning a 2018 Good Brick Award from Preservation Houston.
Anyone not immediately familiar with Jones’ name or the firm’s work will have an “aha” moment at a list of some of their most prominent buildings: the Astrodome (1958-65; with Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson); the American General Building (1962-65) on Allen Parkway, Smith Tower (1989) on Fannin, Three and Four Allen Center (1977-80/1984), Greenway Plaza, Summit Towers North and numerous buildings at Rice University, including Rice Stadium (1949-50; since altered).
In addition to documenting the firm’s subtle application of modern architecture principles, Koush captures the culture of Houston’s builders and developers through various boom and bust eras.
The Lloyd Morgan Jones firm did some residential work and always had Rice University as a major client, but it was its relationships with developers — Melvin Silverman and Kenneth Schnitzer and, to a lesser degree, Gerald D. Hines — that established the firm as a major force.
Silverman arrived in Houston in 1943 and hired Hermon Lloyd, who then worked alone, to design a home for his family in Riverside Terrace. Soon, Lloyd and his new business partner, William Morgan, became Silverman’s go-to architects.
With business partner Bennett Rose, Silverman built the Melrose Building, and the competitive spirit between Silverman and Jones pushed them to achieve more together than they could have individually, Koush said.
“He was their first patron, and he’s an interesting guy, but he died suddenly from a heart attack in the middle of his career. Who knows what he would have ended up doing had he been around a lot longer,” Koush said of Silverman.
In his book, Koush describes the firm as prominent and progressive, and Lloyd was the big personality who built important business relationships. Jones, its creative director, leaned on classic modern design with Latin American influences.
One example was to use solar shading devices since air conditioning was still relatively new and wasn’t very efficient. On the Melrose building, for example, 4-foot-wide, cast-inplace concrete shades were designed to protect its steel casement windows from the blazing summer sun from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Jones wasn’t without ego, and sized up other architects or projects harshly at times, Koush said.
“When the post-modern stuff came out, Arthur was horrified. Putting decorations on buildings … he couldn’t understand why anybody would do that,” Koush said.
Phillip Johnson’s Galleria landmark Williams Tower — originally called Transco Tower — drew conflicting reviews from Jones, he said.
“He’d say ‘I hate post-modern architecture,’ but at the same time he liked Transco for all of its class; it was prismatic,” Koush said.
Rice University proved to be Lloyd Morgan Jones’ biggest client. On campus, they designed not only the famed Rice Stadium, but also the Mary Gibbs Jones College, the Cohen House addition (since altered), Jones College master’s house (demolished) and Sewall Hall.
Perhaps one of the firm’s best-known buildings, now known as 1400 Smith Street, was, at one time, part of the Enron complex. At the time of its design, the building was called Four Allen Center and the architecture firm was known as Lloyd Jones Brewer and Associates.
When the building was completed in 1984, the director of the Museum of Modern Art’s department of architecture, Arthur Drexler, visited Houston and praised the work so highly that it drew international attention. The building was of late modern design and Drexler was a vocal proponent of the aesthetic.
“It is the most beautiful mirrored-glass building I have ever seen — absolutely staggering,” Drexler said in a story that ran in Art in America in 1984. “I called up the architects, and they were also sort of puzzled and hurt that nobody else had noticed it. There they are alone in Houston, bravely doing modern buildings.”
Koush hopes his book will raise awareness of the firm’s work to a new generation of architects and will help the general public identify the buildings they may drive past daily.
“I think the thing was that Lloyd Morgan Jones were so understated … and they weren’t flashy,” he said.
Their reputation brought success.
“They were proud that they never had to advertise,” Koush said. “Everyone knew they did good work.”