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Interview with John F. Staub available in UH Digital Library

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A 1980 interview with John F. Staub has been added to Building Houston, an oral history project organized by the William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library and the Historic Resources Committee of the American Institute of Architects, Houston Chapter.  Mr. Staub established his Houston practice in 1923 and went on to become its best known residential designer.  Mr. Staub designed Ima Hogg’s house, Bayou Bend (now home of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s American decorative arts collection),  as well as many other houses in River Oaks, Shadyside and Broadacres.  In addition to Bayou Bend, houses designed by Mr. Staub in Beaumont, Dallas and Memphis Tennessee are now open to the public as house museums.  Mr. Staub’s non-residential work includes the parish house of Palmer Memorial Church, the Junior League Building, and the original River Oaks Country Club.  He is also responsible for the original library at the University of Houston, which is now the blue wing of the M.D. Anderson Library.  Click here to link to hear his entertaining and informative conversation with Robert Rick, who was then the AIA Houston Executive Director.

Rare portfolio on Château de Malmaison now in the UH Digital Library

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A portfolio from the Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Book Room has been digitized and placed online in the UH Digital Library.  Le Château de la Malmaison, habité par Napoléon 1st: décorations intérieures, mobilier, bronzes, etc. contains an introductory text and architectural plates of the Château de Malmaison, once the residence of Napoleon I.  Architects Charles Percier and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine designed the estate.  Click here to view this work.

New rare books now on view

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The following recent acquisitions to the Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room are on display in the upper mezzanine:

Hanging by Robert Delford Brown, American performance and conceptual artist who founded, in 1964, the “First National Church of the Exquisite Panic.”

Twelve Persons in Graphic Design Today, a three-volume set presenting 12 revolutionary Japanese designers working in the 1960’s.

H.J. de Beijer Romers Oeuvre-Catalogus, a catalogue raisonne of de Beijer’s 18th century architectural views of the Netherlands.

A 1939 trade catalogue offering thermo-insulating boards and an 1890 trade catalog offering stamped metal work for interior and exterior architecture.

A 1940 competition booklet for Insulux Glass Block, which includes the submission by former UH College of Architecture professor Donald Barthelme, FAIA.