This page refers to the architectual group. For other uses, see Texas Rangers (disambiguation).

The Texas Rangers refers to a group of architects who taught at the Texas School of Architecture in Austin, Texas, from 1951 and 1957. It has no relation to the baseball team known by the same name. The group is known for the development of an innovative curriculum that encouraged the development of a workable, useful body of architectural theory derived from a continuous critique of significant works across history and cultures. The curriculum discouraged the sculpting and shaping of a building's mass in favor of the visualization and organization of architectural space.

History

The movement that brought about the Texas Rangers began with the appointment of Harwell Hamilton Harris as the first director of the school in 1951. Harris, impressed by a new approach to design championed by the former Bauhaus member, Josef Albers, began recruiting architects to teach at his school whose approach to design and architecture were similar to Albers’. Among the architects Harris succeeded in attracting to the Texas School or Architecture were Colin Rowe, John Hejduk, Robert Slutzky, Werner Seligmann, Herbert Heische , Bernhard Hoesli, Lee Hodgden, and John Shaw.

References

• Review of Alexander Caragonne's book, "The Texas Rangers: Notes from the Architectural Underground", The MIT Press
• History of the Texas School of Architecture
• The Texas Rangers: Notes from the Architectural Underground, by Alexander Caragonne

American architects