Lessons From the Past: Interview with Architectural Historian Stephen Fox
Stephen Fox
HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Houston has long had a reputation for favoring the new over the old, often choosing redevelopment over preserving historic buildings. Recently, however, attitudes appear to be shifting—most notably with the preservation efforts surrounding the Astrodome after decades of debate. Why has the city demolished so many structures that some consider architectural treasures? Is there a real change as developers increasingly opt to renovate rather than tear down and rebuild? Realty News Report spoke with Stephen Fox, an architectural historian and lecturer at the Rice School of Architecture and the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at the University of Houston. Fox, author of the AIA Houston Architectural Guide (2012), has studied Houston’s built environment for decades.
Realty News Report: Why did Houston develop the way it did?
Stephen Fox: Houston’s growth followed patterns common to many Southwestern and Texas cities, shaped by the technologies and transportation of the 19th and 20th centuries. Railroads came first, followed by streetcars, and then the automobile. By the mid-20th century, these changes encouraged the spread of suburban metropolitan sprawl throughout the region.
Realty News Report: How would you describe the city’s skyline?
Stephen Fox: Downtown Houston is architecturally striking. Its distinctiveness comes from the refined late-modern buildings erected in the 1970s and early 1980s, before Postmodernism became dominant in corporate architecture. Those downtown towers have aged well and continue to convey a sense of precision and elegance.
Realty News Report: With ExxonMobil and Shell moving out of downtown, is downtown Houston past its prime? Are companies preferring suburban campuses like ExxonMobil’s?
Stephen Fox: I don’t see cause for alarm. Large corporations moving their headquarters to suburban campuses is not unique to Houston—many mature firms are relocating to quieter, campus-like settings. What’s less certain is whether traditional office buildings will keep following the 20th-century model. Since the 1990s, downtown has seen substantial residential growth and adaptive reuse projects alongside new construction, which helps keep the urban core vibrant.
Realty News Report: The Harris County Domed Stadium—known as the Astrodome—opened in 1965 and served the city for decades before newer stadiums were built nearby. Why is the Astrodome’s redevelopment so important to Houstonians?
Stephen Fox: The Astrodome is an engineering and design milestone: the first enclosed, air-conditioned sports arena of its kind. It holds powerful collective memory for the city. Judge Ed Emmett’s push to preserve and rehabilitate the structure marks a major shift in public attitudes—recognizing the Astrodome as a rare 20th-century landmark worthy of preservation, rehabilitation, and reuse.
Realty News Report: Looking at Houston’s preservation record, what loss pains you the most?
Stephen Fox: My greatest regret isn’t a single building but the redevelopment of entire historic neighborhoods—specifically the Freedmen’s Town Historic District and the adjacent San Felipe Courts Historic District, also called Allen Parkway Village, in the Fourth Ward. Since the mid-1990s the Fourth Ward has undergone extensive redevelopment, yet some pockets of historic housing remain. Around seventy percent of Allen Parkway Village was demolished and replaced with new housing as part of efforts to remove low-income public housing from a desirable area and attract private redevelopment. For decades Houston’s power structure failed to see the cultural value in preserving a low-income African American community or architecturally notable public housing, even though Allen Parkway Village had once been recognized in the national architectural press.
Realty News Report: Houston got some things very right, such as the Texas Medical Center. How did that come about?
Stephen Fox: The formation of the Texas Medical Center can be traced to Dr. E.W. Bertner’s vision and the support of the M.D. Anderson Foundation. William H. Kellar has written an excellent account of these events. In the early 1940s the foundation purchased a portion of Hermann Park after a referendum with fewer than a thousand voters approving the sale. The trustees of the Anderson Foundation promoted the medical center not only as a philanthropic project but also as a strategic economic step to diversify Houston’s economy beyond oil—a move that proved prescient.
Realty News Report: What was the smartest development decision Houston has made?
Stephen Fox: Two major factors stand out. First are the contributions of early planners and landscape architects: Arthur Comey, George Kessler, and the firm Hare & Hare. In 1912 the newly formed Houston Park Commission hired Comey to prepare a park plan, and a year later Kessler expanded on that vision, laying out Main Boulevard, Hermann Park, the Shadyside neighborhood, and other parks. After Kessler’s death, Hare & Hare continued the work, designing parkways along Buffalo Bayou and Brays Bayou, as well as Memorial Park and the Houston Zoo. Their efforts between about 1910 and 1940 created a substantial legacy of public space that remains central to Houston’s character today. Second, Houston’s legal ability to annex surrounding territory made a huge difference. Houston now covers more than 600 square miles compared with cities like Detroit, which is much smaller. That capacity to incorporate adjacent land enabled sustained growth and helped insulate Houston’s prosperity from the stagnation that can affect more constrained cities.
