Architecture of the Lower Rio Grande Valley: An Introduction
Through photographs, Architecture of the Lower Rio Grande Valley: An Introduction, celebrates the architecture of the Texas-Mexico border region, its craftsmen, its cultures and its climate. The architectural images by Pino Shah provide a journey through 160 years of history and heritage, revealing the border’s built environment as filtered through diverse cultures: Mexican, Spanish, American, German, and French. The photographs highlight the distinctive styles -- Spanish and Mexican Colonial, border brick, Mid-century Modern, Pan American and 21st Century – found in the southernmost region of Texas. These architecturally significant buildings are often culturally and historically significant as well. Pino Shah is a world heritage photographer based in McAllen, Texas and Ahmedabad, India. Stephen Fox is an architectural historian and Fellow of the Anchorage Foundation of Texas provided the narratives for photographs and is as an architectural advisor to the project.
Through photographs, Architecture of the Lower Rio Grande Valley: An Introduction, celebrates the architecture of the Texas-Mexico border region, its craftsmen, its cultures and its climate. The architectural images by Pino Shah provide a journey through 160 years of history and heritage, revealing the border’s built environment as filtered through diverse cultures: Mexican, Spanish, American, German, and French. The photographs highlight the distinctive styles -- Spanish and Mexican Colonial, border brick, Mid-century Modern, Pan American and 21st Century – found in the southernmost region of Texas. These architecturally significant buildings are often culturally and historically significant as well.
Pino Shah is a world heritage photographer based in McAllen, Texas and Ahmedabad, India. Stephen Fox is an architectural historian and Fellow of the Anchorage Foundation of Texas provided the narratives for photographs and is as an architectural advisor to the project.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
2011<br />
MCALLEN PUBLIC LIBRARY<br />
4001 N. 23RD STREET, MCALLEN<br />
MEYER, SCHERER & ROCKCASTLE AND BOULTINGHOUSE SIMPSON GATES, ARCHITECTS<br />
Minneapolis-based MSR Architects collaborated with Boultinghouse Simpson Gates<br />
<strong>of</strong> McAllen on <strong>the</strong> transformation <strong>of</strong> a former Walmart store containing 124,500<br />
square feet <strong>of</strong> space into <strong>the</strong> new home <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> McAllen Public Library. Ra<strong>the</strong>r<br />
than fighting <strong>the</strong> big box, MSR and Boultinghouse Simpson Gates went with <strong>the</strong><br />
flow to shape horizontally expansive spaces where planes <strong>of</strong> color and pattern are<br />
silhouetted against <strong>the</strong> building’s white-painted interior shell. Interior enclosures<br />
contain spatial islands, such as library staff spaces and an auditorium, that help<br />
modulate <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rwise immense scale <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> interior.<br />
Boultinghouse Simpson Gates reinterpreted <strong>the</strong> exterior <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Walmart to<br />
transform it into a library. Terra Design Group <strong>of</strong> San <strong>An</strong>tonio designed <strong>the</strong> extensive<br />
exterior landscaping. The library won <strong>the</strong> International Interior Design Association’s<br />
Library Interior Design competition in 2012, and, in 2013, received an Honor Award<br />
from <strong>the</strong> American Institute <strong>of</strong> Architects for its design.<br />
<strong>Architecture</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Lower</strong> <strong>Rio</strong> <strong>Grande</strong> <strong>Valley</strong>: <strong>An</strong> <strong>Introduction</strong>. Photograph © 2017 Pino Shah. Narrative © Stephen Fox
Change language