Home Heat Money God: Texas and Modern Architecture Panel Discussion

Presented by the Dallas Architecture Forum

Ben Koush in conversation with Amy Walton
Thursday, March 27, 2025, 7:00 PM

Angelika Film Center, Mockingbird Station
Free and Open to the Public
AIA CES Credit Available

In the mid-twentieth century, dramatic social and political change coincided with the ascendance and evolution of architectural modernism in Texas. Between the 1930s and 1980s, a state known for cowboys and cotton fields rapidly urbanized and became a hub of global trade and a heavyweight in national politics. Relentless ambition and a strong sense of place combined to make Texans particularly receptive to modern architecture’s implication of newness, forward-looking attitude, and capacity to reinterpret historical forms in novel ways. As money and people poured in, architects and their clients used modern buildings to define themselves and the state.

Illustrated with stunning photographs by architect Ben Koush, Home, Heat, Money, God analyzes buildings in big cities and small towns by world-famous architects, Texas titans, and lesser-known designers. Architectural historian Kathryn O’Rourke describes the forces that influenced architects as they addressed basic needs—such as staying cool in a warming climate and living in up-to-date housing—and responded to a culture where houses of faith were valued, by the countervailing pressures of pluralism and homogenization, and by the sense of Texan exceptionalism. And one of the major goals of the book was to tell as many stories as possible incorporating different building types in small towns and big cities, examining the diversity, breadth, and the multiplicity of Texas architecture. Amy Walton, founder of modTEXAS, will join Ben Koush in a lively conversation about the book and its captivating topics.