His refined designs showcased handmade design and the local landscape Texas architectural legend O?Neil Ford has been called the most famous architect nobody knows about. For a member of an infamously egotistical profession, that may have stung. But Ford, as would surprise few who knew him, was too brash and too busy to care.
Known for both his charming demeanor and cutting retorts (sick of the the ?voluminous spewing of writing about architecture,? he detested clever and trivial modern design), Ford was an early modernist with a humble respect for craftsmanship and the handmade. Coming up as the taste for the Arts and Crafts style transitioned to a hunger for the International style, he favored streamlined shapes but craved natural materials, which he called ?old-age insurance for buildings.? For him, true inspiration lied in reflecting the simple Texas landscape, and the naturalistic work of Alvar Aalto; Frank Lloyd Wright was simply an ?egomaniac ? always trying to be exotic.?
Ford?s outspokenness was earned, though: His work gave him ample claim to the title of Texas? godfather of modern design. So obsessed with historic preservation?especially the beauty of San Antonio?s Spanish architecture?that he was actually declared a National Historic Landmark himself by the National Council on the Arts (still the only person with such an honor), he embraced modernism not only as a way to abandon the past but to refine it. Like Mies van der Rohe, Ford was a modernist who...