Beaux Arts Architecture in Texas Courthouses

The Harris County 1910 Courthouse, Houston, Texas

The term "beaux arts" in French means fine art.  When you look at one of the Texas county courthouses built in the Beaux Arts style that is exactly what you get, a beautiful, artful building. Beaux Arts style of architecture in Texas courthouses is characterized by the following:

1.  A grand entrance and a magnificent staircase

2.  Symmetry in design 

3.  Arched windows and arched pedimented doors

4.  Flat roof, many with a central dome that allows for a decorative skylight

5.  Classical details such as columns, balustrades or stair rails and barriers, pilaster or embedded pillar, wreaths in sculpture or garland

6.  Exterior details with statues, sculptured bas-relief panels, sculptured figures, murals, mosaics

7.  The use of color in decoration, aka: polychromy

Many of these details can be seen in the 1910 Harris County Courthouse.

Grand staircase in the 1910 Harris County Courthouse

                                                                                       

Skylight and Baulastrade

Bas-Relief Sculpture

     













Where did this style of architecture come from?

Beaux Arts architecture was taught at the Paris, "Ecole des Beaux-Arts" in the late 1800's.  Several prominent American architects attended this school including Henry Hobson Richardson who then applied them to his Romanesque architecture.  J. Riely Gordon, who designed sixteen Texas courthouses, was a protegee of Richardson and heavily influenced by him.   

The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition brought Beaux-Arts planning to the US architects. Following this exposure the Beaux-Arts style was used more and more in public buildings and wealthy homes.

Lady Justice on the roof of the Coryell County Courthouse 

The Coryell County courthouse in Gatesville is a mixture of Beaux-Arts and Romanesque Revival.  Designed by architect W. C. Dodson it is one of the most beautiful in the State of Texas.

The Fort Bend County courthouse is currently being restored and will be finished by the end of the year.

Fort Bend's twin sister is the Hays County courthouse in San Marcos, designed by the same architect.

Bee County Courthouse

The Bee County courthouse is another example of Beaux-Arts architecture.  It is one of the most impressive courthouses I've visited.  It has been completely restored under the Texas Historical Commission's Historic Texas Courthouse Preservation Program.

Sitting on top of the Bee County Courthouse is Lady Liberty.






































The Beaux-Arts design was overshadowed by the advent of concrete and steel and Modernism. Modernism took over architectural design in the 1920's and has dominated since.  I would love to see a Beaux-Arts building go up somewhere in Texas.  I think I would drive to see it.

I was recently in the French city of Lyon and photographed this Beaux-Arts building.  

Lyon's Beaux-Arts Ecole

 

This is a new museum being built in Lyon.  It is NOT Beaux-Arts.  It would be classified as Contemporary or Modern.  I could not see any right angles on the buildings exterior.  It is build of steel, concrete and glass.  It will have a mirror exterior.

This is the 21st Century "Beaux-Arts."

The new "Beaux-Arts" of the 21st Century

http://www.museedesconfluences.fr/musee/musee_presentation/projet.php

This museum is called "Musee des Confluences".  The link above will tell you what it is about.

What is will look like when finished.