John G. York collection

Collection

Identifier: YORK

Scope and Content of the collection

Architectural drawings, numbering 1,000 make up the vast majority of this collection. Other types of material, including correspondence, specifications, maps, sketches and blueprints total only.33 linear feet.

The materials were produced between 1940 and 1977. They document York's work as a solo architect in Texas and his continuing career as an architect while he taught at the University of Oklahoma. They show the variety of building types that he designed, including homes, apartments, office buildings, restaurants, hotels and motels.

Among the buildings included in the drawings series are the Fairway Motel in McAllen, Texas.

Dates

Creation: 1940-1977

Creator

York, John G., 1914-1980 (contributor, Person)

Policies Governing Use and Access

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This collection is open for research. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using archival materials. As all or portions of this collection may be housed off-site, advance notice of at least three working days is required for retrieval. Certain items may require additional time for flattening or humidifying before they can be viewed. Access is by appointment only. Please contact the archives' reference staff for further information.

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasions of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person).

The Alexander Architectural Archives operate in accordance with applicable federal or state laws and regulations, providing unrestricted access to university records not covered by state and federal right to privacy acts.

The Alexander Architectural Archives, The University of Texas Libraries, and The University of Texas at Austin, assume no responsibility for infringement of literary property rights and copyright or for liability to any person for defamation or invasion of privacy that results from a researcher's use of collections.

Researchers agree to indemnify and hold harmless The University of Texas at Austin, and their officers, employees, and agents from and against all suits, claims, actions, and expenses arising out of use of collections held by the libraries. Please alert staff if anything inappropriate is found during research.

Copyright interests in this collection may not have been transferred to the University of Texas. Researchers assume full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply. Additionally, the public use of material must be cited. See citation information below.

Biographical Sketch of John Garth York

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John Garth York, the foremost modernist architect to practice in the lower Rio Grande Valley, was born in Gainesville, Ala. York attended North Texas Agricultural College and the University of Texas, earning in a BS Arch degree in 1940. On graduating he worked for the Texas Parks Board and in the architectural department of the National Youth Administration. York served in the US Air Force between 1943 and 1946. He worked for Olin G. Boese in Fort Worth in 1940 and 1941, and for G. Meredith and James Roger Musick in Denver from 1946 to 1948. In 1948, York moved to Harlingen. There he was associated from 1949 to 1955 with the Harlingen architect Walter C. Bowman and the San Antonio architect Bartlett Cocke in the firm of Cocke, Bowman & York. From 1955 until 1960 he practiced under his own name in Harlingen and Corpus Christi.

York swiftly attracted national attention with the inventive modern buildings that he designed. These responded lyrically to the climatic conditions of the Lower Rio Grande Valley and zestfully displayed their light-weight construction and technologically produced building components. Cocke, Bowman & York's most publicized buildings included a series of elementary schools in Harlingen and Brownsville, the Lon C. Hill Memorial Library in Harlingen of 1951, the Little Creek Magnolia service station in Harlingen of 1953, and Klee Square in Corpus Christi, an office and retail center dating from 1954. York laid out the Harlingen subdivision of Laurel Park along the Arroyo Colorado, where he designed a number of dramatic modern houses, among them the McKelvey (1948), Ulhorn (1949), and Thise (1950) houses, as well as a celebrated house for his own family (1954). In 1951, the Ulhorn House became the first building in the Lower Rio Grande Valley to win an AIA design award. Cocke, Bowman & York and its work were profiled in the June 1955 issue of Progressive Architecture.

After the dissolution of Cocke, Bowman & York, John York continued to design distinctive modern buildings, notably houses in the Brownsville subdivision of Rio Viejo for Antonio Cisneros and Bernard Whitman (1955), the Fairway Motor Hotel in McAllen (1957), and the Narro-Sanchez Clinic in McAllen (1958). He left Texas in 1960 upon being appointed to the faculty of the School of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma, where he eventually became professor of architecture and dean. York was married three times; by his second wife, Tacia Catsinas, he had three children. York joined the American Institute of Architects in 1951 and served as president of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Chapter 1953. During the 1950s his firms were frequent recipients of design awards from the Texas Society of Architects. Unfortunately, many of his Texas buildings have suffered from abusive alteration or demolition.

John G. York died in Norman, Okla., on February 7, 1980. His widow, Shirley V. York, deposited his remaining architectural drawings at the Architectural Drawings Collection of the University of Texas at Austin in 1984.

-Stephen Fox

-From "Texas 50." Texas Architect (Nov./Dec. 1989): p. 81.

Partial Extent

0.33 Linear Feet

Partial Extent

1000 drawings

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

John G. York (1914-1980) was a modernist architect who practiced in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. York was appointed to the faculty at the University of Oklahoma School of Architecture in 1960 and eventually became dean. The collection includes architectural drawings and manuscript material documenting York's work as a solo architect in Texas and his continuing career as an architect while teaching at the University of Oklahoma.

Other Finding Aids

Unpublished inventory in Archive.

References to works by or about John G. York (1914-1980)

"Application for Registration to Practice Architecture." (December 12, 1945), copy on file with the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners, Austin, Texas.
"Application for National Council Certificate." NCARB No. 6265, (March 8, 1960), copy on file with the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners, Austin, Texas.
"The architect and his community - Cocke, Bowman and York, Harlingen, Texas." Progressive Architecture (June 1955): p. 102-115. Illus. and plans.
"Architecture in Denver, Colorado, 1950-1951." Progressive Architecture 32 (March 1951).
Birren, Faber. New Horizons in Color. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1955. Plate facing p. 8.
"Casey Clinic at San Benito." Texas Architect 4 (February 1954): p.5.
"Commercial Buildings: Clarke & Courts Building, Harlingen, Texas." Architectural Record (May 1953): p. 176-7.
"Fairway Motor Hotel." Texas Architect (November 1957): p. 4 and the cover.
"Four San Antonio Houses Set New Design and Quality Standards for Merchant Builders: 2. Roof of Odd Shape and Big Size Protects a Small Rectangular Plan." Architectural Forum 93 (November 1950): p. 116-118.
"Freedom in House Design: Steel Posts, Wood Beams and Deck: McKelvey House, Harlingen, Texas." Architectural Record 114 (December 1953).
Kirk, Paul Hayden and Eugene D. Sternberg. Doctors' Offices and Clinics: Medical and Dental. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1955. (p. 204-5).
Kohl, George S., ed. American Architects Directory. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1955.
Kohl, George S., ed. American Architects Directory. New York: R.R. Bowker, 1962.
"Narro-Sanchez Clinic, McAllen, Texas." Texas Architect (November 1958): p. 27.
"National Honor Awards 1951, Residential Classification: Award of Merit to Cocke, Bowman & York for W.B. Ulhorn Residence, Harlingen, Texas." Journal of the AIA (December 1951): p. 259-60.
Peter, John and Edward A. Hamilton. Aluminum in Modern Architecture, vol. 1. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp. (p. 128-9, 150-51).
"Religious Buildings: First Presbyterian Church, Edinburg." Architectural Record 116 (August 1954): p. 196-199. Illus. and plans.
"Representative Selection, Lower Rio Grande Valley Chapter, AIA." Texas Architect 6 (September 1956): p.4-5.
"Representative Selection, Lower Rio Grande Valley Chapter, AIA." Texas Architect 7 (September 1957): p.4.
"School Buildings - Elementary School: San Benito, Texas." Progressive Architecture 37 (March 1956): p. 123-25.
"South Texas: John G. York." House and Home (September 1957): p. 155.
"Service Station, Harlingen, Texas." Progressive Architecture 35 (September 1954): p. 106-7. Illus. and plans.
"Structural Wood and Steel: Elementary School, Harlingen, Texas." Progressive Architecture 35 (June 1954): p. 94-5.
"What is Quality in a small house? Economy minded building." House and Garden 98 (November 1950): p. 4-6.
Who's Who. Who's Who in the South and Southwest, 1965-1966. Chicago: Marquis - Who's Who, Inc., 1965.
"With steel components like these you can build a home." House and Home 8 (December 1955): p. 138-151. Illus. and plans.
"York residence wins awards." Texas Architect (November 1955): p. 12.