About Texas Deco
Flush with oil money, Texas from the 1920s to the 1940s saw architecture as the means for changing its image from a bastion of the Old South Cotton Kingdom to an outpost of the urban West. From rural county courthouses to urban skyscrapers, the state experienced a wave of Art Deco projects by local architects and national figures.
Authors and photographers David Bush and Jim Parsons have documented the Lone Star State’s Art Deco heritage in books focusing on Houston and the Texas coast; San Antonio, Austin and the Hill Country; and Dallas-Fort Worth and North Texas. In addition to four books about modernistic architecture in Texas, the pair has written articles on the state’s Deco design for national and international publications and has spoken to groups including Galveston Historical Society, Dallas Historical Society, the Art Deco Society of New York and the Art Deco and Modernism Society of Australia.
Bush and Parsons are at work revising and updating Houston Deco, their first book on Texas Deco. The revision is expected to be released in 2021.
About the authors
David Bush was born and raised in New Orleans, where he developed his lifelong interest in historic architecture. David holds a master’s degree in historic preservation from Middle Tennessee State University and has worked professionally in preservation since 1990. He has spent most of his career with two organizations: Galveston Historical Foundation and Preservation Houston.
Jim Parsons, a native Texan, puts a passion for the Lone Star State's history and architecture to work as director of special projects and walking tours chairman for Preservation Houston. In his other career as a freelance author and photographer, Jim has written about and photographed cities across the United States.