Public Resources

The Texas Society of Architects (TSA) provides an important link between the general public and the architecture profession. As the state component of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), TSA is the only professional organization that represents the interests of architects in Texas. Equally important is TSA's responsibility to advocate for the public's safety and welfare when Texas lawmakers deliberate issues concerning design and construction of public buildings. That role of public watchdog was paramount in the founding of TSA in 1939. (Read more about the history of TSA.)

Legislative Support

TSA plays an active role in responding to legislation and regulations affecting the design and construction industries. TSA's political action committee, the Texas Architects Committee (TAC), supports candidates for statewide office who share TSA's committment to public safety and welfare.

Public Outreach and Education

In addition to legislative advocacy, TSA is actively involved in fostering education, stewardship, community and understanding. TSA cooperates with a sister organization, the Texas Architectural Foundation, that provides grants and scholarships to students and programs of architecture in the state's schools of architecture.

Publications

Among the other resources available to the public through TSA are several AIA brochures (see list below) that help explain the value an architect can bring to planning a building project. Perhaps TSA's most significant public resource is Texas Architect, a bimonthly magazine available by subscription and sold at select newsstands.

Texas Architect

Texas Architect is the official publication of TSA. It is published six times per year (bimonthly). TSA members receive a subscription for joining TSA and a free gift subscription. In addition, members receive a 10% discount on reprints of stories from the magazine, along with economy overrun tearsheets (with notice on month in advance of printing).

AIA Brochures

These three AIA publications can help you make your building project the best it can be.

• You and Your Architect
  This online brochure offers guidance on how to establish and benefit from a successful professional, business and personal relationship between owner and architect.
  
• Home Delivery
  This online magazine contains a number of articles that will enable you to discover how an AIA Architect can help you realize your dream home.
  
• Architects Bite!
  This online pamphlet explores various strange ideas that people have about architects. Complete with real world examples, Architects Bite! sets the record straight by dispelling these common myths.
  

History of TSA
by Joel Barna

Architecture as a profession in Texas dates from the 1880s, when the first professionally trained architects came to live and practice in the state. During the preceding period of the "master builders," there had been no attempts to set professional standards for education and experience in Texas, largely because architects who had passed through a recognized educational curriculum and apprenticeship were all but unknown in the state. Much has changed since the 1880s, but issues involving education, standards of professional practice and experience, and legal validation have continued to be central concerns.

The first professional organization of architects in Texas, the Texas State Association of Architects (TSAA), was formed in 1886. TSAA was affiliated with the Western Association of Architects, a Chicago-based rival to the older, East Coast-based American Institute of Architects (AIA). TSAA's goal was to "unite in one common fellowship the architects of Texas; to combine their efforts, so as to promote the artistic, scientific, and practical efficiency of the profession; and to cultivate and encourage the kindred arts, and to correct unprofessional practices." Among the organization's first acts was to propose passage of a state law that would regulate the practice of architecture in Texas, creating a state licensing board and requiring that "[p]ersons desiring to pursue the occupation of architect should have to apply to the board and stand for examination."

TSAA and a number of successor organizations, including a Texas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (formed in 1913), passed in and out of existence over the next several decades. All lobbied for passage of regulation of architecture by the state, arguing that protection of the health, safety, and welfare of the state's citizens required such regulation. The professional organizations also worked to pass laws granting architects liens to enforce payment of their fees and protecting architects from having their designs used without compensation.

Nevertheless, it was not until 1937 that the Texas Legislature passed a registration law for Texas architects, setting up the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners and requiring those entering the profession to pass a state examination. In later years, as architectural education developed in Texas and nationally, the requirements for obtaining Texas architectural registration became tougher, eventually specifying that candidates for licensure be graduates of accredited university architecture programs, and that they have several years of professional experience under the supervision of qualified practitioners. One thing the 1937 law did not do, however, was to regulate the practice of architecture: The state law prohibited those without licenses from using the title of architect, but left the legal right to sell architectural-design services open to anyone who wished to do so.

The modern era of the profession started in 1939, with the foundation of the Texas Society of Architects (TSA), first as an independent organization and later as a state-level component of the national AIA. Starting with 47 charter members, by 2000 the organization had grown to more than 5,000 members organized in 17 regional chapters statewide, representing over half of the approximately 6,750 registered architects residing in Texas. The chapters are located in Abilene, Amarillo, Austin, Bryan/College Station (Brazos Chapter), Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, McAllen (Lower Rio Grande Valley Chapter), Lubbock, Longview/Tyler (Northeast Texas Chapter), San Antonio, Beaumont (Southeast Texas Chapter), Waco, Midland/Odessa (West Texas Chapter), and Wichita Falls.

Since the creation of TSA, Texans have played a prominent role in AIA affairs. Texans John M. McGinty, FAIA, of Houston; Benjamin E. Brewer, Jr., FAIA, of Houston; and Ron L. Skaggs, FAIA, of Dallas have served as AIA presidents. William W. Caudill, FAIA, founder of the influential Houston-based architectural firm Caudill, Rowlett & Scott, was awarded the institute's highest honor, the AIA Gold Medal, in 1984. Charles Moore, FAIA, who had resided in Texas for the last decade of his life, won the AIA Gold Medal in 1994. In addition, three Texans have served as Chancellors of the College of Fellows--Albert S. Golemon, FAIA, of Houston; Preston M. Bolton, FAIA, of Houston; and James D. Tittle, FAIA, of Abilene.

One of TSA's earliest goals was to convert the state law governing the practice of architecture from a title act to a true licensing act, which would limit the practice of architecture to those recognized by the state as qualified to do so. With TSA working for this change nearly every session of the Legislature after 1939, it still took until 1989 for the measure to pass. Texas law now requires that a registered architect's seal be on the drawings for structures intended for public use that have more than 20,000 square feet in floor area or exceed two stories in height. Lien laws and copyright protection have also been added and considerably strengthened over the years as well.

Architectural education in Texas started in 1904, when a department of architecture was founded at what would later become Texas A&M University. A department of architecture was created at the University of Texas in Austin in 1910. Other architecture schools were later developed at Rice University, the University of Houston, Texas Tech University, the University of Texas at Arlington, and Prairie View A&M University. All are accredited by the National Architectural Accreditation Board, and their graduates are eligible, after serving the required internship, to sit for the state's registration examination. Most recently, in 2000, the University of Texas at San Antonio debuted its School of Architecture and the new school first received NAAB accreditation in January 2001.

Cycles of urbanization and suburbanization, of social and technological change, and of economic prosperity have produced profound effects on architects. Trained to bring skills in planning and team-building together with technical expertise and the aesthetic and social vision needed to create a well-functioning, pleasing built environment, architects will continue to develop their profession to serve the public. In Texas, the 17 local chapters of the AIA are working with the leadership of the Texas Society of Architects to ensure that the architectural profession remains robust and its standards upheld so its practitioners may accomplish the high-quality projects the public demands.