AUSTIN, Texas — Two days after the U.S. Supreme Court docket built-in American increased training with its 1950 Sweatt v. Painter determination, John Chase, a Black pupil, enrolled within the College of Structure at The College of Texas. Now, the library on the coronary heart of that college might be named the John S. Chase Structure and Planning Library, due to a beneficiant reward and pledge from Chase’s son, Tony Chase, and daughter-in-law Dina Al-Sowayel.
John Chase was a pioneering Longhorn and chief on a number of fronts. He was the primary Black individual to turn into a:
- Graduate of the College of Structure.
- Licensed architect within the South.
- Member of the U.S. Fee of Wonderful Arts.
- President of the UT alumni affiliation, the Texas Exes (1998-1999).
“John Chase was an distinctive UT pupil and graduate who paved the way in which for progress and alter as one of many College’s first Black college students,” mentioned UT President Jay Hartzell. “He then utilized his appreciable skills, creativity and training to design particular locations that introduced folks collectively. It’s becoming that his identify will now grace a particular place on our campus and can assist present alternatives for future architects to attend and excel at UT. We’re honored by the shut bonds that UT has shaped with the Chase household via the years, and we’re impressed by their generosity — simply as we’re additionally impressed by John Chase’s story.”
John Chase, M.Ar. 1952, obtained the Texas Exes’ highest honor, the Distinguished Alumnus Award, in 1992. Whereas at UT, he met and married Drucie Rucker in a union that lasted 60 years. He died in 2012. This 12 months marks his centenary.
Tony Chase and Al-Sowayel have pledged a $5 million reward to assist the UT College of Structure and the Structure & Planning Library. The reward features a $1 million pledge made in 2022 that created two new endowments within the College of Structure. The UT Libraries house being named for Chase contains the vast majority of the house inside Battle Corridor, the 1911 Cass Gilbert-designed library to the fast southwest of the UT Tower, thought-about by many the architectural crown jewel of the campus.
- The Structure and Planning Library and the Alexander Architectural Archives are among the many most vital architectural collections on the earth.
- Stuffed with stacks of books, journals, uncommon publications and particular collections, the library serves educational analysis wants and is a vital useful resource for structure, artwork historical past, design and planning.
John Chase was an lively volunteer on the College, serving as a member of UT’s Improvement Board and Fee of 125. He led an architectural apply with studios in Houston, Dallas and Washington, D.C., and he co-founded the Nationwide Group of Minority Architects. His earliest works embrace church buildings, single-family residences and small workplace buildings for the Black group, some in East Austin. In 1952, he designed the headquarters for the Coloured Academics State Affiliation of Texas. In 2018, the constructing was acquired by UT, restored, up to date and devoted because the John S. and Drucie R. Chase Constructing.
Chase was tapped to design 21 buildings and carried out a minimum of 15 renovations for Texas Southern College, the place he additionally taught, along with serving to devise the campus masterplan. Different notable tasks embrace the George R. Brown Conference Middle and Harris County Astrodome Renovation in Houston, in addition to the Washington Technical Institute, Hyperlinks Inc. Nationwide Headquarters, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. Nationwide Headquarters, all in Washington, D.C. All advised, nearly 300 identified buildings or renovation tasks might be attributed to John Chase’s agency.
“It is a monumental second for the Libraries and the College,” mentioned Lorraine Haricombe, vice provost and director of UT Libraries. “John Chase’s imaginative and prescient and expertise have left an indelible mark on the world of structure and design. This milestone reward not solely represents a long-lasting tribute to a historic determine however will additional elevate the famend Structure and Planning Library on the Forty Acres, the place college students dream of drawing and creating constructions for the good thing about us all.”
“My father all the time mentioned, ‘A life is just not vital besides within the impression it has on different lives,” Tony Chase mentioned. “Our hope is that having my father’s identify and story of perseverance and optimistic change affixed to this library will encourage future generations of scholars to broaden their consciousness of what’s doable.”
Tony Chase is the chairman and CEO of ChaseSource LP — a staffing, services administration and building agency he based. He presently sits on the board of administrators of LyondellBasell, Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. and Nabors Industries. He is also a founding father of Cricket Wi-fi, a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Financial institution of Dallas and an Eagle Scout. He’s a life member of the UT College of Structure’s Advisory Council. Al-Sowayel was a professor and affiliate director of ladies’s research on the College of Houston, the place her husband is a regulation professor emeritus. John Chase’s daughter, Saundria Chase Grey, is a graduate of the UT College of Regulation and serves on the UT Libraries Advisory Council.
