2006, Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford. 1400 Texas Dr.
The center presents the region’s history in ranching, entertainers and politicians, with educational events, concerts, and changing exhibitions. Three large galleries fan out from a central lobby in barn-like forms of local stone and raised-seam metal roofs. The seven-acre site preserves the native cross-timber landscape as part of the heritage message. The irony of projects like this, labeled “regionalist,” is that large stone barns never existed in this part of the state, and rural houses, if more than plain structures, tended to be Queen Anne cottages in tune with national trends. The only “local” aspect is the stone itself, and it was seldom installed in such an irregularly coursed manner in the nineteenth century.