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WORK TITLE: The Modernist Architecture of Samuel G. and William B. Wiener
WORK NOTES: with ien Kingsley
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1957
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE: LA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
Louisiana Tech U, Ruston, LA, faculty member, 1993—. * http://lsupress.org/authors/detail/guy-r-carwile/ * http://guiceblog.latech.edu/2013/08/26/faculty-feature-prof-guy-carwile/ * http://nolavie.com/book-talk-guy-carwile-and-the-modernist-architecture-33728/ * http://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/local/2015/02/22/carwile-lecture-cooley-house-foundation-series/23858627/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married, wife’s name Stephanie (interior designer); children: Mary Taylor and Parker.
EDUCATION:Louisiana State University, B.Arch.; 1982; Rice University, M.Arch., 1987.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Architect, educator, and writer. PDR Corp., Houston, TX, associate senior project architect, 1990-94; Guy W. Carwile, Architect, Ruston, LA, sole proprietor, 1994-2015; Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, assistant professor, 1994-2002, associate professor, 2002-07; professor, 2007-.
Society for Commercial Archeology, Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles and book reviews to periodicals, including Commercial Archeology Journal, CITE, Design Review of Houston, and Louisiana History Journal.
SIDELIGHTS
Guy W. Carwile is a practicing architect and college professor who teaches a wide range of architecture courses. After earning his degrees in architecture, Carwile spent a decade in Houston, Texas, working for architectural firms specializing in commercial, residential, and medical projects. Although he has subsequently served as a college professor for more than two decades, Carwile maintained a private practice as well, designing houses and additions.
Carwile is coauthor with Karen Kingsley, also an architecture professor, of The Modernist Architecture of Samuel G. and William B. Wiener: Shreveport, Louisiana, 1920–1960. The book examines the work of the Wiener brothers in terms of helping introduce a new modernist style of architecture to America. Carwile and Kingsley take readers through the evolution of the brothers’ designs. In the process, they discuss why modern architecture in America appeared in the South, most specifically the southern city of Shreveport, so early. In an interview with NolaVie website contributor Kelley Crawford, Carwile and Kingsley noted that the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century architecture in Louisiana has been well appreciated but not so much twentieth-century and modern architecture in the state. They told Crawford that Louisiana’s modern architecture especially “has been mostly ‘under the radar’ of many preservationists and cultural historians,” adding that their book and others like it “do a great service to the community at large to broaden the discussion of Louisiana’s cultural resources.” The authors also told Crawford in the NolaVie website interview that they learned some things during the two-plus years they did research for The Modernist Architecture of Samuel G. and William B. Wiener. For example, they discovered a house in Fort Worth, Texas, designed by the Wiener brothers. They also were surprised to find that many of the owners of houses designed by the brothers had a wealth of information on their houses but that this information had not been collected for inclusion in Louisiana State University’s Archives and Special Collections.
Carwile and Kingsley detail the brothers’ education and their entry into the field of architecture. They go on to discuss how the brothers’ design practice evolved and their eventual decision to adapt a style of architecture more in keeping with the the modern world. The brothers’ earliest success recognized among a wide field of architecture was their collaboration on a weekend home for Samuel G. Wiener’s family outside Shreveport on the shores of a lake. The house eventually was featured in Architectural Forum, which pointed to the house as a prime example of the then-new modernist style, which had yet to become established in America.
The brothers would go on to design residential, commercial, and institutional buildings drawing from a European-based evolution in architecture, which eventually came to be called the International Style. Overall, the brothers produced one of the earliest and largest groups of modernist buildings in America built by American architects, almost all of which were built in Shreveport and the surrounding area. As a result, according to Carwile and Kingsley, Louisiana found itself heading an innovative architectural movement.
The Modernist Architecture of Samuel G. and William B. Weiner includes detailed architectural descriptions and both archival and recent images. The authors also discuss the social and economic milieu of Louisiana at the time in terms of the Wieners’ being able to play an important part in the advancement of modernist architecture in the United States. Carwile and Kingsley reveal “the ever-pressing reminder for designing in context and the need for historical precedents,” wrote Charles Ford in the Journal of Southern History, adding: The Modernist Architecture of Samuel G. and William B. Weiner “is filled with insight into modern architectural history and the impact these designers made on the community of Shreveport.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Journal of Southern History, May, 2017, Charles Ford, review of The Modernist Architecture of Samuel G. and William B. Wiener: Shreveport, Louisiana, 1920–1960, p. 462.
ONLINE
Louisiana Tech University School of Design Website, http://design.latech.edu/ (November 6, 2017), author’s CV.
NolaVie, http://nolavie.com/ (August 10 , 2016), Kelley Crawford, “Book Talk: Guy Carwile and the Modernist Architecture.”
President Guice’s Blog, http://guiceblog.latech.edu/ (August 26, 2013), “Faculty Feature: Prof. Guy Carwile.”*
Guy W. Carwile, a practicing architect in Louisiana since 1985, is the Ken Hollis Endowed Professor of Liberal Arts in the School of Design at Louisiana Tech University. He has contributed to numerous publications, including the Society for Commercial Archeology Journal and CITE: The Architecture and Design Review of Houston, among others.
Faculty Feature: Prof. Guy Carwile
Posted on August 26th, 2013
CV: http://design.latech.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/APR-CARWILEG.pdf
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Professor Guy Carwile is continuing the Tech tradition of preserving the architectural records of Louisiana. Guy is beginning his twentieth year as a faculty member in the School of Architecture. After earning architectural degrees from LSU and Rice University, Guy resided in Houston, TX, where he worked 10 years for several architectural firms specializing in commercial, medical, residential and interior projects. Since that time, Guy and his family have made Ruston their home and have become Tech red and blue. He and his wife Stephanie (an assistant professor in Interior Design), and daughters, Mary Taylor (a senior majoring in Interior Design) and Parker (a sophomore majoring in English Literature) are all Louisiana Tech bulldogs now. When Guy arrived in Ruston in 1994, he taught coursework in the Interior Design program. Over the years, Guy’s teaching assignments have changed to include all of the building systems courses in the architecture program. Guy keeps his real-world skills sharp by maintaining an independent architectural practice where he designs houses and additions to existing houses.
F. Lestar Martin, a retired professor of Architecture and former professor of mine, had a long history of documenting and preserving traditional architectural works in Louisiana. Among his many accomplishments, Lestar published his work on Folk and Styled Architecture (such as dogtrot houses) in Louisiana, and preserved the works of Monroe & Shreveport architects Clarence W. King and William King Stubbs in Tech’s archives (Stubbs’ grandfather Francis P. Stubbs donated the 20 acres in 1895 upon which Tech was built). Guy Carwile has continued to expand upon the work of Lestar Martin and has added his own flair, by connecting 18th century buildings to 21st century technologies.
Wile House Elevation Drawings
Upon Lestar’s retirement in 1999, Guy assumed the responsibility of teaching Architecture 403 – Project Documentation. This service learning course focuses on researching, measuring, and precisely drawing historic resources in north Louisiana. Guy enhanced the documentation process from a hand-drawn activity to a computerized activity. He has also updated the measuring processes from the use of traditional hand tools and methods to the use of laser-based devices. The students in the course provide a much needed service to the historic preservation community by performing background research and producing time and labor intensive measured drawings.
Built in 1934 in Shreveport, the Wile house is the oldest extant International Style House in Louisiana
Cultural resources documented through Arch 403 include 18th, 19th and 20th century subjects in Natchitoches, Shreveport, Minden, Monroe, and surrounding areas. The drawings and supporting materials produced by the students are donated to the National Park Service in Washington, DC, and the Division of Historic Preservation in Baton Rouge where they are made available to researchers and the public-at-large. To increase accessibility of the drawings to the region, drawings and support materials are also donated to the Prescott Memorial Library archives as well as the archives at LSU-Shreveport. Each year, the students’ drawings are included in the Charles E. Peterson Prize competition of the National Park Service for the best measured drawings produced by student teams. Documentation projects guided by Guy since 1999 have received numerous recognitions in the Peterson Prize competition including 2 first place awards, 3 second place awards, 1 third place award and 2 honorable mentions.
Guy and a student, Christopher Perez, discuss a gravity vent on the roof of the Wile house
The student survey team assembled at the main entry to the Wile House
One of Guy’s major achievements occurred in 2007 when he inaugurated a new course focusing on the Architecture of Louisiana. The subjects of this survey course begin in 1714 with the founding of Natchitoches and extend through the late 1970’s. The course has been offered in both face-to-face and online formats, and allows students to appreciate the breadth of cultural resources that exist in the state. As a distance learning offering, the Architecture of Louisiana course has been taken by architecture majors, interior design majors, and a large number of general studies majors. Most of the students enrolling in the course reside in the north Louisiana region though some students take the course from afar including other locations in Louisiana, Texas, Latin America, Europe, and even a member of the military stationed in Afghanistan.
Thanks to Professor Guy Carwile, our students are making a difference by using 21st century technologies to document and preserve Louisiana’s architectural history records to benefit the nation. What a great experiential learning opportunity for our students!
August 10 , 2016
Architecture | Local New Orleans | LSU
Book talk: Guy Carwile and The Modernist
Architecture
By Kelley Crawford
Editor's Note: Co-author of The Modernist Architecture, Guy W. Carwile, will be holding a book talk and book signing on Friday, Aug. 12, at the Louisiana Endowment for Humanities Lecture Hall at 938 Lafayette Street. The talk begins at 12:15 P.M. and runs until 1:00 P.M. and it is free and open to the public. For more information about architecture in New Orleans as well as all the events surrounding the Architecture and Design Film Festival, you can check out the group's website.
Many of our plummets into cyber rabbit holes start with good, new-fashion Googling. That's what I did. I Googled "Architecture in Louisiana," and here's what came up:
French Creole Architecture
Louisiana Historic Architecture
French Colonial
There were innumerable sub-categories and musings about schools of architecture (we'll get to that in a bit), and there was a large emphasis on the "old" and "historic." The one focus of architecture that did not come up (and I went 3 Google pages deep) was modern architecture. Well, with the possibility of being struck down right here and now as I write this, I'm going to say that Google is wrong. In fact, I know that Google is wrong.
Karen Kingsley and Guy W. Carwile will agree with me. The two of them set out almost three years ago to write a book about modern architecture in Louisiana, and they did it. The focus is on Shreveport, Louisiana, from 1920-1960.
The book -- which is a beautiful hard-cover full of photos and smelling like the crispness of print -- hones in on the buildings (residential, commercial, and institutional) designed by Samuel G. and William B. Wiener. Here's a little taste:
Knowing that this architecture is at least close to our backyards, we asked a couple of questions to the authors - Karen Kingsley and Guy W. Carwile - who collected research, photographed, and collectively weaved together this book.
Q: What is one of the most interesting facts learned when putting the book together?
When we started on the book in earnest 2.75 years ago, we were not aware of 1) a Wiener-designed house in Fort Worth, TX, 2) that the Cross Lake weekend house was originally designed with wood window sashes instead of steel sashes, and 3) how much information about Wiener-designed houses is in the possession of the present owners without any information being resident at the LSUS Archives and Special Collections.
J.s. Clark Junior High School (Photo by: Guy W. Carwile)
Kingsley and Carwile are doing what they can to eliminate that gap in knowledge when it comes to these monolithic modern structures that stalwartly stand in Louisiana. Both of them make education their profession on all levels. Kingsley is a professor emerita of Tulane University School of Architecture and Carwile is a practicing architect in Louisiana and also the Ken Hollis Endowed Professor of Liberal Arts in the School of Design at Louisiana Tech University. They know the importance of bringing knowledge to the public, which led to my next question.
Q: Why is the architecture in The Modern Architecture of Samuel G and William B Wiener so important to Louisiana history and preservation?
Louisiana is well known for its appreciation of 18th and 19th century architecture and the preservation of the same. 20th century architecture, and modern architecture in particular, has been mostly “under the radar” of many preservationists and cultural historians. Books like The Modernist Architecture of Samuel G. and William B. Wiener do a great service to the community at large to broaden the discussion of Louisiana’s cultural resources.
I.Edward and Jessamine Thalheimer Wile House (Photo by: Guy W. Carwile)
And we all know that cultural resources in Louisiana go far beyond what we can even imagine. Each town, city, swamp, and even corner seems to have its own inimitable story, and Kingley and Carwile are unfolding those stories one structure at a time.
The Modern Architecture of Samuel G. and William B. Wiener is available from LSU Press, Amazon, and large bookstores. The best sources for finding out about similar books on Louisiana subjects are newsletters from LSU Press, University of Mississippi Press, Historic New Orleans Collection, Foundation for Historical Louisiana, or Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Modernist Architecture of Samuel G. and William B. Wiener: Shreveport, Louisiana, 1920-1960
Charles Ford
83.2 (May 2017): p462.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Southern Historical Association
http://www.uga.edu/~sha
The Modernist Architecture of Samuel G. and William B. Wiener: Shreveport, Louisiana, 1920-1960. By Karen Kingsley and Guy W. Carwile. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2016. Pp. x, 156. $45.00, ISBN 978-0-8071-6162-3.)
Authors Karen Kingsley and Guy W. Carwile provide readers with an overview of modern architecture in Shreveport, Louisiana, from 1920 to 1960. Specifically, Kingsley and Carwile reveal through extensive research "how and why modern architecture appeared so early" in a region deeply rooted in architectural tradition (p. 1). The authors summarize the historical development of Samuel G. and William B. Wiener's modernism in Shreveport's residences and communities and among their contemporaries at large. Chapters include rich project descriptions and both color and black-and-white photographs, which enable readers to envision each project and thereby provide a glimpse into the minds and design processes of the Wiener brothers.
The book succinctly conveys the two brothers' journey through education and into professional practice of architecture, with an underlying emphasis on "going to the source--to see the buildings" in context (p. 23). Kingsley and Carwile communicate the Wieners' evolution of design practice and adaptation of architecture suitable for the modern world during their productive careers.
This book demonstrates the ever-pressing reminder for designing in context and the need for historical precedents. It is filled with insight into modern architectural history and the impact these designers made on the community of Shreveport. This work enlivens the spirit to preserve architectural relics and safeguard each example for the future. Not only is the text well written and filled with insights about the modern architecture movement in Shreveport, but also it reveals the evolution of American modernism and its application by leading practitioners. The book is a resource for all communities who desire similar documentation, for preservationists who endeavor to protect architectural heritage, and for all students of architecture and architectural history. This thoughtful and interesting book enriches our understanding of modern architecture in Shreveport.
Charles Ford
Samford University
Ford, Charles
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Ford, Charles. "The Modernist Architecture of Samuel G. and William B. Wiener: Shreveport, Louisiana, 1920-1960." Journal of Southern History, vol. 83, no. 2, 2017, p. 462+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA495476259&it=r&asid=c12bd429da761381832de5937a3b3002. Accessed 9 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495476259