On Becoming an Architect

A vivid memory and sharp focus on sensory detail—particularly sights, sounds, emotions—enable Frank Welch to narrate the extraordinary story of his life with great richness and insight. From his boyhood in Sherman, Texas, through his education at Texas A&M in the 1950s and his first professional ventures, Welch’s story is a remarkable memoir of how he became one of the Southwest’s most important architects.

Mentored by Harry Ransom, Welch and his fellow architecture students, traveling in two-door sedans with “Property of Texas A&M College” stenciled on the door panels, made pilgrimages around the country to tour important architectural sites and meet many of the nation’s most prominent architects. Among them were Frank Lloyd Wright, whom the group met in Arizona at Taleisin West. In Chicago, Welch and his classmates met Mies van der Rohe. And on the Pacific coast, Charles Eames gave the group breakfast at his home on a bluff overlooking the ocean.
Welch’s postgraduate years in Europe and his professional career in Texas are beautifully rendered in a volume richly illustrated with sketches, photographs, and floor plans of some of the most intriguing architectural gems in the Southwest.