The Alexander Architectural Archives has acquired the archive of Volz & Associates, Inc. The collection contains material spanning over 40 years of architecture, interior design and consultation work focusing primarily on preserving and restoring historic buildings and interiors, with an emphasis on notable buildings in Texas.
Included among the resources are materials related to preservation and renovation projects at the Texas Governor’s Mansion, the Alamo and the Texas State Capitol, as well as examples of campus architecture including the Littlefield Building and Battle Hall, the home to the Alexander Architectural Archives.
The collection represents the Alexander Archive’s first venture into processing a large hybrid archive of analog and digital files. This is a fairly new, but increasingly common practice in archives. “Fortunately, Volz was carefully organized, allowing us to confidently move forward with digital archiving. This, combined with working closely with graduate students at the School of Information, has also made digital archiving possible” says Curator Beth Dodd.
Volz also donated unique artifacts obtained from historic Texas properties and material samples used in restoration work to the Architecture & Planning Library. The archive and the artifacts reveal rich, contextual information about historic buildings, materials, and conditions, as well as historic preservation practices from the 1970s onward.
“This is our most significant historic preservation collection to date,” says Dodd. "Historic preservation requires a great deal of research, including photo documentation. The Volz & Associate, Inc. collection provides incredible information on the histories of properties at a point in time, many of which complement the other collections at the Alexander."
