The Rice Design Alliance is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of architecture, urban design, and the built environment in the Houston region.
This four-day, impressionistic tour along the lower Rio Grande-Rio Bravo del Norte began in Laredo, Texas; the hometown of RDA board member Rafael Longoria. Together with architectural historian Stephen Fox, who was born in Brownsville, we explored the many aspects of the region’s cultural heritage, 19th-century border buildings, and 1950s modernism. This was an opportunity to explore a rich cultural area known as “MexAmerica.”
Thirty-five Rice Design Alliance members recently returned from the RDA “Where the Architects Are the Stars!” tour of Los Angeles, held from February 23-March 3, 2002.
The Rice Design Alliance was pleased introduce a new travel program, RDA Hometown Tours, which will offer RDA members the opportunity to see some of America’s most interesting cities through the eyes of a native in 2000. The tours will emphasize architecture and design and each tour will be planned and guided by people who know the city inside and out because it’s their hometown.
The first annual Hometown Tour visited Savannah, Georgia from March 30-April 2, 2000. Our Savannah native, Barrie Scardino, planned a unique itinerary that includes tours of private historic homes, dining in private clubs and four-star restaurants, and side trips to 18th century plantations guided by architectural historian and RDA member Stephen Fox. There even was even a reenactment of the “Married Woman’s Card Party” as described in the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Savannah was in the height of the beautiful azelea season during the trip.
Historic Wormsloe Plantation, 18th Century, privately toured by RDA
