Join the Art Deco Society of New York (ADSNY) and our hosts, Jim Parsons and David Bush––architectural historians and authors of Hill Country Deco; DFW Deco; Fair Park Deco: Art and Architecture of the Texas Centennial; and more––for a private three day VIP tour that will offer a dazzling and informative look at the extraordinary architecture and design of the 1920s and 1930s in the Texas Hill Country cities of San Antonio and Austin.

In 2019 ADSNY members were hosted for an extraordinary visit to Dallas and Fort Worth with the delightful Deco duo of Jim and David, and we have been eagerly awaiting this tour with them to visit another fascinating Art Deco area defined by Texas’ boom of the 1920s and ’30s.

In this in-depth three day exploration designed just for ADSNY, we will see interwar architecture and design that helps tell the stories of the Hill Country’s two principal urban centers. In San Antonio, richly ornamented “Modern Spanish” office and public buildings reflected the city’s wealth and Hispanic heritage, while Deco in Austin was shaped by the two largest local institutions, the University of Texas and the Texas state government.

We’ll explore how sophisticated Art Deco skyscrapers and department stores reflected a rapidly urbanizing state, and we’ll see wonderful examples of pared-down modernistic schools, post offices and government buildings constructed after the 1929 stock market crash, as New Deal stimulus programs poured into the area. Along the way, we will hear the stories behind some of these remarkable structures and the larger-than-life Texans who built them.

Our home base for the three day weekend will be the Drury Plaza San Antonio Riverwalk, a hotel located in the 1929 Alamo National Bank Building, one of the Alamo City’s most prominent Art Deco skyscrapers.

San Antonio and Austin, Texas
Friday, March 22 – Sunday, March 24, 2024