None.
Researchers are required to wear gloves provided by the Archives when reviewing photographic materials.
(Identify the item), Capitol area property appraisals and value analyses, Texas State Building Commission. Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
The Texas State Building Commission was created in 1954 by adoption of a constitutional amendment (Texas Constitution, Article III, Section 51-b; Senate Joint Resolution 10, 53rd Legislature, Regular Session, 1953) and enacted through Senate Bill 134, 54th Legislature, Regular Session, 1955. The commission, composed of the governor, attorney general, and chair of the Board of Control, appointed an executive director to oversee the agency.
Responsibilities of the Building Commission included planning and constructing new state buildings and remodeling existing ones, arranging for the acquisition of new building sites, and erecting certain monuments and historical memorials in cooperation with the Texas State Historical Survey Committee. The commission did not supervise building projects for the Department of Highways and Transportation, institutions of higher learning, the Board of Corrections, Youth Council, or Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.
The Legislature authorized the Building Commission to acquire historic and prehistoric sites in 1963 (Senate Bill 239, 58th Legislature, Regular Session), and in 1965 provided an appropriation to the commission for an archeologist. In 1969 the office of the State Archeologist was transferred to the Texas State Historical Survey Committee (Senate Bill 322, 61st Legislature, Regular Session).
In 1965 with passage of the State Building Construction Administration Act (House Bill 37, 59th Legislature, Regular Session), the duties of the Engineering Section of the Building Engineering and Management Division of the State Board of Control and the Design and Construction Division of the Board for Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools were transferred to the Building Commission. Responsibilities which were added included the orderly planning of buildings constructed by the state, inspecting construction in progress, and projecting building-program requirements and estimates of costs of proposed projects before legislative appropriations.
The commission became responsible for regulating standards and specifications to make public buildings handicapped accessible effective January 1, 1970 (Senate Bill 111, 61st Legislature, Regular Session). In 1975 the Energy Conservation in Buildings Act (Senate Bill 516, 64th Legislature, Regular Session) required the commission to work with the Governor's Energy Advisory Council to develop building design standards and model local building codes that would reduce energy consumption.
During its life span, the commission was responsible for the construction of several state office buildings including the State Archives and Library Building and the Supreme Court Building. Effective September 1, 1977 the legislature transferred the State Building Commission's duties to the Board of Control, and the commission was abolished by voters in November 1978 (Senate Bill 759, 65th Legislature, Regular Session, 1977; Senate Joint Resolution 48, 65th Legislature, Regular Session, 1977).
These records are property appraisals and value analyses that include photographs of buildings and land, bluelines of architectural drawings and plats, and area maps, dating 1956, 1973, and 1975, prepared at the request of the Texas State Building Commission along with a small amount of correspondence and financial records created by the commission in 1956-1957 during the land purchase and building construction process. Appraisals and analyses are of land and buildings (including residential, church, office, and commercial property) surrounding the State Capitol in Austin, Texas, and bounded by 11th Street, 19th Street (now Martin Luther King Boulevard), Lavaca Street, and San Jacinto Boulevard. [This area is now known as the Capitol Complex.] Appraisals and analyses provide information about Capitol area properties and were created in order for the commission to make decisions on land purchases to provide office and parking space for state government. Sections within the 1950s narratives include valuation, description of property, condition and description of buildings, location, and recommended use of land. Sections within the 1970s analyses include purpose of the appraisal, owner and legal description, tax information, zoning, methodology, neighborhood analysis, description of site, highest and best use analysis, description of improvements, rental data, land value estimate, cost and income approaches, correlation, assumption and limiting conditions, and conclusions. Addenda contain the photographs, survey, plat plan, diagram of improvements, market data, and maps. The 1956 appraisals of market value were prepared by Harold Legge, M.A.I. The 1973 and 1975 analyses of market value were prepared by C. Frank Kuhne, Jr., S.R.A. and Jim Frederick, S.R.P.A., M.A.I. Many, if not all, of the appraised buildings have since been removed to make way for state office buildings and parking lots or garages.
These records are arranged chronologically, then by property. Correspondence and financial records created by the commission were filed with the February 1956 preliminary appraisal. Photographs and maps have been separated from the appraisals and analyses and added to the Prints and Photographs Collection and the Map Collection.
Tonia J. Wood, September 2001
Accession number: 2000/009
These records were transferred to the Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission by the General Services Commission on September 13, 1999.