James Reece Pratt

James Reece Pratt, 1927 - 2018
James Pratt, 91, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, died in Santa Fe on November 6, 2018. He was born in Stamford, Texas on March 25, 1927 to James “Reece” and Margaret (Barret) Pratt. Upon the death of his father in 1935, he and Margaret settled in Dallas. From his mother, James developed a deep appreciation for research, history, culture and travel. His aunt, Ruth Barret DuBrul, was equally influential, inspiring persistence and perfectionism through sharing her passions of cooking and gardening. In his high school years he played the coronet in a band in local nightclubs he wasn’t old enough to enter, substituting for musicians serving in WWII. Post service in the Navy, James earned a bachelor’s degree at University of Texas, Austin, 1950 and a Masters of Architecture at Harvard University, 1953.
James was one of the most visionary and influential architects in Dallas, Texas and he and his firms, Pratt, Box, Henderson (195X-19XX) and James Pratt Architecture and Urban Design (19XX-20XX), were recognized nationally and internationally. His work was distinguished for connecting diverse communities and cultures while respecting and acknowledging the specific environment and topology. James’s passion for his home city led to major contributions to Dallas in his design work, urban planning and historic preservation. He was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
James was a world traveler fascinated by history and all cultures, a deep thinker who brought what he learned in other countries to broaden and deepen his work as an architect and urban planner. Through his employment and mentoring of young architects from countries all over the world, he generated a legacy far beyond his home.
Major design work included the Dallas Apparel Mart Great Hall, memorialized in the film Logan’s Run, the Quadrangle Shopping Center in Dallas, six off-campus college dormitories in the Western United States, Brookhaven College in Farmer’s Branch, Texas, the University of Texas at Arlington School of Architecture building, the Dallas Garden Center Solarium, and St. Stephen’s United Methodist Church. His work included design for trade center projects in Taipei and Cairo and hotels in Vanuatu, Fiji and Samoa.
From his early work with co-authors on the books Goals for Dallas, The Prairie’s Yield, Environmental Encounters, and his Dallas Visions for Community, he envisioned, described and foresaw a future, growing Dallas, and presented ways to join and integrate all the “little villages” he saw extending from its center. He was committed to and spent much time working to revitalize the center of Downtown Dallas, which had lost its vitality through unchecked expansion of the suburbs surrounding the city.
Throughout his career, he strove to influence the built environment in Dallas. In 1950, he created Better Best Dallas, an exhibition on urban design. In 1957, in collaboration with partner Hal Box, James did a series of plans, articles and presentations on changing downtown Dallas, which led to the formation of the Central Dallas Association, with its design concepts gradually adopted over 30 years. In 1975, he was one of the founders for Save Open Spaces in Dallas; its first project was to save a creek from being channelized as many others had been. In the mid-1970s, he founded and led for ten years the Urban Design Advisory Committee, a multidisciplinary professional group advising the Dallas City Manager. He brought together an ad hoc committee of volunteers to revive a low income neighborhood in East Dallas, which evolved into EDCO, the East Dallas Community Organization and the development of affordable housing and a marketplace for diverse communities.
James’ other urban planning work included major projects on Fair Park and its connections to the east side of Dallas and the Deep Ellum entertainment district and included the design of Exposition Plaza. He created a mixed-use master plan for 275 acres in the Surrey Docks, Southwerk, London, for Dallas developer Trammell Crow. Visions for Dallas Community (1988-93), funded and supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and 28 national and Dallas foundations, envisioned a new way for living in Dallas, to prioritize nature and greenways over vehicle throughways. An exhibition of large format drawings at the Dallas Museum of Art raised public awareness of urban design issues, included a published monograph and motivated the city to think beyond highways. The project won a distinguished national Progressive Architecture design award in 1993.
James’ other major professional contributions were in the area of historic preservation. He restored the Texas School Book Repository facade, the John Neeley Bryan Cabin, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas among other projects. His greatest contribution was his work on the Dallas County Courthouse “Old Red,” which, over a period of 25 years, included a complete restoration of the interior including replacement of the Grand Staircase and courtrooms, plus rebuilding the clock tower of this landmark Romanesque Revival building.
He was known for his love of detail, stubborn persistence as well as his sometimes quixotic missions. He let nothing get in the way of pursuing a vision. As he told the story, he didn’t get accepted when he applied to the Harvard Graduate School of Design to pursue a Masters of Architecture. But he showed up anyway and apparently impressed the faculty enough that they enrolled him. He had a keen appreciation of craft and mastery of materials, which was evidenced in his architecture as well as in ceramics and gardening. He studied with sculptor Octavio Medellin, creating an extensive series of the faces of global historical figures. He took a Japanese sensibility to his gardening.
Tying together all James’s interests was his 40-year-long research into and study of La Reunion, the 1850s Fourierist Utopian community which briefly attempted to establish itself outside of Dallas. Sabotaged: Dreams of Utopia in Texas is to be published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2019.
James is survived by wife--and often project partner--Joanne Henderson Pratt, daughters Sabrina V. Pratt (David Carr), Alexandra B. Pratt (Aaron Craig) and Ilya C. Pratt (Lori Lewis), and grandsons Wesley Carr, Barret Carr, Zhenko Craig and Ansel Craig), brother-in-law Philip Henderson and nephews Peter Henderson (Joelle Ehre and son Milo) and Matthew Henderson (Miriam Langer).
In lieu of flowers, contributions would be welcomed to a fund for architecture students to travel in Japan. Checks should be issued to the order of “The University of Texas,” making reference to the “Pratt Memorial Gift” and sent to the attention of Mr. Luke Dunlap, UT School of Architecture, 310 Inner Campus Drive B7500, Austin, Texas 78712-1009. Gifts can also be made online. Please note “Pratt Memorial” in the notes.

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For more appreciation of James’ professional career, see: [AIA link]