The low-slung brick home that architect John Saunders Chase completed for his own family in 1959 was Houston’s first modernist house with a true interior courtyard, a form with which other progressive architects were only starting to experiment. It was equally radical that he built it at all. When Chase graduated from The University of Texas School of Architecture in 1952—the first African American to do so—no Houston architecture firm would hire him. Chase petitioned the state for special permission to take the licensing exam, becoming the first African American registered as an architect in Texas. By 1959, he ran his own thriving firm and had established a position of remarkable influence in Houston’s social, political, and economic life. The Chase Residence, in both its original version and after a fundamental alteration undertaken in 1968, is a testament to Chase’s accomplishments. Beautifully illustrated, John S. Chase—The Chase Residence examines how the architecture of this seminal but little-known house frames the life lived within it. It places the house in the larger context of Chase’s architectural career and his times. The book is also intended for readers broadly interested in the relationship between American architecture and society.

In the second book in #1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown’s beloved Texas! trilogy, readers meet another son of the troubled Tyler clan—Chase Tyler, a man hardened by life and desperately trying to outrun the sorrows of his past. Chase Tyler has been the object of Marcie Johns’s desire since grade school. But when it came time to settle down, the handsome, laconic cowboy chose another woman to be his bride. Life was good for Chase—until things took an abrupt and tragic turn. Ravaged by grief, Chase has become a lost and embittered soul, a man without purpose, compassion, or hope. Then fate intercedes, reuniting Chase and Marcie, who was an unwitting player in Chase’s unfathomable family tragedy. Guilt weighs heavily on Marcie, but she’s also convinced that only the strength of her love can pull Chase back from the abyss. She’s willing to risk everything on a daring plan to rescue his business, save his life, and bring them together at last.

Los Angeles is a breeding ground for adventurous experimental architects and a magnet for their high-profile clients. L.A. 2000+ assembles the best work completed in the city since 2000, offering a snapshot of the region and its architecture at the dawn of the twenty-first century. From the widely celebrated Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles by ?ber-architect Frank Gehry to lesser known but equally arresting works such as Studio Pali Fekete Architects? Somis Hay Barn in Ventura County and Godfredsen-Sigal's Hustler Casino in Gardena, the picture that emerges is sometimes startling and unexpected but always impressive. The beautifully designed volume collects thirty strikingly original new buildings, designed by both as yet unheralded talents such as null.lab and predock_frane and internationally renowned architects such as Gehry, Thom Mayne of Morphosis, and Eric Owen Moss. The introductory essay by urban designer John Leighton Chase puts these works in historical and architectural context, offering a unique perspective on the opportunities and difficulties inherent in building in a region known not only for its explosive population growth but also for the artistry of its inhabitants. John Leighton Chase, the urban designer for the City of West Hollywood, is a native of Los Angeles. A former architecture critic for the San Francisco Examiner, he is a coeditor of Everyday Urbanism and the author of Glitter Stucco and Dumpster Diving.

The veteran Wall Street Journal science reporter Marilyn Chase’s fascinating account of an outbreak of bubonic plague in late Victorian San Francisco is a real-life thriller that resonates in today’s headlines. The Barbary Plague transports us to the Gold Rush boomtown in 1900, at the end of the city’s Gilded Age. With a deep understanding of the effects on public health of politics, race, and geography, Chase shows how one city triumphed over perhaps the most frightening and deadly of all scourges.

The popular language of status-conscious architecture is explored in this account of the notorious do-it-yourself remodels clustered on the fringe of Beverly Hills in West Hollywood. These former stucco bungalows have been transformed by their owners into distinctive visual statements. As if they were stage sets, the exteriors of these houses have been treated as interiors, with urns and finials placed on rooftops like bibelots on a mantel, and windows and panels of trellis arranged as though they were pictures on a wall. The result is a lively architectural vernacular, well documented with before and after photos, interviews, and construction details.

Three brothers run away from home to live like Robin Hood and his merry men, deep in the forest of Brendon Chase. They make their camp in an ancient oak tree and live like outlaws, loving the dangers and excitements of their wild surroundings. Their aim is never to be caught - but how can they avoid all the people who are searching for them, including the police?

Chaser has a way with words. She knows over a thousand of them—more than any other animal of any species except humans. In addition to common nouns like house, ball, and tree, she has memorized the names of more than one thousand toys and can retrieve any of them on command. Based on that learning, she and her owner and trainer, retired psychologist John Pilley, have moved on to further impressive feats, demonstrating her ability to understand sentences with multiple elements of grammar and to learn new behaviors by imitation. John’s ingenuity and tenacity as a researcher are as impressive as Chaser’s accomplishments. His groundbreaking approach has opened the door to a new understanding of animal intelligence, one that requires us to reconsider what actually goes on in a dog’s mind. Chaser’s achievements reveal her use of deductive reasoning and complex problem-solving skills to address novel challenges. Yet astonishingly, Chaser isn’t unique. John’s training methods can be adopted by any dog lover. Through the poignant story of how he trained Chaser, raised her as a member of the Pilley family, and proved her abilities to the scientific community, he reveals the positive impact of incorporating learning into play and more effectively channeling a dog’s natural drives. John’s work with Chaser offers a fresh perspective on what’s possible in the relationship between a dog and a human. His story points us toward a new way of relating to our canine companions that takes into account our evolving understanding of the way animals and humans learn.

Drawn from keen observation of the rapidly changing social economic landscape of China, and using OPEN Architecture's projects as case studies, Towards Openness is a symphony of seven built projects and six idea chapters which are interestingly interwoven to offer an in-depth examination of OPEN's unique practice and the critical thinking underlying their work. OPEN's understandings of architecture were summed up in six relatively clear points which, together with their corresponding manifestos, constitute the fundamental attitude and starting point of OPEN's practice. The seven built projects, threaded together by the six ideas, can be seen as OPEN's reaction to the broad issues that they encounter through practice, as well as the actions they take to actively engage in the rapid transformation of the society, with unwavering hope for a better future. The book offers a unique angle in understanding the transformational power of architecture. It presents a humanistic approach to architecture in relation to nature that touches upon our fundamental sensitivity as human beings and goes far beyond the boundary of nations. This book challenges the preconceived and often prejudice notion of what Chinese architecture ought to be. It provides a fresh perspective on contemporary architectural practice in China through the innovative work of OPEN.

In 2016, the University of Texas at Austin celebrated two important milestones: the thirtieth anniversary of the Heman Sweatt Symposium on Civil Rights and the sixtieth anniversary of the first black undergraduate students to enter the university. These historic moments aren't just special; they are relevant to current conversations and experiences on college campuses across the country. The story of integration at UT against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South is complex and momentous—a story that necessitates understanding and sharing. Likewise, this narrative is inextricably linked to current conversations about students' negotiations of identity and place in higher education.