Hugo Franz Kuehne was an architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 and planner who practiced in Austin, Texas

Austin, Texas

Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

.

Life and career

Kuehne was born in Austin on February 20, 1884. He was the youngest son of Franz and Langer Kuehne, immigrants from Germany. He took a BSc Civil Engineering from the University of Texas

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

, and a BSc Architecture from MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

, where he was trained in the tradition of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts

École des Beaux-Arts

École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...

. After graduating in 1908, he worked in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 before being asked to organize an architecture program in the College of Engineering of the University of Texas in 1910. He served as an adjunct professor at the university from 1910 until 1915, when he entered private practice. Other than a period of work for the Department of the Interior during the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, he continued in the private practice of architecture until retiring in 1961.

Kuehne married Sybil Glass in 1923. They had two children, including a son with whom the elder Kuehne was in partnership at the close of his career. He died in Austin on November 23, 1963.

Architectural works

Among Kuehne's most noted works is Austin Public Library (now the Austin History Center

Austin History Center

The Austin History Center is the local history collection of the Austin Public Library and the city's historical archive, located at 810 Guadalupe Street in Austin, Texas, United States...

). His other significant commercial projects in Austin include the Bohn Brothers building (1929), the Ritz Theater

Ritz (Austin, Texas)

The Ritz is a historic theater in the 6th Street district in Austin, Texas. The building's history includes use as a movie theater, music hall, club, and comedy house. It reopened after renovations in fall 2007 as the new downtown location for the Alamo Drafthouse.-History:The Ritz was built in...

 (1929), the Steck Building (1932), the Commodore Perry Hotel (1950), the International Life Building (1952), the American National Bank, and the Texas Department of Public Safety building (1952). He also designed alterations for Brackenridge Hospital, completed in 1933, and buildings for the Austin State Hospital.

Kuehne led a team that designed a number of large houses in the Neoclassical

Neoclassical architecture

Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

 and Colonial Revival

Colonial Revival architecture

The Colonial Revival was a nationalistic architectural style, garden design, and interior design movement in the United States which sought to revive elements of Georgian architecture, part of a broader Colonial Revival Movement in the arts. In the early 1890s Americans began to value their own...

 styles. One notable example of these houses is the Cox-Craddock House

Cox-Craddock House

The Cox-Craddock House is a historic Colonial Revival-style house built in 1928 in Austin, Texas. It was designed by architect Hugo Kuehne.Robert A. and Linda Cox, the first owners of the house, were both economics professors at the University of Texas...

, a Colonial Revival house 720 East 32nd Street built in 1928 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 on May 30, 2001. Kuehne designed the house for Robert A. and Linda Cox, both economics professors at the University of Texas. A subsequent owner, businessman Larry Inge Craddock, enclosed the piazza and sleeping porch

Sleeping porch

A sleeping porch is a deck or balcony that is screened and furnished for sleeping in the warmer months. Sleeping porches can be on ground level or on a higher storey and in either the front or back of a home...

 on the east end of the house. The current owner has restored the piazza to Kuehne's original open design and railing. The Cox-Craddock is built of brick and has a "symmetrical composition, 12:12 windows framed by a stone keystone and flat brick arch above and a stone sill. Three pedimented dormers with round-arched Gothic-mullioned windows pierce the front of the sidegabled roof. A pedimented portico forms the prominent central entry; the door is framed with sidelights and a transom." Hugo Kuehne's design also included a porte cochere which was not built.

City planning

Kuehne was also involved with city planning for Austin, collaborating with Koch & Fowler (a Dallas consulting firm) on the 1928 City Plan for Austin.

Awards and recognitions

In 1944 he was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects

American Institute of Architects

The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...

in honor of outstanding achievements and awarded a life membership of the American Society of Planning Officials. The City of Austin named him "Austin's Most Worthy Citizen" in 1954 by the Austin Real Estate Board and received a tribute from the Austin City Council