Building the style of Wimberley

Architects, like a physician, have to study many years to reach their goal of becoming one. It’s a lot of hard work and study. It takes many hours to be called an architect. While the dictionary says an architect “is a person who designs buildings and in many cases also supervises their construction,” they are actually much more. They can create a style, or a feel for an entire area or even a community.

Local architect Neel Morton recently changed the feel for a section of Wimberley with his design of the new Wimberley EMS building. What once was a corrugated metal structure is now a beautiful building that stands out on the corner of Twilight Trail and Melody Way.

Soon, Morton will work on the new fire station. He is also the architect of the Burke Center’s new dormitory for boys. It is similar to the EMS building in that if you take a step back, the lines and overall makeup of the building is pleasing to look at.

The dorm contains individual rooms and personal space for thirty boys. There are also common areas for shooting pool or just relaxing.

But working on big projects like these and other building projects didn’t happen overnight. Being a South Texas boy, from Katy actually, he’s glad he settled in Wimberley and is not working there as a farmer.

“My dad farmed with his older brother and their dad, and my great grand father came to Katy in the 1890s and started the farm. They’ve got over 100 years farming in the same place. A law in Texas recognizes a farm like that. That’s where I grew up. I graduated from Katy High School, came to UT to go to school. I thought I was going to be an engineer,” Neel Morton said. “I thought I was going to design these big bridges and dams.”

But the reality of engineering studies somehow didn’t fit the bill with everything in black and white. “It took me about a year and a half to figure it out. And I just happened to, by chance, walk in the architecture building on campus. That never entered my mind for some reason... I had been walking around campus looking at other schools, and saw the architecture building, went in and saw these drawings on the walls and these models. I was like, oh, man, this is what I want to do.”

In December of 1975, he graduated from the UT School of Architecture. Trying to find a job in the area was not easy so it was back to Katy and Houston. He got a job with an architectural firm that designed apartment buildings. Just graduating from UT didn’t make him an architect.

“That degree allows you to enter the internship program, you have to have three years working for a licensed architect or engineer. You have to accumulate a certain amount of experience. And then you’re eligible to take your state exam,” Morton said and continued. In 1985 he took the exam and passed all the parts of the exam the first time around.

“That was a different process back then. It was four days and they offered the exam one time a year. You and everybody in the state went to one location… And for three days there were eight hour tests. The last day was a twelve-hour design exam. If you didn’t pass every section, you had to wait until the next year to go back and retest the sections you didn’t pass.” The process is easier now with online tests and additional opportunities..

“Once you pass your state exam, you get your license, and that’s when you become an architect. So the degree doesn’t make you an architect. Working for an architect doesn’t make you an architect. It’s only when you pass that exam. So that’s what I needed to do.”

“I didn’t want to be one of those architects you always hear about. Architects can draw pretty pictures, but they don’t know how to build anything… So one of our clients was a smaller builder developer. I started talking to him, and he needed some help.”

For the next seven years he would design mostly townhomes.

This was all before Computer Assisted Design machines and other designing software, when things were hand drawn. “I love the digital world. But I’m grateful that I had that background and kind of an old school way, as well (as today’s technology.)”

He and his family moved to Wimberley in 1993, but he still worked at his Austin office for twelve years, moving his office to Poco Rio in 2005. His firm is building a number of private residences in the valley. Going through the process for a residential client is different than a commercial building of course.

“We do an interview process with them. We get them to talk about how they want the house. How many other real nuts and bolts stuff like how many bedrooms? How many square feet? How many bathrooms? What would you like? Are your windows facing south or east?”

He asks for any preconceived ideas about a house that they might have. What their lifestyle is like, and finally “How do they plan to live?” They have a software program that’s a menu for their house. “We interview them. We make notes about what they’re telling us. Then we put the document together... We give that back... Some are much more detailed than others. Some are pretty skinny. It gives us a place to start.” During the interview questions are asked at the property of the prospective house.

“Let me hear all about you. Let me learn how you live. Let me look at the property and the light in the trees. Oftentimes, they’ll design something, they’ll go, I never would have thought of that.” Being free of the ideas of houses in big city neighborhoods is different with life in the valley.

Trust is a major point between architects and clients. “I’m the architect. Let me show you something. And most of the time, people are pretty blown away. That trust is crucial. We’re forming a relationship, so we have to trust each other. And so that’s what we ask our clients to do is trust us.” Throwing out preconceived ideas with floor plans is asked for.

“We just want to hear what they have to talk about the house, because that’s going to give us a much better idea than anything you might sketch. Most people, like all of us when we’re doing something we’re not familiar with, our skills are pretty low. Since we do this every day, all day, our skills have to be better and pretty well developed.”

Look at Neel Morton’s designs, especially at the EMS building and soon to come, a new fire station, are clues of the talents of a gifted architect.