Colley, Richard S., 1910-

Richard Colley was born on June 18, 1910 in Fort Worth, Texas. He grew up in Yoakum, Texas and entered the architecture program at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas in 1926. He left school in 1931, without a degree. Colley worked in Monterrey, Mexico with architect Rodolfo Garza Madero until 1933. In 1934, he was offered the landscape architect position for the restoration of Mission Espiritu Santo de Zuniga in Goliad, Texas, where he worked with Raiford Stripling and Charles Phelps Vosper, his former professor.

Colley moved to Corpus Christi in 1936, where he worked for architects Brock and Roberts. In 1938, he established his own architectural office in Corpus Christi. His early work demonstrates a reliance on Beaux-Arts classicism combined with a regional vocabulary. His first two commissions, a hacienda for Richard Hawn (1939) and Sacred Heart Church (1938-1939) were executed in a Spanish Colonial Revival style. Following World War II, Colley began to turn away from historical models, applying a modern approach to his work. By the late 1940s and 1950s, his work was characterized by wide roof overhangs, integrated indoor and outdoor spaces, and sun screens. He responded to the south Texas climate by designing buildings to facilitate airflow and shading.

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