Hooton, Claude E.

Claude E. Hooton was born in Waterproof, Louisiana in 1905. He graduated from Rice Institute in 1928 and was the recipient of the Rice Architectural Traveling Fellowship. He traveled to Europe, where he became exposed to Modern architecture in Finland. He designed homes in Houston’s Southgate subdivision and well as and buildings in Houston and New Orleans. Hooton left Houston and Rice where his was a full-time faculty member in 1941 to take an appointment with the Merchant Marines in New Orleans. He remained in the New Orleans area for the remainder of this architectural career, but kept an office in Houston during the 1950s and 1960s. While in New Orleans, Hooton was involved with a number of significant projects, including the Texas Company Building and was the associate architect for Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill’s Pan American Life Insurance Company Building. He worked on low-cost housing projects including Allen Parkway village (with MacKie and Kamrath, C.A. Johnson, and Eugene Werlin) and also designed Sharpstown Mall with Sidney H. Morris and Associates. His architectural work has been described as “regional modernism.”

Claude E. Hooton died in Natchez, Mississippi, on October 15, 1993.