Kenneth Bentsen, a 1952 graduate of the University of Houston, designed several handsome Miesian projects early in his career. The South Park Bank and Post Office was one of the most interesting. It was built to serve the growing South Park subdivision which was distinguished by its street names commemorating the great battles World War II: Dieppe Road, St. Lo Road, Okinawa Road and Iwo Jima Road.
The use of outboard steel H-columns attached to a flat steel channel fascia was probably inspired by a similar system in Mies’s Farnsworth House of 1950. What made Bentsen’s design unusual was that it was completely prefabricated by the Butler Manufacturing Co. and arrived on the site in the back of a truck.
The buildings appear to be in relatively good condition but they no longer serve their original uses. The bank is a day care center and the post office is occupied by a faith healer.
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