Recently installed fixture at Baker Institute sparks panel discussion

Recently
installed fixture at Baker Institute sparks panel discussion
…………………………………………………………………

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News Staff

Panel discussions
are nothing new to the James A. Baker III Institute for
Public Policy, but a new wood panel in the institute’s
reception area merits a discussion of its own.

This past May
an 8-foot-7-inch by 11-foot stained oak panel was hung on
the wall behind an oil portrait of James A. Baker III. The
combination of the panel and the portrait represents two
men who have played significant roles in Rice’s history.

The panel was
refurbished from four oak panels that came from “The
Oaks,” the seven-acre estate of Capt. James A. Baker
on the southeast edge of downtown Houston. Baker
was the attorney for William Marsh Rice who was instrumental
in implementing Rice’s will to establish the educational
institution that became Rice University and who served as
the first chairman of Rice’s board of trustees. Before
the house was demolished, the paneling was sold to a lawyer
in Austin, who installed it in his home there. Several years
ago when the lawyer was preparing to sell the house in Austin,
he offered the paneling to Capt. Baker’s grandson,
James A. Baker III, for the Baker Institute.

Francoise Djerejian,
wife of Baker Institute director Edward Djerejian, realized
the sentimental and historical value of the panels and sought
the advice and talent of her friend, Rice architecture alumna
Geraldina Interiano Wise ’83, president of ARTE Productions,
to determine what to do with them. After taking a tour of
James A. Baker III Hall, Wise suggested the panels could
best be put to use as a backdrop that framed the portrait
of Baker, who in 1993 expressed his vision of the Baker
Institute, of which he became the honorary chair.

With the portrait
displayed against the panel, two generations of the Baker
family have been superimposed for the enjoyment of future
Rice students and other visitors to the Baker Institute.

To make the panels
suitable for framing, Rice trustee and alumnus Raymond Brochstein
’55 had his custom woodwork manufacturing company,
Brochsteins Inc., repair imperfections in the paneling and
restore the wood to its original luster. The panels were
mounted on the wall from ceiling to base, creating a classical
and meaningful backdrop for the painting, said Wise, who
also has a degree in art history from Rice and is the wife
of Scott Wise, Rice’s vice president for investments
and treasurer.

Now, in addition
to the panel discussions for which the Baker Institute has
become well known, the presence of the oak panels in the
institute’s reception room is itself a subject of discussion.