lundy landmarks

happy birthday, mr. lundy.

St. Paul Lutheran Church (Parish Hall) by G.E. Kidder Smith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Victor Lundy celebrated his 97th (!!) birthday last weekend, so in honor of my favorite artist-architect, here's a look at all of my Lundy-related posts to date.  

Florida Memory Project, State Library and Archives of Florida.

take me to (drive-in) church
​A spiritual space for the automobile age, this transparent chapel in the trees famously appeared in a 1955 issue of LIFE and helped put a young Lundy on the architectural map. 

U.S. Tax Court Building, Washington, D.C. Courtesy of the General Services Administration.

u.s. tax court building
Considered Lundy's masterpiece, this muscular monolith reimagined what a federal monument could be. It is a truly timeless design. (Also, this might be one of the best posts I've written, so take a look if you missed it the first time around.)

Victor Alfred Lundy, Architect, Louis Checkman, photographer. Refreshment stand, 1964-65 N.Y. World's Fair, for the Brass Rail Food Service Organization Inc. [Model]. New York, 1963. Photograph. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, 2017658819.

victor lundy's space flowers
Call them what you want- “space flowers,” “bubble pavilions,” or “hot air balloons”- the snack bars of the 1964 World's Fair tell you all you need to know about the era's most imaginative American architect. Garnering universal acclaim, Lundy's small floating structures were so popular even Philip Johnson was overcome with jealousy.

Carol M. Highsmith, photographer. Unitarian meeting house, Hartford, Connecticut, October 2011. Photograph. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, 2012631594.

midMOD monday: lundy's unitarian meeting house
Somewhere between futuristic tent, blossoming lotus, and a pair of clasped hands stands the Unitarian Meeting House in Hartford, Connecticut. Provocative and bold, the meeting house is just another example of the architect's iconoclastic mode of modernism. It's also the building that made me fall in love with Lundy.

By Kirkbailey (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

warm mineral springs motel
If this doesn't scream mid-twentieth-century Florida, I just don't know what will. All glass walls, lush greenery, and seamless integration of indoor and outdoor space, Lundy's motel is still a surprise and delight to travelers seeking relaxation in the Sunshine State.

And if you need more Lundy in your life (who doesn't?), pick up a copy of Donna Kacmar's 2018 book. And as always, thanks for reading, I'll be back next week with something new. 

​Happy Birthday, Victor Lundy!

Image at top:
G.E. Kidder Smith, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.