Richard Sundeleaf

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Richard Sundeleaf (1900-March 1987) was an American architect from Portland, Oregon.

Sundeleaf was born in Portland in 1900, and moved to the Sellwood neighborhood as a child. He graduated from Washington High School in 1918 and went to the University of Oregon School of Architecture, in Eugene, graduating in 1923. He trained in the Beaux Arts style of traditional design.

After graduation he returned to Portland. He began working for the firm of A. E. Doyle for a year. He then worked for four years with the firm of Sutton and Whitney. After working for other architecture firms, he decided to open his own firm in 1928. During the Great Depression, he worked for the Historic American Buildings Survey. During this time he became known for his imaginative work in industrial architecture. He combined his decorative training with a rugged functionalism in a series of distinctive warehouses and offices.^[1] In the 1940s, his style changed somewhat when he became a proponent of the Streamline Moderne style, in which the spirit of the machine age and the concepts of aerodynamics shaped the design of the building.^[2]

He designed numerous residential and public buildings around Portland.

Sundeleaf died in March 1987.

[edit] Public buildings

Woodbury and Co. warehouse, 1939
Bearing Service Co. building, 1944
General Co. building (now Dynagraphics Inc.) 1945
Francis and Hopkins Motor showroom (now the University Station Post Office) 1949
The original Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, 1955
Portland Medical Center, 1957.