Belgian Building

Belgian Building
Location Lombardy St., jct. with Brook Rd., Richmond, Virginia
Coordinates 37°33′06″N 77°27′00″W / 37.55167°N 77.45000°WCoordinates: 37°33′06″N 77°27′00″W / 37.55167°N 77.45000°W
Area less than one acre
Built 1941
Architect Victor Bourgeois, Léon Stynen
Architectural style International Style
Governing body Private
NRHP Reference # 01000439 [1]
VLR # 127-0173
Significant dates
Added to NRHP February 26, 1970
Designated VLR December 2, 1969[2]

The Belgian Friendship Building or Belgian Pavilion is the former exhibition building for Belgium from the 1939/1940 World's Fair in New York City. It now serves as Barco-Stevens Hall on the campus of Virginia Union University (VUU), in Richmond, Virginia.

It was designed by Belgian architects Victor Bourgeois and Léon Stynen under Henry van de Velde, and is notable as an early example of Modernist architecture in the United States. Due to the outbreak of World War II, the Pavilion could not be returned to Belgium. The Belgian government sponsored a competition to determine the building's new home. VUU won, and the Pavilion moved to Richmond in 1941 as VUU's Belgian Friendship Building. Through 1997, the university's library was also located in the Belgian Friendship Building. It is now VUU's gymnasium.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13.
  2. ↑ "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved 19 March 2013.
  3. ↑ "http://www.bellsforpeace.org/belgianPavilion.htm". Bells for Peace Website. Retrieved Mar 3, 2011.

External links