Edwin Hugh Lundie

Edwin Hugh Lundie (October 13, 1886 – January 8, 1972) was an American architect who established his firm in 1917,^[1] in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota. He designed homes, country estates, timber-frame cabins, and public spaces, until his death at age 85. "He consistently drew from the vernacular forms that connected him to his clients’ tastes,"^[2] favoring the historical architectural precedents of Norman, Tudor, early Scandinavian, and American colonial.^[3] In 1922, he became a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA),"^[4] and in 1948, he became Fellow, FAIA, "for his contribution to the advancement of the profession because of his achievement in design."^[4]

Life and work

Edwin H. Lundie was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and at the age of thirteen, he moved with his parents to Salem, South Dakota. Then, just out of high school, in 1904, he set out on his own for Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he began his career in architecture as an apprentice in the Saint Paul firm of Cass Gilbert (1858-1934) with Mr. Gilbert's colleague Thomas Holyoke (1866-1925), from 1904 through 1911. When Mr. Gilbert moved entirely to his office in New York, Edwin Lundie continued as a draftsman for Thomas Holyoke, and at the same time he studied drawing at the Saint Paul School of Art. With the encouragement of Mr. Holyoke, in 1911, Edwin Lundie joined the staff of the firm of the French-trained Emmanuel Masqueray (1861-1917) as draftsman, with affiliation in the Atelier Masqueray, in Saint Paul, influenced through the American Society of Beaux-Arts Architecture.^[5] For the next several years Edwin Lundie assimilated into Masqueray’s office, and was steeped in the rigors of an enormous workload of complex and grand-scale architectural commissions, while readily absorbing the principles of architectural design.^[3]

Lundie became a lead draftsman remaining with Emmanuel Masqueray until the latter's unexpected death in 1917. At this time, Edwin Lundie, with two of his fellow draftsmen, Frederick Slifer (1885-1948) and Frank Abrahamson (1885-1972), from the office of Monsieur Masqueray, formed a temporary partnership to divide and complete several of Masqueray's remaining commissions. Lundie was individually responsible for overseeing the implementation and completion of Masqueray's designs for the Cathedral of Saint Joseph in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and the Chapel of Saint Thomas Aquinas, at the University of St. Thomas, in Saint Paul, Minnesota.^[5]

This same year, in 1917, Edwin H. Lundie opened his own office in Saint Paul's Endicott building, where he had been employed for the prior thirteen years, and where he would remain in private practice as an architect for the next five decades specializing in domestic architecture varying in scale from cottages to country estates. "Lundie did not call on the repertoire of the more lavish Renaissance and Beaux-Arts forms that distinguished the careers of his previous employers. Instead, he took his classical training and inherent art talent in a different direction, favoring smaller, less formal designs on a more intimate scale. Lundie's architecture was defined by the use of traditional materials, processes, and the talents of a variety of artisans. He wanted to convey the spirit of not only what was necessary to execute the authenticity of his creations, but also to exemplify the charm of engagement of human craftsmanship. He communicated his vision with clients and was inspired to express his ideas through presentation drawings and design. He was a true artist of the architectural perspective rendering genre, always paying meticulous attention to the chronological architectural period, studying and refining the details, and applying great sensitivity to the picturesque context of each client architectural situation."^[3]

"In sharp contrast to the Modernists who were getting much of the attention during the height of his career, Lundie gravitated toward the classical. His work was inspired both by...the French Beaux-Arts movement and the practicality of the Colonial Revivalists: homes with even proportions, shutters and a cottage style that evoked a feeling of rural England or the French countryside. Lundie's trademark became taking basic elements of the home and turning them into discrete works of art."^[6]

Personal life

Edwin Hugh Lundie's parents were Samuel F. and Emma Lenora (Hitchcock) Lundie. He married Grace Holroyd Nash, October 17, 1917. The couple had one child, Ellen Louise (Mrs. Charles Edward Thompson).

References