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This talk traces the history of an abstract wood mural, created in 1952 by Alexander Girard – one of a circle of modern architects and designers active in Detroit at midcentury -- for his home in Grosse Pointe, MI. Believed lost after the home’s demolition, the more than 200 pieces of the fourteen-feet-high by twenty-feet-wide mural were rediscovered in 2018 and restored in 2023.
Whereas the Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe is best known for historic revival-style homes, it is also home to notable spectacular modern residences designed by renowned architects Alden B. Dow, Alexander Girard, William Kessler, Paul Rudolph, Eliel and Eero Saarinen, Minoru Yamasaki and others. The tour features three residential masterpieces, including: Alexander Girard’s John and Kathleen McLucas House (1950), William Kessler’s W. Hawkins Ferry House (1963), and Paul Rudolph’s Frank and Anne Parcells House (1970). Current owners share their experiences in owning and preserving these exemplars of Grosse Pointe’s modernist heritage.
The Alexander Girard Mural Restoration Project celebrates the creation, preservation and conservation of a large-scale wood collage-mural, completed by Alexander Girard in 1952.
Alexander Girard Mural for Home at 222 Lothrop Rd, Grosse Pointe, MI. Image of Mural in situ, 1952. ©Ezra Stoller/Esto
Conservation has been completed on the Alexander Girard mural, created in 1952 for the dining porch of his own home at 222 Lothrop in Grosse Pointe, MI. The conservation was done by Ron Koenig of Building Arts & Conservation Inc.