Alexander Girard Mural Project
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 for exterior dining terrace of his family home in Grosse Pointe, Michigan.
Alexander Girard Mural for Home at 222 Lothrop Rd, Grosse Pointe, MI. Image of Mural in situ, 1952. ©Ezra Stoller/Esto
When the Girard home was taken down in 2006, the mural (see attached Ezra Stoller photo) was meticulously disassembled and its pieces preserved for future restoration by the homeowners, Douglas and Mary Roby.
Mary Roby is the current owner of the mural and - working with mural project curator and art historian Deborah Lubera Kawsky, Ph.D. - contracted restorer Ron Koenig of Building Arts & Conservation to complete the conservation of the mural.
The project is also supported by Robert & Mary Lubera, owners of the McLucas House (the last surviving private residence designed by Girard) and by Art Impact Connect.
The significance of the mural is best understood in the wider context of Girard’s design career.
Girard is best known today for his role as Textile Director for the Herman Miller furniture company in Zeeland, MI, where he designed textiles, furnishings and showrooms in a vibrant modernist aesthetic. Much of Girard’s work for Herman Miller (1952-72) was created from his home base of Santa Fe, New Mexico. However, during the time the mural was completed, Girard – perhaps surprisingly - living and working in the traditional Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe. In fact, at midcentury, Girard collaborated with friends/colleagues Eero Saarinen, Charles & Ray Eames and Minoru Yamasaki on major projects, such as: the General Motors Technical Center and For Modern Living, a ground-breaking 1949 exhibition of modern design for the home held at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
It was during the years 1947-51 that Girard designed a series of innovative private residences, characterized by wood-and-glass single story structures, open floor plans and bold color accents. These include the McLucas House (included on the upcoming National Trust Council tour), which is the last surviving private residence designed entirely by Girard.
Perhaps surprisingly, these homes were commissioned by clients living – like Girard and his own family - in the traditional Detroit suburb of Grosse Pointe, where Girard had already opened a design studio. It was for the exterior dining porch of his own home at 222 Lothrop that Girard created a collage-mural, composed of pieces of textured wood and other materials that he had been collecting. The unique abstract composition was featured in national periodicals, including Home Beautiful, House and Home and Interiors (an article by friend Charles Eames).
Currently scholarly interest in Girard’s later murals, including those done for the John Deere HQ in Moline, IL (1964), St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM (1964) and the First Unitarian Church in Albuquerque, NM (1965), reiterates the significance of the Girard House Mural (1952), which marked the designer’s first foray into large-scale wood assemblage.