The Alexander Girard Mural Project
View of mural designed by Alexander Girard for the exterior dining terrace of the Girard home at 222 Lothrop Road in Grosse Pointe Farms, MI. Photograph: @Ezra Stoller/Esto.
Who is Alexander Girard?
Alexander Girard (1907-93) was a mid-century architect and a designer of textiles, furnishings, domestic interiors and exhibitions. He was born in New York City, raised in Florence, Italy and studied architecture in Rome, London and New York. In 1937, he moved to Detroit, establishing his family residence and design studio in Grosse Pointe. At mid-century, Girard collaborated with designers/friends Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, Minoru Yamasaki and George Nelson, on key post-war projects, serving as color consultant for the GM Technical Center and curator for a ground-breaking exhibition, For Modern Living, at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Girard’s independent projects included a series of modern-style homes in Grosse Pointe (1946-52) for his own and the Goodenough, McLucas, and Rieveschl families. He is best known for his role as Textile Director at the Herman Miller furniture company, working (1952-72) from his new home base of Santa Fe, NM.
Alexander and Susan Girard in the master bedroom of their home on Lothrop Road in Grosse Pointe Farms, MI. Note the magnificent open, cantilevered staircase. Photographer: Elmer Astelford. @2022 Girard Studio LLC.
What is the Alexander Girard Mural Project
The project is to restore and reassemble a remarkable Girard masterpiece: a wood, collage-mural designed for the exterior dining terrace of the Girard home on Lothrop Road in Grosse Pointe Farms. Composed of hundreds of pieces of wood, Girard’s unique abstract composition represented a new form of art, merging his skills both as architect and designer.
Following its completion, the mural was celebrated in several national publications, including Interiors and House Beautiful. An essay in the Michigan Bulletin of the American Institute of Architects compared Girard’s “assemblage” technique with the pasted paper of Cubist collages, the “richly ornamented and decorated wall surfaces” of San Miniato in Florence, and the early modern architectural ornament of Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Victor Horta, and Walter Gropius.
The significance of the Girard House mural is more evident when viewed in the context of the designer’s later work, completed from his new home base of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Between the years 1964-76, Girard completed a series of large-scale murals for John Deere’s corporate HQ in Moline, IL (1964), St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM (1964), and the First Unitarian Church in Albuquerque, NM (1965). The date (June 1952) of the Girard House Mural marks it as the designer’s first foray into large-scale wood assemblage.
The mural was believed to have been lost when the Girard Home was taken down. Fortunately, a later homeowner, Mary Roby, had the foresight to have the mural meticulously disassembled, and its pieces preserved for future restoration. This restoration process encompasses several phases: the relocation of the mural pieces to a stable environment, the documentation and conservation of each mural piece, the fabrication of a new framework for the mural, and the reattachment of the mural pieces to a new frame/mounting system in their original configuration.
The new mounting system will be designed so that the restored mural can be easily taken apart, transported and reassembled. This decision reflects the intent that the mural be exhibited in museums, institutions and events relating to Alexander Girard, the midcentury modern movement, and to Michigan history.
Ron Koenig, conservator and owner of Building Arts & Conservation, Inc. studying the Girard House Mural pieces.
Who will be completing the Project
Deborah Lubera Kawsky, Ph.D., was named the Curator of the Alexander Girard Mural Project and Ron Koenig, owner of Building Arts & Conservation, Inc. (BAC) was chosen to be the Conservator of the project. BAC specializes in the physical conservation of historic architectural materials and has been carrying out conservation projects for more than 30 years. In addition to his degree in Architectural Conservation, Ron Koenig has done specialized study in mid-century modern materials at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, CA. All work follows the Guidelines for Practice of the American Institute for Conservation and is conducted at a level of quality consistent with museum standards.