The Architecture of Edwin Lundie

Throughout a fifty-year career in St. Paul, architect Edwin H. Lundie (1886-1972) designed more than three hundred projects, predominantly residences, many utilizing either Northern European or Early American themes. His architectural designs, along with the Prairie School inventions of Purcell and Elmslie and the modernist themes of Ralph Rapson, are collectively considered the best work of Minnesota architects in the twentieth century. What set Lundie apart from his colleagues was his devotion to detail and love of fine craftsmanship.Long overlooked as architects moved away from picturesque themes in favor of modernism, Lundie's designs are now enjoying a resurgence of attention concurrent with revived interest in post-modernism, regionalism, and sense of place. For the first time, the significance of this unique body of work is presented in The Architecture of Edwin Lundie for architects, art historians, designers, builders, craftspeople, students, and the general public.Author Dale Mulfinger undertook this book after a decade of studying and recording Lundie's buildings and lecturing at local, regional, and national forums. Here he brings together a foreword by David Gebhard that sets Lundie in a national context; a biographical essay by Eileen Michels; his own piece assessing Lundie's design principles; outstanding color photographs by Peter Kerze; and beautiful renderings in pencil and ink by Lundie himself. In addition, the book offers thirty profiles of individual buildings with photos, floor plans, and drawings to highlight features demonstrating Lundie's genius.