December 17, 2013 U.S. Tax Court, Victor Lundy

Victor Lundy Film, Tax Court Tour Jan. 25

The life and work of Victor Lundy, FAIA, who studied with Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer at Harvard and became a leading member of Paul Rudolph’s Sarasota School,  is being celebrated in a film produced by the General Services Administration. The film, Victor Lundy: Sculptor of Space, will be screened to the public for the first time at the National Building Museum on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 11 a.m. Tickets are free but you must register. Mr. Lundy, 90, has been invited to attend.

A tour of his nearby National Register-listed U.S. Tax Court will take place following the film. The tour is reserved for members of the museum.

The U.S. Tax Court (designed in 1965; built in 1974) is an intriguing mid-century modern building. As you are rushing to work, you can easily pass the blocky-glass-walled sides of the building without taking too much notice. But when you actually stop for a second and look at the building from the front, you will see a deconstructed cube with four parts, the most striking of which is the 4,000-ton cantilevered courtroom block on the front held up by an innovative cable system.

The most powerful space in the building is the open, four-story Hall of Justice with walls of glass on the front, clerestory windows at the top and natural materials: bronze columns, granite floors and walls and vertical slats of teak and hemlock ceiling. I took the pictures during a tour in 2010. I highly recommend seeing the space in person.