Sydnor and Hundley

Carneal & Johnston, Architects
1931
108 East Grace Street

Sydnor and Hundley opened in 1931 on the fashionable Grace Street shopping corridor. The building was designed as offices and a showroom for one of city’s largest furniture dealers. Architects Carneal and Johnston were commissioned and the result is one of the most significant Art Deco structures in Richmond.

Despite its height of only five stories, the Sydnor and Hundley building has a strong sense of verticality. Like so many Art Deco buildings, vertical elements were emphasized by matching horizontal elements with the darker tones of window openings and frames. The facade also employs a composition of three vertical bays delineated by even larger structural members. The central bay rises slightly above its neighbors, simultaneously breaking up the roof plane and referencing the showroom entrance below. Lower levels are clad in stone, a finer material than the beige brick above, reinforcing yet another Art Deco norm.

Today, the upper levels have been converted into apartments. The showroom, sadly, remains empty. One of the many vacant storefronts of the former Grace Street retail hub, the area has yet to reclaim its former vitality. Even more daunting a task is the reestablishment of a continuous urban wall on the block. Sydnor and Hundley faces a complete set of urban mixed use buildings but it stands isolated on its side of the street, sharing the block only with a practically suburban Wells Fargo bank. Still, it isn’t hard to image a brighter future for the building as businesses and residents slowly start coming back to East Grace Street.

D.OK.