Monumental Custom Granite and Steel Dining Table by Anthony Lumsden, 1970s
CONTACT US FOR OUR BEST DEAL
A jaw dropping monumental granite slab and steel dining table by famed Los Angeles architect Anthony Lumsden - custom designed and crafted for his Los Angeles home in the 1970s. Sleek, modern yet a subtle statement piece, partially due to its large size for such heavy materials, but also for its vibrant deep granite veining which reflects light in a shimmering fashion.
The thick and large granite slab is heavy with no-doubt, the large chromed steel frame is also very heavy in its own regard - a sign of the quality materials he used. To re-create this staggering piece today would be costly and painfully difficult. Acquiring this dining table, which would also make an incredible conference table as well, is a great opportunity for a collector or architecture aficionado to own something truly unique and special - and something that will stand the test of time.
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Anthony Lumsden was a famed American architect most noted for his sculptural futuristic designs with numerous projects in Southern California such as the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, often seen in Hollywood films and television shows such as Star Trek Next Generation.
Starting his career at Eero Saarinen & Associates, Eero noticed his talent and quickly he became a core member of the design team where he met numerous famous designers and artists of the time such as Charles and Ray Eames, Mies van der Rohe and Alexander Calder. After Saarinen's death, he continued to work with Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo where he worked on several National AIA award-winning projects such as the General Motors Technical Center.
In 1965, the Los Angeles-based large, multi-service architectural and engineering firm Daniel, Mann, Johnson & Mendenhall (DMJM) offered Cesar Pelli and Lumsden to join their team. One of their first collaborations, Sunset Mountain Park (1966), was a hyper-tech megastructure proposed for the Santa Monica Mountains which won the Progressive Architecture First Design Award in 1966.
Pelli and Lumsden first formulated the reversed mullion glass skin. The Century City Medical Plaza (1969), a straightforward 19-story black box, was the first building to incorporate this new design system allowing it to be wrapped with solar performance glass across the entire building.
Lumsden's reversed mullion glass skin was an often copied design system which became a global corporate vernacular through the 1970s and into the mid-1980s.
In 1968 Lumsden became Director of Design at DMJM, between 1969 and 1971 Lumsden designed three Wilshire Boulevard Solarbronze-clad towers (One Park Plaza, Century Bank Building, Manufacturer's Bank Building) earning him international acclaim. Many of his designs remained unbuilt, including the Beverly Hills Hotel (1973), whose renderings depict full-length cylinders articulating various interior functions all within a silver mirrored skin. Many of these influential designs were published internationally.
In 1976 he was selected as a member of the Silver Group and the LA-12 (twelve distinguished architects including John Lautner, Craig Elwood, Frank Gehry, Cesar Pelli and Ray Kappe. In 1979, he was invited by Philip Johnson and Arthur Drexler to be one of six internationally recognized architects, which also included Michael Graves, Robert A. M. Stern and James Wines, to create a facade design for The Museum of Modern Art's "Buildings for Best Products" exhibition. Lumsden's design was lauded in Drexler's press release as "the most astonishing of the six." Lumsden wrote: "The Best showroom project continues to investigate an architectural vocabulary I have used for several years: the membrane aesthetic; the extruded facade; intersecting forms; and reversed curves. In this project destruction of the box is intended without identifying with inversion and entropy as generative resources."
Although he worked on hundreds of well-known large-scale projects including the Moscone Center, Ontario International Airport and the San Francisco Marriott (famous for its Flash Gordon-like postmodern jukebox shaped tower), his most famous completed work is the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant.
PROVENANCE:
Anthony Lumsden Estate, Los Angeles, CA
MEASUREMENTS:
H 29.5" x W 96.5" x D 55"
Granite Only: H 1.25" x 96.5" x D 47"
CONDITION:
Very good vintage condition with light patina and wear. Light oxidation and minor scratches on the steel frame. Occasional small, old chips to the underside edge of granite which cannot be seen when the top is in place. The visible top side of the granite is in excellent condition. Overall presents very well and is ready for immediate use.