Azurest South, located between the L. Douglas Wilder Cooperative Extension Building and the J. B. Bolling “ROTC” Building on the campus of Virginia State, serves as the official Alumni House/Office of the Virginia State University Alumni Association.
Completed in 1939, by VSU Alumna, Amaza Lee Meredith (1895-1984), one of the nation's first documented African-American female architects, Azurest South is a significant landmark of African-American material culture and design, and is one of Virginia’s few mature examples of the International Style, a style that espoused a complete break with architectural traditions. This house, a five-room, single-story dwelling, functioned in part as a design laboratory and studio for Ms. Meredith, and was thought to be “one of the most advanced residential designs in the state in its day.”
Considering the overwhelming dominance of traditional architecture in Virginia, Ms. Meredith's Modern achievement at Azurest was quite advanced. Combine that with her lack of formal architectural training and the fact that she was a female architect in a male-dominated profession her accomplishments are all the more remarkable. Azurest South demonstrates Ms. Meredith’s fascination with the avant-garde design, her familiarity with modern materials and construction details, and her courage in expressing non-traditional ideas in the public eye of the state's first land grant college for African Americans.
In 1993, Azurest South was listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register and in 1994 in the National Register of Historic Places. In 2001, it was also documented during Women’s Month by the National Register of Historic Places. Azurest South is truly a gem and a treasure for both the Alumni Association and the University.
