Instagram

×

× Virginia State University VSU Foundation Trojan Athletics VSU Transcripts 91.3 WVST Give To VSU

Join/Renew Today

Learn More About Azurest South

Azurest South

Azurest South is one of Virginia's few mature examples of International Style, a style that espoused a complete break with architectural traditions. Designed by Amaza Lee Meredith (1895-1984), one of the nation's few black female architects, the house is a significant landmark of African-American material culture and design.

Following the completion of the dwelling in 1939, Miss Meredith lived there until her death. Trained at Columbia Teacher's College as an artist and teacher, Miss Meredith founded the Fine Arts Department at Virginia State University (VSU) in 1930. Although principally employed as a teacher, Miss Meredith also enjoyed a limited architectural career designing houses and interiors for herself, family, and friends in Virginia, Texas, and New York. At Sag Harbor, a Long Island resort for wealthy whites, including the Roosevelt family, Miss Meredith, and her family and friends created Azurest North, an enclave of vacation homes for middle-class blacks.

Azurest South, the home she built adjacent to Virginia State University's campus, demonstrates her fascination with 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. This house, a five-room, single-story dwelling, can be classified with other residences designed in the International Style: a place for living, devoid of applied ornament or historic references. Azurest South has clean lines and a strong geometry emphasizing regularity rather than symmetry. The flat roof, designed as a terrace, is highlighted by plain metal coping and steel pipe rails, all painted a bright turquoise or "Azurest blue." Dramatic use of color, vivid patterning of walls, floors, and ceilings, and the use of inventive lighting fixtures characterize the interior design. The house functioned partly as a design laboratory and studio for Ms. Meredith, so its appearance evolved subtly over the years, reflecting her studies of color and material.

In light of the overwhelming dominance of traditional architecture in Virginia, Miss Meredith's Modern achievement at Azurest was quite advanced. Combined with her lack of formal training and the fact she was a female architect in a male-dominated profession, her accomplishments are all the more remarkable.

In 1993, Azurest South was listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register, and in 1994, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2001, it was also documented during Women's Month by the National Register of Historic Places. In describing this extraordinary woman’s talents, Azurest South was called a “significant landmark of African-American material culture and design. In 2024, it received designation as a National Historic Landmark from the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Excerpts were taken from the National Register of Historic Places website.

Azurest South

News From The VSUAA Chaplain

15 February 2025

Thank you for Joining Our First VSUAA Prayer Call of the Year!

Dear VSU Alumni,

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to each of you who joined us for the first Virginia State University Alumni Association Prayer Call of 2025. Your presence, prayers, and unity in faith created a powerful and uplifting experience for all.

Because of your engagement and the positive feedback we received, we are excited to announce that the prayer call will continue once a month! Beginning in March, we will gather in prayer at 9 AM on the first Saturday of each month through December. We look forward to strengthening our spiritual connection and support for one another as we lift up our alma mater and our communities in prayer.

As we embark on this journey together, we are reminded of the words in 1 Corinthians 12:12-14:

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so, the body is not made up of one part but of many.”

Our collective strengths as alumni across the country make us a force for good, and through this prayer call, we continue to unite in purpose, faith, and service. With gratitude and excitement, we invite you to mark your calendars and join us in prayer each month. A flyer with login details will be sent out soon.

Together, we are Building a Bridge to Greater!

Blessings,

Rev. Kenyana Dawson
VSUAA Chaplain

X

Facebook for Developers