Robert B. Stacy-Judd

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Robert B. Stacy-Judd

Robert Benjamin Stacy-Judd (born June 21, 1884 in Greater London , † February 10, 1975 in Canoga Park , California ) was an architect from Great Britain who also worked as a writer. After moving to the United States , where he finally settled in Los Angeles , he designed churches, theaters, hotels and other commercial buildings in the style of Mayan Revival architecture , which he made a significant contribution to popularizing in the 1920s and 1930s. Stacy-Judd's stylistic synthesis of elements from Maya architecture, Aztec architecture and Art Deco set standards in the development of this style.

Stacy-Judd's passion for the cultures of ancient Mesoamerica is also reflected in his writing. In 1934, after undertaking a first expedition to the Yucatán in 1930 , he published a comprehensive travelogue in which he discussed in detail both the archaeological relics of the ancient Maya and their modern descendants. The Maya, whom he regarded as the descendants of the inhabitants of the mythical-legendary Atlantis , also play a central role in Stacy-Judd's best-known book, "Atlantis - Mother of Empires", which appeared in 1939.

The Aztec Hotel

The Aztec Hotel in Monrovia, Southern California, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Stacy-Judd's most famous Maya Revival design building is the Aztec Hotel in Monrovia , Southern California , built in 1924 . In addition to the First Baptist Church of Ventura (in Ventura , California ), it is one of the two structures that can be safely assigned to the architect and which were included in the US National Register of Historic Places . Both the facade and the interior, including the furniture, of the structure located on the original US Route 66 show his typical signature. Regarding the naming of the hotel, Stacy-Judd himself remarked: “ When the hotel project was first announced, the word 'Maya' was unknown to the layman. The theme of the Mayan culture was of archaeological importance [...] Since the word 'Aztec' [against it] was pretty well known, I baptized the hotel to this name, although all decorative notive among the Maya. "

Other famous buildings

  • Atwater Bungalows, Los Angeles, CA - 1931
  • Empire Theater, Edmonton, AB, Canada - 1922
  • Krotona Institute of Theosophy, Campus Plan, Ojai, CA - 1924
  • La Jolla Beach and Yacht Club, La Jolla, CA - 1926-1927
  • Masonic Building, Lodge, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA - 1952
  • Sisson House, Los Angeles, CA - 1926
  • Soboba Hot Springs Indian Village Hotel, San Jacinto, CA - 1925

Stacy-Judd and Atlantis

In his monumental, 346-page work with the quite misleading title "Atlantis - Mother of Empires", Stacy-Judd represented a cyclical picture of the history of mankind and civilization - analogous to Plato . Long before the well-known high cultures of the Holocene period there were developed human cultures , whereby he assigned Atlantis to the development cycle that immediately preceded our culture. Alongside Lewis Spence, he was one of the first Atlantis authors who brought the putative culture of the Atlanteans into direct connection with the late Paleolithic people of Cro-Magnon as part of a comprehensive argumentation . As Spence also represented Stacy-Judd which now from geological point of view obsolete idea of Atlantis as a great zentralatlantischer land mass that many thousands of years due to repeated in the course of cataclysmic ever disintegrate events and was eventually absorbed almost completely. Stacy-Judd dated the three main catastrophes within this process to about 23,000 BC. BC, about 14,000 BC BC and around 9600 BC Chr.

In addition to this catastrophic tenor, a diffusionistic attitude is characteristic of Stacy-Judd's research on Atlantis, which is in the tradition of Ignatius Donnelly . As a result of his comparative cultural considerations of ancient peoples west and east of the Atlantic (with a focus on Mesoamerica, South America and Iberia ), he largely rejected the possibility of independent parallel developments. Stacy-Judd's architectural historical considerations based on his professional core competencies appear interesting. Rather, he continued - like Donnelly before and later z. B. Otto Muck - a diffusion of cultural elements radiating from Atlantis into both the old and the 'new world' ahead.

Finally, what is remarkable is the fact that in 1939, during a period of unbroken racism in the USA, Stacy-Judd took a clear position against the allegedly higher cultural ability or cultural superiority of 'white' people, James Churchward's tendentiously racist basic culture scenario (cf. also: Mu ) as “unscientific” and expressed the assumption that the cultural bearers of an even older, pre-Atlantic cycle of civilization were probably “ negrid ”.

Fonts

  • Robert B. Stacy-Judd, The Truth about the Mayas , 1932, manuscript (typewriter, with handwritten corrections), Robert B. Stacy-Judd Archives, Architecture and Design Collection, University Art Museum, University of California at Santa Barbara
  • Robert B. Stacy-Judd, The Ancient Mayas, Adventures In the Jungles of Yucatan , Los Angeles (Haskell-Travers Inc.), 1934
  • Robert B. Stacy-Judd, The Reason Why the Ancient Mayas in Yucatan Resorted to Substitutes Building Materials Etc., and the Origin of the So-Called Maya Arch. Deductions and Conclusions. , 1934, manuscript (typewriter, with handwritten corrections), Robert B. Stacy-Judd Archives, Architecture and Design Collection, University Art Museum, University of California at Santa Barbara
  • Robert B. Stacy-Judd, Atlantis: Mother of Empires , Los Angeles (De Vorse & Co.), 1939; 1999 New edition as a reprint of the original by Adventures Unlimited Press (Kempton, Illinois), ISBN 0-932813-69-0
  • Robert B. Stacy-Judd, A Maya Manuscript , Los Angeles (Philosophical Research Society), 1940
  • Robert B. Stacy-Judd, The Autobiography of an Architect , c. 1944, unpublished. Manuscript (typewriter), Robert B. Stacy-Judd Archives, Architecture and Design Collection, University Art Museum, University of California at Santa Barbara

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robert Stacy-Judd , in: Find a Grave (accessed: May 28, 2013)
  2. ^ Marjorie I. Ingle, The Mayan revival style: art deco Mayan fantasy , GM Smith, 1984
  3. ^ David Gebhard and Anthony Peres, Robert Stacy-Judd: Maya Architecture and the Creation of a New Style , Santa Barbara (Capra Press), 1993; and: Marjorie I. Ingle, op. cit . (1984), p. V
  4. ^ Robert B. Stacy Judd, Atlantis: Mother of Empires , Los Angeles (De Vorse & Co.), 1939, p. 4
  5. ^ Robert B. Stacy Judd, "The Ancient Mayas, Adventures In the Jungles of Yucatan," Los Angeles (Haskell-Travers Inc.), 1934
  6. ^ Robert B. Stacy Judd, Atlantis: Mother of Empires, Los Angeles (De Vorse & Co.), 1939
  7. ↑ Monrovia, California / Aztec Hotel ( Memento of the original from November 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , at: California Historic Route 66 Association - Preservation, Promotion and Enjoyment of Route 66 (accessed May 28, 2013) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.route66ca.org
  8. ↑ David Gebhard and Anthony Peres, op. Cit. (1993), p. 41
  9. ↑ Atwater Bungalows, Los Angeles, CA , at: Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD) (accessed May 29, 2013)
  10. ^ Empire Theater, Edmonton, AB, Canada , at: Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD) (accessed May 29, 2013)
  11. ↑ Krotona Institute of Theosophy, Campus Plan, Ojai, CA , at: Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD) (accessed: May 29, 2013)
  12. ↑ La Jolla Beach and Yacht Club, La Jolla, CA , at: Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD) (accessed: May 29, 2013)
  13. ↑ Masonic Building, Lodge, North Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA , at: Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD) (accessed May 29, 2013)
  14. ^ Sisson House, Los Angeles, CA , at: Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD) (accessed May 29, 2013)
  15. ↑ Soboba Hot Springs Indian Village Hotel, San Jacinto, CA , at: (accessed 29 May 2013) Pacific Coast Architecture Database (PCAD)
  16. ↑ Robert B. Stacy-Judd, op. Cit. (1939), p. 4 and p. 20
  17. ↑ Robert B. Stacy-Judd, op. Cit. (1939), pp. 61-80
  18. ↑ Robert B. Stacy-Judd, op. Cit. (1939), p. 49
  19. ↑ Robert B. Stacy-Judd, op. Cit. (1939), pp. 147-166 and pp. 207-217
  20. ↑ Lyon Sprague de Camp : Sunken Continents. Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1977, pp. 59-60
  21. ↑ Robert B. Stacy-Judd, op. Cit. (1939), pp. 24-25
  22. ↑ Robert B. Stacy-Judd, op. Cit. (1939), pp. 81-83
personal data
SURNAME Stacy-Judd, Robert B.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stacy-Judd, Robert; Stacy-Judd, Robert Benjamin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-American architect and author
DATE OF BIRTH June 21, 1884
PLACE OF BIRTH Greater London
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1975
Place of death Canoga Park