New Orleans modernist Victor Bruno passed away on Sunday 5 June after a prolonged illness. A graduate of Alcée Fortier High School as well as Tulane University (BA Science & Engineering 1943; MA Architecture 1947), Mr. Bruno was especially noted for his residential buildings. The child of Tunisian immigrants, Bruno apprenticed in his father's cabinet-making shop before pursuing studies in architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright's work proved such a significant inspiration to Bruno that he followed the Prairie School architect's advice that one needed to build to really be an architect. Bruno's earliest post-graduate professional work was as a contractor-builder rather than as architect per se. After working for Blue Plates Foods contractor Lionel J. Favret, Bruno established his own architectural practice. Projects such as the Gallery Apartments (2511 St. Charles Avenue; 1962) garnered regional acclaim.
Recently, DOCOMOMO-US/LA President Francine Stock visited the architect in his Fontainebleau Drive home, where he posed with a series of holiday cards he designed over a sixty-year period [detail shown above]. To see more photographs, consult her Regional Modernism flickr set here; to read John Pope's Times Picayune obituary, click here.
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