Avriel Shull
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Avriel Shull (1933–1976) was a famous Indiana architect best known for her stunning mid-century modern designs, especially revolutionary given the predominantly traditional tastes of mid-century Indiana.
Shull was born Avriel Joy Christie in Carmel, IN. Her family owned a large parcel of land just West of what is now downtown Carmel, hence a large concentration of her strikingly designed homes in this area.
Shull attended Butler University and the John Herron School of Art. While being a female architect was unique for the time, even more so was her lack of formal architectural training. She began her creative business endeavors by designing and producing stationery but, given the recent end of WWII, most families were tired of letter writing. Her artistic skills were quickly devoted to larger scale projects.
She is perhaps best known for a spectacular apartment community at the intersection of Emerson Way and Ladywood Drive in Indianapolis. This community, called Ladywood Estates, was recently converted into condominiums. True to Shull's design, the architecture of the community is a wonderful example of mid-century Modern.
Without a degree in architecture (in fact with no college degree of any sort) Avriel Christie Shull designed her first house in Carmel, Indiana, when she was 23. She named this house "The Golden Unicorn" for the animal she'd placed on its exterior wall. In 1955, she platted her family land into an addition to Carmel named Christie's Thornhurst Addition. At Thornhurst, Avriel designed and built 21 houses between 1956 and 1971(doing some of the construction herself, such as laying stone on many of the homes' exteriors). Avriel also designed a number of custom homes in Indianapolis's toniest suburbs,in other Indiana towns and in other states. She also designed libraries, such as the one in Elkins, WV, and restaurants, including one in California. In the 1970s she began selling plans in Home Magazine and other do-it-yourself home building periodicals. Avriel died in her mid-40s of complications from diabetes. Survivors were her husband, Richard Shull, a well-known Indianapolis News columnist, and two young daughters---as well as a raft of Avriel-designed homes. Christies Thornhurst Addition has been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places for its mid-century modern architecture and as the work of a master builder. The Avriel Shull collection is at the Indiana Historical Society.
[edit] References
source: Manuscript Collections Department William Henry Smith Memorial Library Indiana Historical Society 450 West Ohio Street Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269 [www.ladywoodestates.com]
source: Connie Zeigler, "Thornhurst Addition: When Indiana Went Atomic" Atomic Ranch, Summer 2009.
