Shrine of the Little Flower, Royal Oak, Michigan

Rene Paul Chambellan (September 15, 1893 – November 29, 1955) was an American sculptor, born in West Hoboken, New Jersey.

Chambellan studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Academie Julian in Paris and with Solon Borglum in New York City. Chambellan specialized in architectural sculpture. He was also one of the foremost practitioners of what was then called the French Modern Style and has subsequently been labeled Zig-Zag Moderne, or Art Deco.

Selected architectural sculpture

Eagles perched on top of the Buffalo City Hall

• Russell Sage Foundation Building, Grosvenor Atterbury architect, (now Sage House), 122-130 East 22nd Street, NYC 1922-26
  • [1] (http://www.preserve2.org/gramercy/proposes/ext/ension/122_130e22.htm)
• American Radiator Building, Howels & Hood and André Fouilhoux architects, NYC 1923-1924
  • [2] (http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/hood/hood4.html)
  • [3] (http://www.wirednewyork.com/real_estate/american_radiator_building/default.htm)
• Chicago Tribune Building, Raymond Hood architect, Chicago, Illinois 1925
• Stirling Memorial Library, James Gamble Rogers architect, Yale University, New Haven Connecticut 1927
• New York Life Insurance Building, Cass Gilbert architect, NYC 1928
• State Bank & Trust Company Building, Dennison & Hirons architects, NYC 1928
• Chanin Building, Sloan & Robertson architects, NYC 1929
• Princeton University Chapel, Ralph Adams Cram architect 1929
• Stewart & Company Building, Warren & Wetmore architects, NYC 1929
• Daily News Building, Raymond Hood architect, NYC 1930
• Buffalo City Hall, Deitel, & Wade architects, Buffalo New York 1931
• Carew Tower, Delano & Aldrich with WH Ahlschlagewr architects, Cincinnati Ohio 1931
• King’s County Hospital, LP Ward architect, NYC 1931
• Tower, Shrine of the Little Flower, Henry McGill architect, Royal Oak, Michigan 1931
• New York State Office Building, Albany New York c.1932
• Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, Harvey Wiley Corbett and Charles B. Meyers architects, 100 Centre St, NYC 1939
  • [4] (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/building/man_criminalcourt.html)
• Airlines Building, JB Peterkin architect, NYC 1940
• Firestone Memorial Library, O’Connor & Kilham architects, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, 1948
• Queens County Hospital, NYC
• Naval Hospital. Beaufort South Carolina

Other works

World War II Memorial, Midland Michigan

• John Newbery Medal 1921
• Trirons, Nereids and Dolphins, Rockefeller Center, NYC 1930s
• Bronze Doors, East New York Savings Bank, Holmes & Winslow architects, Brooklyn, NY 1929
• Bronze Doors, Hitons & Woolwine architects, Nashville City Hall, Nashville Tennessee 1937
• Caldecott Medal 1937
• World War II Monument, Midland, Michigan c. 1950
• Series of 5 designs in cast-iron depicting historic New York City seals, for the Miller elevated highway c.1928

References

• Architectural Sculpture of the United States, Einar Einarsson Kvaran, unpublished manuscript
• New York 1930 Stern, Gilmartin, & Mellins, Rizzoli Press, NYC 1987
• Rockefeller Center – Architecture as Theater, Alan Balfour, McGraw-Hill 1978

Images

One of Chambellan's designs (Miller highway decoration) Courtesy Randall's Lost New York City