In today's world, Edward Durell Stone has become a topic of increasing interest to a wide range of people. Whether we are talking about Edward Durell Stone on a personal, professional or cultural level, its importance and relevance cannot be underestimated. As society advances, Edward Durell Stone has become increasingly relevant in our daily lives, influencing everything from individual decisions to global trends. In this article, we will explore the different aspects of Edward Durell Stone and its impact on the modern world, as well as the various perspectives that exist around this topic.
American architect (1902–1978)
Edward Durell Stone
Stone (center) viewing a model of NASA's Electronics Research Center, 1964
Stone was born and raised in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He attended the University of Arkansas, where he joined the Sigma Nu Fraternity,Harvard and M.I.T., but did not earn a degree.[page needed] In 1927, he won the Rotch Travelling Scholarship, which afforded him the opportunity to travel through Europe on a two-year stipend. Stone was impressed by the new architecture he observed in Europe, buildings designed in what would come to be known as the International Style.[page needed] He returned to the United States in 1929 and took up residence in Manhattan. Hired by the architectural firm of Schultze and Weaver, he designed interiors for the new Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. He subsequently worked for the Associated Architects of Rockefeller Center and became the principal designer of Radio City Music Hall.[page needed]
At the outset of World War II, Stone enlisted in the U.S. Army. He was promoted to the rank of major and served as chief of the Army Air Force Planning and Design Section.[page needed] Returning to New York after the war, Stone was commissioned to design the ten-story El Panama Hotel in Panama City, Panama (1946), the University of Arkansas Fine Arts Center in Fayetteville (1948), and the 850-bed Hospital del Seguro Social del Empleado in Lima, Peru (1950).[note 2]
Stone's best-known work was the Embassy of the United States in New Delhi, India (1959). Tasked with creating a modern building that respected the architectural heritage of its host country, he designed a temple-like pavilion on a raised podium.Frank Lloyd Wright called the embassy one of the most beautiful buildings he had ever seen, and it won a first honor award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA).[page needed] Subsequent commissions such as the Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, California (1955), the Stuart Pharmaceutical Company in Pasadena, California (1956), and the United States pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair (1957), repeated elements originally designed for the embassy. The Stuart building and World's Fair pavilion both won awards from the AIA,[page needed] and Stone was elected to the Institute's College of Fellows in 1958.
Described as romanticist,[page needed] Stone's ornate designs[dubious – discuss] brought him commercial success. By the 1960s, his firm was among the largest architectural practices in the United States, with over 200 employees and offices on both coasts. Buildings from this period include the North Carolina State Legislative Building in Raleigh (1960), the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology in Nilore (1961), the National Geographic Society building in Washington, D.C. (1961), the Museo de Arte in Ponce, Puerto Rico (1961), the uptown campus of the University at Albany (1962), the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. (1962), the General Motors Building in New York City (1964), the PepsiCo World Headquarters, in Purchase, New York (1967), and the EcoTarium in Worcester, Massachusetts, the Florida State Capital complex in Tallahassee, and the Standard Oil building (now known as the Aon Center) in Chicago, Illinois (all 1970).
Stone also was the architect of the former Windham College in Putney, Vermont. Windham closed in 1978 and its abandoned campus was taken over by the present-day Landmark College in 1985.
Silver Medal, Architectural League of New York, 1937 – Guest House for Henry R. Luce, Mepkin Plantation, Moncks Corner, South Carolina
Silver Medal, Architectural League of New York, 1950 – A. Conger Goodyear Residence, Old Westbury, New York
Gold Medal, Architectural League of New York, 1950 – Museum of Modern Art, New York City (Philip Goodwin, Associate)
Gold Medal, Architectural League of New York, 1950 – El Panama Hotel, Panama City, Panama
First Honor Award, American Institute of Architects, 1958 – Stuart Pharmaceutical Co., Pasadena, California[page needed]
Award of Merit, American Institute of Architects, 1958 – U.S. Pavilion, Brussels, Belgium[page needed]
First Honor Award, American Institute of Architects, 1961 – U.S. Embassy, New Delhi, India[page needed]
Award of Merit, American Institute of Architects, 1963 – Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel, California
Honor Award, American Institute of Architects, 1967 – Ponce Museum of Art, Ponce, Puerto Rico
Selected works
Radio City Music Hall and the Center Theater, in Rockefeller Center, New York City (as senior designer in the employ of the Rockefeller Center Associated Architects with Donald Deskey and Eugene Schoen, interior designers, 1932)
Phoenicia InterContinental Hotel first phase, Beirut, Lebanon (Elias and Dagher, associated architects, 1954. Second phase by Joseph Philippe Karam, then altered 1997)
^National Register of Historic Places Single Property Listings Finding Aid: New York, (Tucson: National Park Service Intermountain Region Museum Services Program, 2017).
^"University Art Center—Architect Stone's sure hand with countless details creates a harmonious home for seven arts under one Arkansas roof," Architectural Forum, September 1951.
^"Big Double Hospital: Skillful handling of traffic and service flow by US architects integrates maternity and general health facilities for 850 Peruvian inpatients," Architectural Forum, June 1952.
^"Medicine's new 'Taj Mahal'," Architectural Forum, April 1958.
^"Splendor in the Factory," Architectural Record, December 1959.
^"A final look at Brussels," Architectural Forum, October 1958.
^Steven Bedford, "Stone, Edward Durell," in Encyclopedia of Architecture Design, Engineering & Construction, ed. by Joseph A. Wilkes and Robert T. Packard (New York: Wiley, 1989).
^"100 Largest Architectural Firms in the U.S.," Architectural Forum, April 1963; "100 Largest Architectural Firms in the U.S.," Architectural Forum, April 1964; "Man with a billion on the drawing board," Business Week, October 8, 1966.
^"New Statehouse for North Carolina," Architectural Forum, December 1963.
^"Architecture: Mogul Modern," Time, August 12, 1966.
^Ada Louise Huxtable, "Architecture: In Capitol: National Geographic Society's Building Sets a Standard for Washington," New York Times, December 11, 1963.
^"Ponce: Design for a Temperate Climate," Architectural Record, April 1966.
^Douglas Dales, "Model of College Shown by State," New York Times, June 12, 1962.
^Robert Hughes, "The New Monuments," Time, September 13, 1971.
^"From Park Avenue to an old polo Field: a lush new setting for PepsiCo's headquarters," Architectural Record, February 1972.
^Sandra Knox, "Prizes are given in Arts, Letters," New York Times, May 22, 1958.
^"Negro Aid Termed Good for Business," New York Times, September 11, 1958.
^"Academy Elects 116," New York Times, May 12, 1960.
^"Arts Group Elects 10," New York Times, April 22, 1960.
^"Social Science Awards," New York Times, December 14, 1961; "Architects in the News: Elder Named at B.C.; Kahn, Stone, Saarinen Honored,” Architectural Record, May 1962, 58.
^"Edward Durell Stone Cited by Building Stone Institute," New York Times, August 23, 1964; “People / Stone Wins Stone Award,” AIA Journal, October 1964, 84.
^"Alger Award Voted to Lowell Thomas," New York Times, May 12, 1971.
^"Architects Award Prizes in 3 Fields," New York Times, April 22, 1937.
^"Wins Gold Medal Award Of Architectural League," New York Times, January 18, 1952.
^Thomas Ennis, "Institute Honors 13 New Projects: Progress Toward ‘Delight in Environment’ Noted,” New York Times, June 2, 1963.
^John Leo, “Skidmore, Owings Is Presented With 5 Of Architects’ 20 Awards: Architects Give Annual Awards,” New York Times, May 16, 1967; “Edward Durell Stone Museo de Arte de Ponce,” AIA Journal, June 1967, 47.
Works cited
Stone, Edward Durell (1962). The Evolution of an Architect. Horizon Press. OCLC929669.
Stone, Edward Durell (1967). Edward Durell Stone: Recent and Future Architecture. New York: Horizon Press.
General references
Everett, Derek R. "Modern Statehouses for Modern States: Edward Durell Stone's Capitol Architecture in North Carolina and Florida." Southern Historian, Vol. 28 (Spring 2007): pp. 74–91.
Head, Jeffrey. "Unearthing Stone." Metropolis magazine, Urban Journal, January 2008.
Heyer, Paul. Architects on Architecture: New Directions in America. (New York: Walker & Co., 1966): pp. 172–183.
Hunting, Mary Anne. "Edward Durell Stone, Perception and Criticism." (PhD diss., Graduate Center, City University of New York, 2007).
Hunting, Mary Anne. “Edward Durell Stone.” In Oxford Bibliographies in Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
Hunting, Mary Anne. "From Craft to Industry: Furniture designed by Edward Durell Stone for Senator Fulbright." The Magazine Antiques (May 2004): 110–121.
Hunting, Mary Anne. “Legacy of Stone: As Campus Buildings Rise and Fall, A Leading Mid-20th-Century Architect's Vision Endures,” Vanderbilt Magazine (Summer 2014): *18–19, 78–79.
Hunting, Mary Anne. "The Richard H. Mandel House in Bedford Hills, New York." Living with Antiques.The Magazine Antiques (July 2001): 72–83.
Hunting, Mary Anne. "Rediscovering the Work of Edward Durell Stone". Modern Magazine (Spring 2013): 70 and 72.
Ricciotti, Dominic. "Edward Durell Stone and the International Style in America: Houses of the 1930s." American Art Journal, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Summer 1988): pp. 48–73.
Ricciotti, Dominic. "The 1939 Building of the Museum of Modern Art: The Goodwin-Stone Collaboration." American Art Journal, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Summer 1985): pp. 51–76.