Edward D. Stone

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Edward D. Stone
Born 1902; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA
Died 1978; New York, New York, USA
Firms Philip S. Goodwin and Edward D. Stone
Notes Edward Durrell Stone
At Great Buildings http://www.GreatBuildings.com/architects/Edward_D._Stone.html

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(b. Fayetteville, Arkansas 1902; d. New York, New York 1978)

Stone was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas in 1902. He studied at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, then apprenticed himself to Henry R. Shepley in Boston until 1925. After completing his studies at Harvard University and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , he received a Rotch Travelling Scholarship to Europe which lasted from 1927 to 1929.

As one the the earliest American exponents of the International Style, Stone had a major impact upon architectural education in the United States during the 1950s. He helped transform the International Style modernism of the 1950s into the postmodernism of the 1960s and 1970s by substituting formalism for functionalism.

Stone's formalism developed during in his Beaux-Arts education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his apprenticeship in the New York office of Schultze and Weaver. Stone attributed his shift from a somewhat severe modernism toward the more ornamental formalism of his later career to his second wife, Maria Torchio, whom he met in 1953.

In typical modernist fashion, Stone allows his buildings to stand as isolated objects in open space. He arranges his buildings as large multi-functional central spaces ringed by smaller enclosed rooms of more definite purpose. Unlike many modernists, he uses luxurious materials and a profusion of decorative details.

Stone's later architecture responded to the middle-class taste for a vulgar display of wealth. It also satisfied the equally characteristic American preference for efficiency and straightforwardness. Stone expressed wealth and thrift by covering his large box-like buildings with vivid ornamentation.

"N 1956 he unabashedly plunked down a large concrete grille in the middle of a row of East Side brownstones. His 1964 Gallery of Modern Art, at 2 Columbus Circle, was, in the words of a critic for Art News, a turkey. And critics said that his 1968 marble tower, the General Motors Building at 58th Street and Fifth Avenue, seriously compromised the character of Grand Army Plaza across the street.

"But the complex, big-talking and romantic architect Edward Durell Stone was far ahead of his time in his views on the environment, city planning and historic preservation." - Christopher Gray

Related Content from Wikipedia

Edward Durell Stone

Edward Durell Stone ( 1902 Fayetteville, Arkansas - 1978 New York City) was an American modernist twentieth century architect.

Stone attended the University of Arkansas, Harvard University, and MIT and established his own firm in New York in 1936. After a period of strict interpretation of International Style, in the 1950s Stone departed from modernist strictures and developed an individual, idiosyncratic style which included patterns of ornament. By some accounts, this was through the influence of his wife. Treated as a renegade, Stone continued to receive major commissions in the United States and abroad. Stone's design talents were perpetuated through the work of his son, Edward Durell Stone, Jr., whose firm, EDSA, was voted among the ten most influential landscape architecture firms in the U.S.

Recently, his life and career have received renewed attention due to the destruction or alteration of some of the structures he designed.

Among these are the demolition of Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri and major alteration to 2 Columbus Circle in New York City. Additionally, the North Carolina State renovated its chamber, covering over Stone's brass decorations with white neoclassical pilasters and pediments.

Interest in landmarking Stone's 2 Columbus Circle began in 1996, soon after the building turned thirty years old and became eligible for landmark designation. In this year, Robert A. M. Stern included it in his article " A Preservationist's List of 35 Modern Landmarks-in-Waiting" written for the New York Times. [1] [2] In 2004, the National Trust for Historic Preservation called it one of America's "11 Most Endangered Historic Places," and in 2006 it was listed as one of the World Monuments Fund's "100 Most Endangered Sites." Despite a serious preservation effort, The Museum of Arts & Design has radically altered the building for their occupation in 2008.

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Warning: the following link is a very subjective view on the future of 2 Columbus Circle that does not attempt to represent all sides to the argument.






fr:Edward Durell Stone ja:エドワード・ダレル・ストーン

Above content from Wikipedia available under GFDL retrieved Sat, 17 May 2008 19:02:21 -0700

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