Edward Durell Stone: American Modernist

Edward Durell Stone was one of the first American architects to experiment with European modernism in the early 1930s in a series of prominent homes in the Northeast and in his design for the Museum of Modern Art. However, Stone later rejected the austerity of International Style modernism at the apex of its popularity, in favor of a warmer architecture rooted in the American architectural tradition.

Stone initially embraced Frank Lloyd Wright's aesthetic in the immediate postwar era, but later turned to classical precedent in his projects of the mid-1950s like the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India and the U.S. Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair.

Stone's aesthetic choices engendered critical hostility among architectural cognoscenti, most notably in his later proto-post modernist work of the 1960s like the Huntington Hartford Museum of Modern Art in New York City, but at the same time generated enormous popular success.

In this slide lecture, Stone's youngest son and biographer, Hicks Stone, himself a practicing architect, documents the breadth of his father's life and career. The lecture coincides with the debut of his book, Edward Durell Stone: A Son's Untold Story of a Legendary Architect, being published by Rizzoli.

Hicks Stone Bio:

Hicks Stone is the founder and principal of Stone Architecture, LLC located in New York City, NY and Roxbury, CT. He opened his practice in 1991 after working as a senior designer in the office of Philip Johnson and John Burgee Architects. Stone received his Master's of Architecture from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design in 1983. He has a national practice with projects from Maine to Florida and the Bahamas to California. He holds licenses in eight states and the District of Columbia. His firm's principal focus is the design of single and multi-family residential housing, retail boutiques for luxury brands and cultural facilities. He has just completed a museum in the new city hall complex of West Palm Beach, Florida.

Stone is a son of the late American architect, Edward Durell Stone, and has written the first biography and monograph of his father for the noted architectural book publisher, Rizzoli. The book is titled Edward Durell Stone: A Son's Untold Story of a Legendary Architect, and is being released in early October. He is a sought after expert on his father's work, and has restored and renovated a number of his father's significant projects. He is currently involved in the restoration and modernization of his father's State University of New York, Albany campus. He has lectured extensively on his father's life and career.