Edward Durell Stone was one of the first American architects to experiment with European modernism in the early 1930s, designing a series of prominent homes in the Northeast and the Museum of Modern Art.  However, Stone later rejected the austerity of International Style modernism at the height of its popularity, in favor of a warmer architecture rooted in the American architectural tradition. In the immediate postwar period Stone embraced Frank Lloyd Wright’s aesthetic, but soon turned to classical precedent in his projects of the mid-1950s, most notably, the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India (1954) and the U.S. Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair.

Stone’s aesthetic choices engendered critical hostility among architectural cognoscenti, particularly his later proto-postmodernist work of the 1960s such as Huntington Hartford's Gallery of Modern Art in New York City (1964), but at the same time this work 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. Hicks Stone received his degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of design in 1983 and has built a national practice focusing on single and multi-family housing, luxury brand retail and cultural facilities. He has restored and renovated a number of his father’s significant projects and is currently involved in the restoration and modernization of his father’s SUNY campus in Albany, NY. The lecture coincides with the debut of his book, Edward Durell Stone: A Son's Untold Story of a Legendary Architect (Rizzoli), which will be available for purchase from Posman Books at the event.

Please join us Tuesday November 15 for
Hicks Stone presenting Edward Durell Stone:
Story of a Legendary Architect

6:30pm; reception and book signing following
Knoll
76 Ninth Avenue (at W. 15th)

$10 general admission; free for DOCOMOMO members Advance reservations required by midnight Sunday November 13.

Reserve through through NYCharities.com

Questions: rsvp@docomomo-nytri.org

DOCOMOMO New York /Tri-State wishes to thank Knoll for hosting this event. Proceeds from the event support DOCOMOMO NY/Tri-State's education and advocacy activities.

photo: atrium, U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India,1954. Courtesy Hicks Stone.