Loewenstein's Collaborative Projects

Two minds are better than one, and a team is better than two minds - this is the idea that drove Loewenstein to establish a design practice with various partners, eventually forming Loewenstein-Atkinson Architects in 1953. Loewenstein, shortly after moving to town, began a career on his own, but community circumstances offered the opportunity to join in a temporary partnership with prominent architect, Charles Hartmann, Jr., to together design the North Carolina Convalescent Hospital (1948) in response to a polio epidemic that swept the city and the resultant need for health care facilities to house those recovering from the disease. From firm correspondence of the mid-1940s, it is clear that Loewenstein attempted to establish partnerships with two New York firms, Peter Copeland (Albany) and Telchin and Campanella Architects (New York City), and forged unsuccessful collaborations with several North Carolina State University School of Design faculty members in the early 1950s. With Robert A. Atkinson, Jr., Loewenstein launched his most successful partnership and, for two decades, this well-respected and influential firm in Greensboro produced something close to 1600 commercial and residential commissions, mainly throughout Greensboro and Guilford County. And it is Loewenstein-Atkinson's successful collaborations, both internal and external, that garnered that respect.

As Loewenstein-Atkinson Architects grew, largely due to Edward Loewenstein's social and business contacts, the practice actively hired the first African Americans and women design professionals in the self-segregated Southern city of Greensboro. Despite some of the fallout from Loewenstein's civic consciousness in bucking traditional approaches to race, the firm continued to achieve respect and diversity simultaneously because of the collective spirit of enterprise within its own ranks, and importantly, in creative association with design professionals outside the firm. Together, many worked to fully develop and carry out Loewenstein's vision of mid- century Modernism, one that evolved from the stark and formal International Style to a more locally-grounded version of Modernism, which captured a more indigenous palette of materials and an approach to design the accepted and melded together many design styles, brought to the design process by local and national partners. One-third of Loewenstein's and the firm's residential commissions for a largely Jewish clientele provided the palette on which all of these design professionals together formed the highly localized and well-conceived mid-century Modern dwellings unique to Greensboro.

Building local alliances, Loewenstein turned to Otto Zenke, of Otto Zenke Interiors, and Eugene Gullege, the Greensboro general contractor for many Loewenstein-Atkinson houses, who provided a substantial partner in realizing the firm's design visions. Loewenstein and Zenke together designed the Herman L. Davidson residence in the Starmount Forest neighborhood, where Zenke's French Provincial Revival style in both living and dining rooms, at the front of the house, masked a mid-century Modern kitchen, family room, and bedroom wing, opening to the rear. Gullege, a collaborator on numerous commissions, brought, sub-contractors and laborers formed a satellite network to bring to ground the many residential and commercial designs from the architectural office. In both instances - whether designer or contactor - Loewenstein worked with ease to bring the considerable talents and skills of many to bear on his projects in the community.

Outward from Greensboro, Loewenstein turned to Sarah Hunter Kelly, a prominent designer in New York City, who worked in Loewenstein's own house, as well as in the Stern and Tannenbaum homes, to provide design services and specify traditional furniture pieces to soften the dwellings and to seamlessly integrate a comfortable family life within Loewenstein's mid-century Modern designs. Kelly established an international design practice in Paris in the 1920s which she moved back to New York in 1939, practicing there until her death in 1986. Perhaps drawn to North Carolina through social contacts, Sarah Hunter Kelly brought the international world of design to the local landscape. Her personal tastes teamed eighteenth century furniture styles, ornate and soft, with twentieth century art and textiles, abstract and loud. The resultant interiors - Loewenstein's containers and Kelly's collections - walked a fine line in balancing these various design elements, resulting in a rich textural and visual experience, particularly within public zones within the dwellings. Their livability in their design eclecticism appealed at mid-century and continue to do so today, moderating an understanding of the softer, gentler Modernism molded by visionary Edward Loewenstein and tempered by others.

Collaboration and equal partnerships, of vital importance to Loewenstein, established a more widely accepted version of Modernism in Greensboro. Education and leadership, trademarks of the Loewenstein legacy, are evident in the lives of those he chose to work with and the buildings they designed - and many of these designers went on to prominent careers in North Carolina and beyond.

Fellow Collaborators

Gregory Ivy

Probably the most important and influential partnership developed between Loewenstein and Gregory Ivy, his career-long friend and Modern artist. As Chairman of Woman's College's Department of Art, Ivy invited Loewenstein to teach in 1958, and the two embarked on an unprecedented plan to lead young women out of the insular design studio and into the community as they designed and built a house in one year. This success of the endeavor, later termed the Commencement House, resulted in two other similar projects, one the following year and a second residence in 1965, this latter one designed and built all in one semester.

Through these projects Loewenstein and Ivy planted the seed of cooperation and collaboration in young women, empowering them to do more than they ever imagined. Gregory Ivy served as the Interior Coordinator for the third house, though from a position within the Loewenstein-Atkinson firm, as he had departed from Woman's College in 1961. Not only did Ivy assist with the Commencement houses, he provided design services and had manufactured significant furniture designs for the Hyman Residence (1959) under the employ of the firm. The Greensboro Public Library (1964) brought Ivy's artistic talents again to the forefront, as he designed and had fabricated large-scale concrete relief panels for the Greene Street and Friendly Avenue facades of the building, as well supervising the selection of a number of the interior appointments, mostly in the public spaces of the structure.

Sarah Hunter Kelly

Outward from Greensboro, Loewenstein partnered with Sarah Hunter Kelly, a prominent designer in New York City, who worked in Loewenstein's own house. She provided design services and specified traditional furniture pieces to soften the dwellings and to seamlessly integrate a comfortable family life within Loewenstein's mid-century Modern designs. Kelly established an international design practice in Paris in the 1920s after which she moved back to New York in 1939, practicing there until her death in 1986.

Perhaps drawn to North Carolina through social contacts, Sarah Hunter Kelly brought the international world of design to the local landscape in the interiors for the Loewenstein (1954) and Stern (1955-56) residences, as well as the A.J. Tannenbaum Residence (1957). In these three houses, her personal tastes teamed eighteenth century furniture styles, ornate and soft, with twentieth century art and textiles, abstract and loud. The resultant interiors - Loewenstein's containers and Kelly's collections - walked a fine line in balancing these various design elements, resulting in a rich textural and visual experience, particularly within the public zones of the dwellings. Their livability in their design eclecticism appealed at mid-century and continue to do so today, moderating an understanding of the softer, gentler Modernism molded by visionary Edward Loewenstein and tempered by others.

Otto Zenke

Building local alliances, Loewenstein turned to Otto Zenke of Otto Zenke Inc. (Interior Decorators, Antiques, Reproductions). Among other commissions, Loewenstein and Zenke together designed the Herman L. Davidson Residence (ca. 1961) in the Starmount Forest neighborhood, where Zenke's French Provincial Revival style in both living and dining rooms at the front of the house masked a mid-century Modern kitchen, family room, and bedroom wing opening to the rear.

Eugene Gulledge

Superior Construction Company, with Eugene Gulledge at its head, brought to fruition a broad number of residential and commercial commissions for Loewenstein-Atkinson. As a collaborator, Gulledge brought sub-contractors and laborers and formed a satellite network to bring to ground the many residential and commercial designs from the architectural office.

Members of the Firm

Although his mid-century modern buildings comprise a tremendous physical legacy to Greensboro, Loewenstein's greatest contribution to the North Carolina built environment was the training he provided for a number of architects and designers who practiced in Greensboro and throughout the state. More than thirty architects, draftsmen, and support staff worked at the firm at its peak size in the mid-1960s. As inheritors of Loewenstein's mid-century Modern aesthetic, these practitioners continued to shape North Carolina architectural and design endeavors with each passing decade.

W. Edward Jenkins, the first licensed African-American architect in Greensboro, worked for Loewenstein and later established a prolific architectural practice, completing buildings such as award-winning Dudley Gymnasium. Both serving as intern-architects, Clinton Gravely and Frank Harmon worked together at Loewenstein's firm, drafting plans and crafting light fixtures for the A.J. Tannenbaum Residence. Each went on to found his own firm, Gravely in Greensboro, Harmon in Raleigh. In partnership with Loewenstein in the years before his death, Tom Wilson collaborated on a number of key projects and he continues the firm's practice as Wilson and Lysiak today.

One of Loewenstein's students when he taught at Woman's College, designer Anne Bowers (One Design Center, Greensboro) remains active in historic preservation because of Loewenstein's teaching. Countless others settled in North Carolina and beyond, including Anne Greene, who founded a successful practice in Washington, D.C. In reflecting on her mentor, Greene stated: "Little did I know that once I met Ed Loewenstein that my world would expand beyond my wildest dreams....Hopefully I have been a link in continuing his legacy."