The Legacy of Edward Loewenstein

Loewenstein won a number of awards and several of his mid-century Modern designs found their way onto the pages of the Greensboro Daily News, and, perhaps more significantly, into the national design scene as features in The New York Times Magazine, Good Housekeeping, The Southern Architect, Masonry Building Magazine, and Architectural Record.Designs for the Carter Residence, the Bessemer Improvement Company Building, the Dixon-Christopher Office and the Woman's College Physical Education Building were all published in 1952-53 in Architectural Record, a "workbook of the active architect and engineer," which they used to remain current with designs, techniques, and materials.

Loewenstein's own designs for mid-century Modern residences clearly followed trends identified by AR editors: "the big house quietly spreading out in an open, informal arrangement rather than rearing up to impress its neighbors and insult the landscape," creating a fusion between "the crisp, clean lines of the International Style, and the rambling openness of the popularized Ranch House Style." The 1958 annual issue on residential design suggested growing trends in house designs from the inhabitants' perspective: "'Indoor-Outdoor living' is wanted, with the attendant sliding glass walls, and development of the plot into terraces, courts, and activity areas. Inside, open planning has much favor, often with partial partitions and 'penetration of spaces' to augment it. Focus is decidedly on views, and extension of walls and roofs to help link inside and outside."

By the late 1960s, design interests and styles had changed and these new notions were recorded in AR's 1967 housing issue: "In a period of considerable change in contemporary architectural thinking, which includes a new look at many traditional idioms," designers should reestablish "the over-all tradition of architectural thought....drawing inspiration from all possible sources" and a return to traditional modes of design. The fact that his plans were published in AR in the 1950s illustrated that Loewenstein's designs, were innovative and noteworthy at first, but had passed out of favor by the late 1960s, suggesting either that Loewenstein had developed a design aesthetic with which he was comfortable or perhaps disagreed about the direction of national design trends. Nonetheless, during his thirty-five year career, Loewenstein received three AIA Awards of Merit for his design work: the Bessemer Improvement Company Building that housed the offices of Loewenstein-Atkinson Architects; the Wilbur Carter, Jr. Residence; and the David D. Jones Elementary School. The latter two designs earned Special Commendation in a 1955 competition of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.