Loewenstein's Residential Work

In his residential projects, Loewenstein worked to create livable houses that mediated between the crisp high style Modernism of his training and the traditional buildings on the local landscape. As a southern city with a spirit of conservatism, Greensboro's residential areas remained largely untouched by Modernism, where Colonial and Tudor style homes predominated until Edward Loewenstein helped a shift to more innovative forms and spaces.

Loewenstein's own firm bore out this characterization of traditional architecture in that three quarters of their residential work, some 300 commissions, represented more established forms. In the context of the firm's work, significantly, Loewenstein himself brought to the landscape more than fifty Modernist dwellings for a largely Jewish clientele. Loewenstein, as lead designer, said something different with these innovative buildings in a community where Jewish leadership made acceptable their own "avant garde" cultural and social agenda.

Loewenstein formed his Modern buildings in juxtaposition to tradition. Following his own convention to separate public and private areas, an often L-shaped plan included spacious living rooms and dining rooms, along with kitchen and servant spaces in flowing and interlocking rooms that blurred boundaries between interior and exterior. In contrast, built-in storage units closed the vistas to bedrooms, lessening the amount of required freestanding furniture and linking each private space to a linear hallway that connects them all. This design insured that no individual resident encroaches on another's personal space.

Loewenstein brought a well-grounded regional touch to his mid-century Modern residential projects through the use of materials, utilizing local brick, slate and Carolina fieldstone, which had a more warm and a more animated feel to them. He successfully paired these materials with more innovative ones—steel, glass and plastic—and with his designer-collaborators, specified finishing touches with decorative and textured wallpapers, textile-clad windows and furniture that crossed stylistic genre.

Houses that demonstrate Loewenstein's mastery of Modern design include the Carter Residence (1950-51), the Bertling Residence (1953), the Spangler Residence (1953), the Stern Residence (1955-56), and the Steele Residence (1964), five of over fifty such Modern residential commissions. Alongside more traditional commissions, these houses stood as exceptions to traditional suburban development. In sum, these buildings provide a significant glimpse of the design excellence achieved by Loewenstein in working closely with clients to craft a truly livable Modernism adapted to North Carolina.