By Dan Nonte, University Relations
Edward Loewenstein
The Weatherspoon Art Museum and the Department of Interior Architecture will host “The Loewenstein Legacy,” a symposium on modernist architecture and the architect Edward Loewenstein, Nov. 3-5.
The Greensboro architect, who died in 1970, taught an innovative course in architectural design at Woman’s College (now UNCG) and served as chairman of the Friends of the Weatherspoon.
The symposium, free and open to the public, will be held in Elliott University Center. Parking is available for $1 per hour or $5 per day in the parking deck at Walker Avenue and Stirling Street. For directions, visit online maps of the campus.
A limited number of tickets are available for a self-guided tour of eight Loewenstein homes in Irving Park and downtown Greensboro 1-4 p.m. Nov. 4 and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 5.
Tickets for the tour cost $25 for adults, $20 for members of the Weatherspoon or Preservation Greensboro, and $10 for students. For more information about the symposium or the tour, call 336-334-5770.
A Chicago native, Loewenstein earned his degree in architecture at MIT and brought his passion for modernism to Greensboro in 1946, when he moved here with his wife, Frances Stern. In partnership with a number of business associates, he created an aesthetic that linked forward-looking architecture to suburban living.
The house Loewenstein designed and built for himself is among the eight homes on the tour.
Resonating with the work of leading European and American designers, Loewenstein’s modern residences echo Mies van der Rohe’s glass boxes, Wright’s landscape-building connections and Gropius’ Bauhaus tendencies. The symposium includes:
7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3
“Early Modernist Architecture in America: The Imperative to Preserve It” – Richard W. Longstreth, professor of American civilization, George Washington University
“Edward Loewenstein: Bringing Mid-Century Modern to Greenshoro” – Patrick Lee Lucas, assistant professor, UNCG Department of Interior Architecture
9:30 a.m.-noon Friday, Nov. 4
“Innovation and Experimentation: The New School of Design at NC State, 1948-1960,” – Robert P. Burns, FAIA emeritus/professor emeritus, NC State School of Architecture
“A Bastion of Modernism in the Southern Part of Heaven: William Wurster and the Webbs of Chapel Hill,” Claudia R Brown, architectural survey coordinator, North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office
“Willie Edward Jenkins, Modernist Architect,” – Jennifer F. Martin, architectural historian, Edwards-Pitman Environmental, Inc.
“Downtown N.C. Goes Corporate: Modernist Curtain Walls in Sixties Skyscrapers” – Cynthia de Miranda, historian, Edwards-Pitman Environmental, Inc.
“The Loewenstein Legacy” coincides with the opening of the Weatherspoon exhibition “Gregory D. Ivy: Making North Carolina Modern,” which continues through Feb. 12.
The architect and the artist knew each other well. Loewenstein's course was offered through the art department of which Ivy was head. When Ivy left Woman's College, he began collaborating with his friend Loewenstein on commercial as well as residential design.
