Stone, Edward Durell

Edward Durell Stone was born in Fayetteville AR and attended the University of Arkansas studying Architecture. He attended the Boston Architectural Club (now Boston Architectural College), Harvard University, and MIT, but never received a degree. Eventually, he would receive five honorary degrees. While at MIT, Stone won the prestigious Rotch Travelling Fellowship to Europe and North Africa for two years. In Europe he fell in love with Modernism. He returned to New York City in October 1929, just before the Great Depression. Stone designed the main lobby and grand ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. He then moved on to work in the offices of Reinhardt, Hoffmeister, Hood & Fouilhoux, who were among the architects associated on the Rockefeller Center project. Stone was also the principal designer on the Radio City Music Hall and the Roxy Theater.  Stone formally started his own architectural practice, opening an office in Rockefeller Center when he was chosen to be the architect for the new Museum of Modern Art. Stone was in the Army during WWII from 1942 to 1945, stationed in Washington DC where he was the Chief of the Planning and Design Section; his principal responsibility was planning Army Air Force bases. He reopened his New York office in late 1945 and got mostly residential commissions. Stone designed the US Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair. While it was under construction in 1958, Stone was featured on the cover of the March 31, 1958 issue of Time Magazine. His office was extremely successful and he won major architectural commissions such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC into the early 1970s. He won five Honor Awards from the national AIA. Business Week called him “the man with a billion on the drawing board.”