Architect Corner - Edward Durrell Stone
This post is a photo essay of projects by architect Edward Durrell Stone that I have had the opportunity to visit, mostly in the LA area.
Links in the subtitles provide detailed information on the projects.
There are additional projects to be visited and photographed - Edward T. Foley Center, Loyola Marymount University, the Von KleinSmid Center at USC and Home Federal Savings/Pacific Mercantile Bank Building in Beverly Hills. For those included here, I may revisit to explore in more detail.
In chronological order:
The Stuart Building (1958) in Pasadena
Completed in 1958 as a plant and office complex for Stuart Pharmaceuticals, the AIA selected it as one of the five best designs of the year, and awarded it the National First Honor Award. The partially demolished complex was readapted to an apartment and performing arts center. A striking building with elegant details such as the white concrete screening, reflecting pools, fountains, and light-filled atrium.
Beckman Auditorium (1963) at Caltech in Pasadena
Beckman Auditorium on the campus of Caltech in Pasadena at a mere couple miles from home is a place that I visit often. The view south towards the San Gabriel mountains show the modern New Formalist auditorium framed on each side by brutalist buildings and olive trees. The wide overhanging eave with repeated semicircular cut-outs allows for varying shade patterns across the building’s façade.
Fun fact: Caltech originally requested a rectilinear buidling with perfect acoustics and a porch facing south. But Stone had recently returned from Ethiopia and where he saw circular churches with conical roofs. Seeing the mountains as a backdrop, he created a temple-like structure resting on a podium with 32-tapered diamond-shaped columns.
Wilshire Collonade (1967) Wilshire Blvd
Prior to moving from San Diego to Pasadena, whenever I visited I would stay at a hotel in Koreatown close to Wilshire Blvd. The morning runs west towards LACMA provided photo ops of the Wilshire Collonade.under good lighting conditions.The grand project is difficult to photograph without a wide angle lens. Definitely want to return again to take more detail shots.
Kresge Chapel (1973) in Claremont, CA
I last visited Claremont, CA on a hot August day in 2020. The chapel is on the grounds of the Claremont School of Theology for which Stone designed the master plan. While the surrounding buildings “exhibit the architect's trademark tall columns and wide overhanging roofs with pierced decorations, Kresge Chapel is stripped to the very essence of New Formalism.”
I recently viewed a post that another IGer took of the interior with the light streaming through the stained glass. I will have to revisit and hope that it is open so I can experience from the inside!
Scripps Green Hospital (1974)
If you have to go to a hospital, you might as well go to one that was designed by Edward Durrell Stone. At least that was the case for me! That soaring lobby ceiling surprised me and I researched the architect afterwards. The pattern on the exterior, the landscape pools and fountains - all trademarks of Stone.