Modernism Endangered

Why are we so ambivalent about the architecture of the recent past?

"While working on the Museum of Modern Art, I became friendly with A. Conger Goodyear who asked me to design a house on Long Island for him. That he was a wise man was amply demonstrated when he asked for only two master bedrooms; all of his neighbors were saddled with forty-room relies of a former era-and no household help. He became the envy of the community.

"The site, a barren hilltop, demanded the low horizontal lines of a one-story house. Mr. Goodyear had a fine collection of modern paintings, and I decided to have a gallery serve as a "spinal column" from which all the rooms, with an expansive view to the south, opened, I employed glass walls from floor to ceiling, the ceilings continuing beyond the walls to form wide sheltering eaves. As the house faces south, the eaves were adjusted in depth so that the glass areas were shaded during the summer months, and when the sun was low during the winter months, its welcoming rays penetrated the house through the glass walls.

"The overhanging eaves were a departure from the international style, which placed the glass on the surface of the building unprotected from the sun, and I adopted this principle in all subsequent buildings. Of course, other solutions of sun control are applied to higher buildings. Not only is the overhanging eave an important practical consideration, but I find it aesthetically mandatory on a house with a flat roof, satisfying visually the desire for certain aspects of the pitched roof so long associated with residential architecture.

"This house also represented an effort to solve the approach by automobile. The entrance was provided through a portico overlooking a walled garden so that automobiles and services were removed from the house proper, thus giving both sides of the house an attractive outlook.

"Mr. Goodyear had, through a long period, collected excellent paintings, china, glass and period furniture which we combined with modern furniture. It all looked beautiful together for well-designed things are harmonious regardless of their epoch. I had heeded Mr. Luce's admonishment about simple arithmetic--not only did I meet Mr. Goodyear's budget, but there was twenty-five dollars left over.

Edward Durell Stone (1902-1978). Born in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Stone studied art at the University of Arkansas, entered the School of Architecture at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, to study modern design with Jacques Carlu. He toured Europe on a Rotch Traveling Fellowship and on returning to the United States assisted in the design of Radio City Music Hall in New York City.