the project

   
   
  • Perhaps the most cutting-edge of all his residential designs, the unaltered Loewenstein house sprawls across its site, capturing outdoor rooms adjacent to and in design relationship with indoor spaces. [pll]
  • The angled walls and placement of the large clerestory windows throughout the house resulted from sun studies to mitigate the hot summer sun and take advantage of winter’s warm rays as the sun’s position shifts. The slanted windows give both the interior and exterior of the house its highly recognizable profile. [pll]
  • Moss takes over as a soft texture in the natural world in this “room” outside the living room. Shifting seasonally, the wooded site provides a buffer to adjoining properties. [pll]
  • Modern sculptures occupy garden spaces and paved terraces throughout the site. This flagstone patio, not easily seen from the street, provides a shelter for the front entry to the structure. [ctb]
  • A separate carport frames the yard space for a built in pool. [pll]
  • The terrace outside the living room and dining room, partly under roof, supplies sheltered spaces for outside living during temperate seasons. The corrugated plastic roof overhead allows light to stream into the patio and the living room beyond. [pll]
  • The exposed, angled I-beams that support the ceiling in the living room speak to Loewenstein’s honesty of construction, blending the dynamic edginess of Modernist materials with local materials and textures. [ctb]
  • With expansive glass walls, the public rooms take full advantage of the landscape with the fireplace as a focal point (a page taken from Wright) situated along a large window but not obscuring the view; the vent actually burrows underground and rises up again several yards from the house. [pll]
  • Carolina fieldstone, slate floors, and naturally-finished wood paneling and beams speak to Loewenstein’s commitment to indigenous materials. The curving wall divides living room from dining room. [pll]
  • In the dining room, Loewenstein provided a series of clerestory windows to bring light into the interior space. The dramatic shadows and light beams animate and enliven this eating area as well as the rest of the house. [ctb]
  • A multitude of built-in bookshelves, drawers, and closets throughout the home open the interior space for freer movement and require residents to obtain less furniture for storage. [pll]
  • The bedrooms, in a wing to the left of the main entrance, maintain social distance from rooms for entertaining – the living room, dining room, and front hall. [wli]

Edward + Frances Loewenstein Residence
Greensboro (1954)

Loewenstein’s 1954 house, featuring slanted exterior walls, curving interior fieldstone walls, and broadly reaching horizontal overhangs, stands in antithesis to its conservative, upright Colonial Revival neighbors. The building remains an archetype of his personal style and perhaps the best example that illustrates his design techniques for residential buildings.

Typical of many of his residences, Loewenstein situated the house on a large wooden lot, hidden from the road. The driveway and walkways meander in a curved line from road to carport to main entrance, tying the house to its wooded lot. At the front entrance, the stone from the exterior walkway continues into the foyer connecting directly to the public space of the living room. Once inside the house, high ceilings and a curved stone wall pull the visitor into a room dominated by large slanted windows that bring the exterior landscape into the space. In contrast to the public rooms, built-in closets and storage cabinets encase the bedrooms, lending great privacy to the scheme.

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modernism in greensboro
patrick lee lucas : school of interiors : university of kentucky : website designed by julie barghout