the project

   
   
  • A brick pathway leads from the street to the two-story entrance to the house contains a large window wall and two copper-clad doors. Stacked due to lot constraints, the two-story side of the house accommodates bedrooms and bathrooms. [ctb]
  • This design development drawing shows the building as constructed. Compartmentalized storage helps define large open rooms. [wli]
  • The rear of the house reflects the design intentions of the scheme, with the two-story portion providing a book end against which the public spaces rest, both inside and outside the structure. A charming pond and patio frame the outdoor “room.” [pll]
  • Skylights puncture the broad overhand on the rear patio and provide both visual interest and a mechanism for light to reach more deeply into the house interior. [pll]
  • The sterns converted the carport into a recreation room to provide additional interior living space. Other than this change, the house remains unaltered. [pll]
  • The metal, open-tread staircase in the front entrance hall provides a juxtaposition to the natural materials and finishes throughout the house. This inclusion illustrates Loewenstein’s balance of more Modern features with regional materials to achieve a harmony in design. [ctb]
  • Interior pecky cypress paneling, used extensively throughout the public areas of the house, accommodates hidden light tubing at the ceiling that results in light spilling across either ceiling plane, wall plane, or both. Clerestory lighting adds drama and additional light sources. [pll]
  • An implied interior hallway divides the living room (left) and dining room (right) in this view, echoing the long hallways of other Loewenstein commissions. A light soffit runs the length of the span, containing fluorescent light tubing which, when illuminated, cast a glow across the wood beams and ceilings of the living room. [pll]
  • New York designer Sarah Hunter Kelly specified the warm furnishings and appointments in this living room, as throughout the house. In her eclectic choices, Mrs. Kelly encouraged clients to achieve comfortable, less stiff spaces, contrasting to more high-style Modern interiors of the mid-century. [ctb]
  • A double-sided fireplace wall divides living room and small dining room at the rear of the house. The fireplace opening completely penetrates this interior into which is also inserted shelving and storage, an example of Loewenstein’s commitment to built-in furniture. [pll]
  • In each bedroom, Loewenstein communicates a sense of movement and expansion of space through the sloping butterfly roof and well-placed windows. Even though the rooms are quite small by today’s standards, incorporated built-ins aid in reducing the amount of additional furniture required to be functional. [pll]
  • The kitchen contains a Monel countertop and an inside grille and connects directly to a maid’s room, leading back to the original carport. [pll]

Sydney + Kay Residence
Greensboro (1955)

The exterior of the Stern Residence floats on the landscape, blending into the natural environment through the use of cypress siding and warm red brick. The tri-level, Flemish-bond brick home incorporates a two-story front hall space accessed by large copper front doors. The sculptural staircase in the front hall connects all levels of the house and incorporates metal, open-tread risers cantilevered from a central structural element. Under a butterfly roof, the two-story portion of the composition features a series of bedrooms with corner windows to maximize the sense of sweeping light from the taller exterior walls to the shorter interior walls. Within the 5000-square-foot structure, walls melt away replaced by large windows and sliding glass doors. On the back wall of the house, a gravel planting area blurs the architectural envelope, bringing the outside in, reinforced by gently curving changes in floor material, Carolina field stone slipping underneath sliding glass doors. Sarah Hunter Kelly’s stylish furnishings enliven and animate the interior, providing color and texture that happily dialogue with Loewenstein’s shell.

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