UA SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE HOSTS EDWARD DURELL STONE CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATION

Ed Stone with architecture student, circa 1958

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The University of Arkansas School of Architecture will host the Stone Centennial Commemoration at 4 p.m., Wednesday, March 6, at the Walker-Stone House at 207 W. Center St. in Fayetteville.

Mayor Dan Coody will read a proclamation for Edward Durell Stone and present a copy to each of Stone's five children. A reception will follow at 5:30 p.m. at the Bank of Fayetteville on the Fayetteville Square.

Born in 1902, Edward Durell Stone grew up in the Walker-Stone House and attended the University of Arkansas from 1920-23. He designed such buildings as the Radio City Music Hall, the Museum of Modern Art, the General Motors Tower and the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. While living in New York, he returned to Arkansas to design a number of notable spaces, including the Fine Arts Center in Fayetteville, the Medical Center Hospital in Little Rock and the Pine Bluff Civic Center. He wrote two autobiographies, "The Evolution of an Architect "(1962) and "Recent and Future Architecture" (1967), before he died in 1978.

Selections of his work, taken from The Edward Durell Stone Papers, will be on display in Mullins Library, Special Collections reading room, beginning Monday, March 4. The Edward Durell Stone Papers were donated to the University in 1975, with a second gift in 1979.

Prior to the event that day, Ernie Jacks, emeritus professor of architecture at the University, who worked for Stone's New York and Fayetteville offices, will give a lecture at 1 p.m., at Vol Walker Hall 103, entitled, "Recollections of Edward Durell Stone."

Jacks met Stone at the University shortly after John G. Williams started the program. During the early 1950s, Stone traveled to Fayetteville to design the Fine Arts Center, after Jacks said he underwent a transformation in his view of architecture.

"He believed in evolution rather than revolution—evolution of connected architectural events and history," said Jacks.

He describes Stone, or "Boss" as he calls him, as "laid back," a man who liked "home-spun tales" and "misdemeanors" like the stories he told about stealing watermelons or "swimming in ponds he wasn't supposed to swim in."

Williams, emeritus professor and founder of the School of Architecture, will speak at the commemoration, followed by a short question-and-answer session in the Walker-Stone conference room with Stone's five children. His children include Edward Stone Jr. of Ft. Lauderdale (b. 1932), Robert V. Stone of New York (b. 1938), Hicks Stone of New York (b. 1955), Francesca of Lake Tahoe (b. 1962) and Fiona of New York (b. 1976). In addition, digital images of Stone's work will be available on-line at http://pigtrail.uark.edu/news/.

Stone's eldest son, Edward Durell Stone Jr., is perhaps one of the country's most well-known landscape architects, according to Fran Beatty, head of the department of landscape architecture. He will lecture from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 5, in Vol Walker 103, and he will critique landscape architecture students' work in Memorial Hall until 4 p.m.

Stone Jr. resides in Ft. Lauderdale, where his firm Edward Durell Stone Jr. and Associates (EDSA) is located. He has been quite active in the Association of Landscape Architecture over the years and has lectured at the U of A previously. His designs include such spaces as the Caribbean Beach Resort at Disney World and Pont Royal in France. Recently, EDSA joined Cloward and Associates of Provo, Utah to create EDSACloward, a subsidiary engineering firm of EDSA specializing in the design of water features, resorts and theme parks. EDSA also partnered with Orient Landscape Arts Company in Beijing to form EDSAOrient, which will focus on detail site design and urban design services throughout mainland China and the Pacific Rim.

For more information about the event, call (479) 575-4704. In case of inclement weather, the commemoration will be moved to the Bank of Fayetteville at 5:30.

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