Clarence S. Stein, FAIA

Year Awarded: 1956
Born: June 19, 1882; New York, New York, USA
Died: 1975; New York,New York,USA

Quote
A small house must depend on its grouping with other houses for its beauty, and for the preservation of light air and the maximum of surrounding open space. The house itself is of minor importance. Its relation to the community is the thing that really counts.


Projects
• 1950s: Town of Kitimat, British Columbia, Canada
• 1936: Chatham Village, Pittsburgh, Penn.
• 1932: Radburn, New Jersey
• 1929: Temple Emanu-El, New York City


Biography
Clarence Stein studied architecture at Columbia University and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He then began working as an architect and in 1915 helped plan the San Diego World’s Fair; by the early 1920s, he had taken up planning in the place of architectural work. From 1923 to 1926, he chaired the New York State Housing and Regional Planning Commission.

In 1923 Stein cofounded, with Lewis Mumford and Henry Wright, the Regional Plan Association of America (later becoming the Regional Development Council of America), a group involved in bringing the garden-city planning concept from Great Britain to America.

One of America’s most progressive and controversial architects and planners, Stein’s legacy is his vision for the garden-city concept as implemented in the United States. Characterized as self-sustaining communities, they were intended to be green-based, pedestrian-friendly residential areas organized functionally in support of the residents’ needs. His vision for the planned community of Radburn, N.J., was prototypical of the concept, although it failed in that community under the pressures of the Depression. Later, Stein designed or collaborated on the planned communities of Greenbelt, Md.; Greendale, Wisc.; Greenhills, Ohio; and Sunnyside Gardens, Queens, New York. His last commission based on the garden-city concept was Kitimat, British Columbia, Canada.

In 1951 Stein wrote Toward New Towns for America. In 1958 he received the Distinguished Service Award of the American Institute of Planners. He also received the Ebenezer Howard Memorial Medal for his role in the advance of garden cities.