Eugene Sternberg (January 15, 1915 – June 5, 2005) was a Hungarian-born American architect known for his passionate commitment and contribution to contemporary/modernist architecture and town planning in Colorado and other Rocky Mountain states between 1950 and 1990. He designed over 400 building projects and subdivisions, many of them iconic examples of Modernist architecture. Since his focus was on improving the quality of life of the general population, the structures he built were beautiful, useful, and cost-effective. Most of his projects were in the category of social architecture: affordable homes, senior housing projects, public housing, hospitals, medical clinics, public schools, community colleges, community centers, churches, buildings for credit unions, labor unions, and headquarters offices for Rural Electric Associations. As a planner Sternberg designed a number of innovative housing subdivisions and master plans for college campuses, governmental complexes, county fairgrounds, and a number of small western cities.
Early years
Sternberg was born during World War I in Pressburg, Austria-Hungary where his family had moved to be with his father while he served in the Austro-Hungarian army. When the war, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ended in 1918, the family returned to their home in Munkács, Kingdom of Hungary (now Mukachevo, Ukraine); in 1920 it became part of the newly created country of Czechoslovakia.
During his elementary and high school education. Sternberg's major passion was art. He developed into an accomplished young artist and won a coveted place to study architecture at the Czech Technical University in Prague. In the summers he worked for two architectural firms in Munkács and for a well-known Czech architect, Frantisek Libra, in Prague. In 1938, he earned a first degree in architecture/engineering. Adolf Hitler's Germany occupied Czechoslovakia in March 1939. Because Sternberg was offered a scholarship to the University of London's Bartlett School of Architecture he was fortunate to leave Czechoslovakia in 1939, the only one of his large Jewish family to be able to do so.
After World War II was declared in September 1939, the Bartlett School was evacuated to Cambridge where Sternberg studied from 1939 to 1944, completing his architectural qualifications and a graduate degree in town planning. His mentor in town planning was Sir Patrick Abercrombie who was, at that time, Britain's busiest and most imaginative planner.
After graduation, Sternberg was invited to join Abercrombie's firm in London, where he worked mainly on planning new neighborhoods to replace the housing destroyed by German bombing. Sternberg also taught part-time at Cambridge University, the University of London and the Regent Street Polytechnic. As the war drew to an end, Sternberg and Barbara Edwards, his British fiancée, decided to emigrate to the United States. To accomplish this, they each had to secure a job in the U.S. Sternberg received a three-year contract to teach city planning at Cornell University. Barbara secured a position at the British Information Services in Manhattan. Gene and Barbara were married in Ithaca, New York in the fall of 1946. Sternberg soon became dissatisfied with the general lack of creative activity in Cornell's architectural and planning departments, and was particularly disappointed when he found that full-time faculty members were forbidden to practice. He resigned from the prestigious university after three months and took on the challenges of a newcomer in an unfamiliar country, with no job and few professional contacts. Fortunately, Sternberg's background and qualifications appealed to Carl Feiss, Director of a new School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Denver, where Sternberg became Associate Professor of Design. The Sternbergs, with a six weeks old baby, took their first ever flight in August 1947 to a new home in a city and state of which they had never heard.
A brand new start
The Sternbergs' moved into a small unit of military surplus faculty housing on the University of Denver Campus. The curriculum of the new University of Denver school was unique in combining training in both architecture and city planning. It was also distinguished by the number of practicing architects on its faculty. The school's approach to architecture enticed Frank Lloyd Wright to accept an invitation sent by the students to visit the new Denver School. The School was housed in a remodeled building in downtown Denver. Sternberg was a forceful and demanding teacher and his students, mostly G.I.'s and many already married, worked long hours in the studios. But he was also hard-working and creative himself, and highly valued by most of the students. Thirty years after his first class graduated from the School of Architecture and Planning his students organized a reunion and wrote to him, "Gene, you taught us to dream. If we accomplished nothing it was our fault. If we have achieved anything, then we are grateful to you."
Although he was licensed to practice architecture in Great Britain and in New York State, Sternberg was required to take the Colorado licensing exams. This was not an easy assignment: English was a third language for him and it was many years since he had taken engineering courses. He spent the summer of 1948–9 in intensive study and succeeded in passing the exams in October. Shortly thereafter, he was asked by a Littleton physician, Dr. McKenzie, to design his new medical clinic. The building was economical, simple, functional and attractive. In the following years, Sternberg received many commissions to design medical and dental clinics. Publication in national architectural magazines brought him to the attention of Reinhold, the major architectural book publisher of the time. Reinhold commissioned him, in cooperation with Seattle architect Paul H. Kirk, to write a book on the architecture of doctors' offices and medical clinics.Kirk, Paul H. and Eugene D. Sternberg, Doctors Offices and Clinics, Reinhold Publishing Company, NY, 1955
Planning and subdivisions
Mile High Housing Association
In 1949, Sternberg embarked on another challenging commission. Denver was growing, little new housing had been built during the war years, and affordable housing available to modestly paid University of Denver faculty members was virtually non-existent. Under the leadership of Economics Professor Byron L. Johnson, the Mile High Housing Association was formed to acquire land and create a community of contemporary, modestly priced homes. Sternberg was appointed as architect for the project. Sternberg and Johnson themselves were members of the Association, which was largely composed of faculty members. In consultation with the membership, Sternberg developed a plan for the 11-acre alfalfa field bought by the Association. It was an opportunity to use much of his British planning background.
His subdivision plan had no through road, just a circular road of minimum width with one entrance and exit, off South Dahlia St., which provided safety for the many children who would live there. A central 2-acre "village green", with a children's playground and an open-air amphitheater served the community's needs. For economy, five plans for homes of different sizes were developed. Each house was individually sited for maximum privacy and good orientation.
Arapahoe Acres
While taking bids for building the Mile High Housing Project, Sternberg met developer Edward Hawkins who commissioned Sternberg to plan the subdivision layout and design the first homes for Arapahoe Acres, a development he was undertaking in Englewood. It was the first large project of contemporary homes, of many sizes, designs and costs, to be built in Denver. The Revere Copper Company at the time was looking for a high-quality residential development to sponsor in Denver, something it was doing in selected cities throughout the country. They chose Arapahoe Acres. Their sponsorship also involved designating one house in the subdivision as the "Revere Home" in Colorado.
Sternberg’s site plan was "intended to keep the amount of land used by roads to a minimum, to utilize southern exposure for solar heat, and at the same time gain a view of the Rocky Mountains to the west and to group the houses for privacy." To achieve these design objectives Sternberg introduced curved streets, minimal neighborhood access points, while orienting a majority of the houses at an angle to the street. These design elements minimized traffic and service disruptions, provided orientation for greater southern exposure and a corresponding improvement for western vistas of the Rocky Mountains.
Sternberg designed a single floor plan for the nine original model homes. "The construction is brick, insulated, cavity wall to a uniform sill height, and glass or insulated core plywood panels above the sill. Windows are aluminum casement; roofing is tar and gravel; flooring is asphalt tile; fiber insulating tile with an integral finish forms the ceilings. Heat is gas-fired hot air, fed through tile ducts to strip wall registers." Sternberg extended the variations of the basic plan by altering orientation to the street, the house's position on the lot and the details of the entrance and carport. The development was designed to attract buyers of varying income levels.
It was the very success of the debut of Arapahoe Acres that led to a parting of the ways between Sternberg and Hawkins. Sternberg was disturbed by the prevailing view that contemporary design was the province of the wealthy elite. He was intensely interested in and committed to, proving that good design could be as economical as traditional home building. The two men had agreed on the price for which the model home would be sold. But when Hawkins received an offer for considerably more – he accepted it! Sternberg felt betrayed and severed his connection with the project. Hawkins, a talented designer himself, completed the project using the design services of Joseph Dion, one of Sternberg's most capable students.
Arapahoe Acres has retained its design integrity to this day. It has been well cared for and has benefited particularly from the persistent advocacy of one resident, Diane Wray. "On November 3, 1998, Arapahoe Acres became the first, and remains today the only, post-World War II residential subdivision listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Register Historic District."The Arapahoe Acres Historic District. Diane Wray. Historic Denver Publication, 2004. p. 9.
Sternberg's success with the Mile High Housing Association and Arapahoe Acres paved the way for other opportunities to design other subdivisions in the Denver area Mountain Rangeview, 1954 and Orchard Hills, 1961, and in other cities, including one as far away as Harlingen, Texas.
Building the practice
In 1952 University of Denver, chronically short of money, decided that for financial reasons it must close the School of Architecture and Planning - despite its fine national reputation and demonstrated ability to attract new students. Sternberg was deeply disappointed by the decision but it came at an opportune time for him personally. His practice was growing. He built a first class team of associates, including John Schaffer, Helmut Young and J. D. Willis. Sternberg also needed to assure an adequate flow of work. He decided that architectural commissions in the major cities were largely given to long-established firms with business or "society" connections. He realized that his opportunities to secure commissions lay in the small towns and rural communities of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming.