Eugene Sternberg - Sternberg's Arhitectural Style

Sternberg's Arhitectural Style

When Sternberg started his practice in Colorado, he was concerned to develop a regional version of what was then known as contemporary architecture, and is today described as modernist. He designed buildings that were simple, functional, without Victorian architecture "gingerbread" (unnecessary decoration), and using materials historically familiar. For Colorado, this meant brick - especially red brick - sandstone, and wood. Some have described this period of Sternberg's architecture as "Usonian", having characteristics of Frank Lloyd Wright's domestic architecture. Though Sternberg held many architectural goals in common with Wright, he felt his own design style originated more from his experience in Britain, and his interest in creating clean, functional and economical buildings, than from any other influences. For a few of his late, large-scale projects like Arapahoe Community College and Heritage High School (Littleton, Colorado), he enthusiastically adopted a modified International Style (also at the time called "Brutalist") using concrete as the major building material, believing that this best suited the functions of these particular buildings. However one of his last buildings, the high-rise patient care and research building for National Jewish Hospital, has a strikingly simple, warm red brick exterior.