Edward Durell Stone, Jr.

Edward Durell Stone Jr. (August 30, 1932 – July 10, 2009) was an American landscape architect.

Biography The son of the architect, Edward Durell Stone, he graduated from The Hill School, and then went on to Yale, where he received a degree in Architectural Design. Later he served three years as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. This allowed him to see the world and the "natural beauty of the land", which played a role in his decision to pursue landscape architecture. He received his master's degree of Landscape Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. In Landscape Architecture Magazine, Jane Brown Gillette reports that Stone realized what he wanted to do at age seventeen while attending a dinner dance at the Everglades Club in Palm Beach, Florida. Here the scenery within the building's courtyard affected him in such a way that would eventually have an effect on many landscapes throughout Florida and the Caribbean and on the profession of landscape architecture through his work.

Stone was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and he received the 1994 ASLA Medal.

At EDSA, Stone continued to play a role in directing the charettes that begin most projects, and he participated in design reviews (Gillete, 77). Gillette says EDSA specializes in recreation-based communities and resorts, both national and international. The firm also does work in urban and campus design, in places of entertainment and attraction, and in environment and ecotourism. Some of EDSA's main projects include Disney World's West Side, Euro Disneyland, Riverwalk in Fort Lauderdale, the Fort Lauderdale Beach Revitalization, El Conquistador Resort and Country Club, and Hyatt Regency Aruba Resort and Casino. Stone and his firm have become recognized for their expertise in planning and design for resort and community development. The projects in Fort Lauderdale, voted best city of its size in 1994, have helped make the city a tourist destination (Gillette, 91). In designing these places, Stone says they try to create "an idealized place, what the environment would be if everything were right in the world."(Gillette, 78)