Joseph Lewis Weinberg (1890-1977) was a prominent architect who was also active in the Cleveland, Ohio Jewish community. At the age of ten, he came to Cleveland with two sisters to live in the Jewish Orphan Home. He entered Harvard University in 1908 and graduated with a degree in architectural design.
In 1919 Weinberg opened an architectural practice in Cleveland that, by the mid-1930s, specialized in large scale private and public housing. From 1923-1930, Weinberg practiced in partnership with Charles Morris, and in 1946 formed a partnership with Wallace Teare that lasted, with different associates, until Weinberg's death in 1977. Weinberg collaborated on the design and building of many structures located in Cleveland and surrounding areas, including such public housing projects as Lakeview Terrace (1937) and Lakeview Tower (1973, in addition to the luxury Chesterfield Apartments. From the early 1960s, Weinberg's firm specialized in nonprofit housing for the elderly. They also assisted Edward Durell Stone on the Jewish Community Federation building.
Joseph Weinberg also served on the faculty of Western Reserve University from 1928-1941 and of the John Huntington Polytechnic Institute from 1930-1941. His prominence as an architect was recognized many times, most notably when he received the Architects Society of Ohio Gold Medal in 1974 for his leadership and the American Institute of Architects Award of merit in 1955 for his firm's design of the O'Neill-Sheffield Shopping center in Lorain county. Joseph Weinberg was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the International Institute of Arts and Letters, as well as being a member of the Society of Aesthetics of the National Planning Association and of the Architects Society of Ohio Foundation. He also served as president of the Cleveland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
From the guide to the Joseph Lewis Weinberg Papers, 1910-1976, (Western Reserve Historical Society)
