Joseph Stein was an American architect and a major figure in the establishment of a regional modern architecture in the San Francisco Bay area in the 1940s and 1950s during the early days of the environmental design movement. In 1952, he moved to India and in 1955 was tasked with the planning of Durgapur in West Bengal, India along with Benjamin Polk. He was commissioned with this task in order to facilitate the establishment of Durgapur Steel Plant later on in 1959 followed by the Durgapur Steel City and Township. He is noted for designing several important buildings in India, most notably in Lodhi Estate in Central Delhi, nicknamed "Steinabad" after him, and where today the 'Joseph Stein Lane', is the only road in Delhi named after an architect. He is also famous for being the architect of the scenic Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode's campus. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri in 1992. His works remain even more relevant in the modern context as need for sustainable and humane architecture is felt.

Durgapur is a major industrial city and a planned tier-II urban agglomeration in the Indian state of West Bengal. Located in Paschim Bardhaman district, it is the third most important city and urban agglomeration in West Bengal after Kolkata and Siliguri and the most important industrial hub of West Bengal. It was planned by two American architects, Joseph Allen Stein and Benjamin Polk in 1955. Durgapur is the only city in eastern India to have an operational dry dock. Durgapur has been nicknamed the 'Ruhr of India'.