The Glass House reflecting The Brick House
The Wiley House, rear facade viewed from swimming pool
"The Harvard Five" were students of Walter Gropius, the Harvard University professor who founded the renowned Bauhaus Art School in the 1930s Weimar Republic. The Bauhaus was closed by Adolf Hitler who sparked an artistic exodus to the United States. Gropius was teacher or mentor to
"The Harvard Five" who are:
- Marcel Breuer
- Landis Gores
- John Johansen
- Philip Johnson
- Eliot Noyes
Other notable modern architects in New Canaan include
fellow students, disciples and like-minded artists:
- John Black Lee
- Victor Christ-Janer
- Hugh Smallen
- Edward Durrell Stone
- Jens Risom
The Irwin Pool house
The Sculpture Gallery.
Celanese House, by architect Edward Durrell Stone, 1959
The Glass House and swimming pool
Da Monsta
The "Wiley House" above was designed by architect Philip Johnson and built in 1952. It is considered a benchmark in the development of the International Style. In this home Johnson combines the stone walls characteristic of the traditional New England landscape to create a base for sleeping, service and storage space. Acting as a plinth this base balances a spectacular cantilevered glass cage for living, dining and cooking in the middle of a 6 acre property surrounded by grassy hills and trees. Johnson's design creates an interior that immerses its occupants in an environment at one with nature through the use of a glass facade on all sides with 15-foot ceilings.
Updated 10/20/16
The "Wiley House" is included in the National Register of Historic Places 'Modern Homes Survey.' More details about this house at http://www.preservationnation.org/travel-and-sites/sites/northeast-region/new-canaan-ct/sites/wiley-house.html
Grace Farms
The Painting Gallery
Spitts House
New Canaan, Connecticut: "The Moderns"
"The Harvard Five" was a group of Mid-Century Modern architects working in the International Style on projects as vast and as varied as skyscrapers, museums, academic and government buildings and even furniture. In 1947 Marcel Breuer built his first home in this quiet Colonial town and spawned a movement, with other architects migrating soon afterwards. The result was over 100 International Style houses and buildings, the largest district of modern single family homes of its kind, by dozens of architects working in the Style.
Philip Johnson's estate including The Glass House:
Miller House, circa 1920s
The Brick House
The Study and Library