The Harvard Five was a group of architects that settled in New Canaan, Connecticut in the 1940s: John M. Johansen, Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, Philip Johnson and Eliot Noyes. Marcel Breuer was an instructor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, while Gores, Johansen, Johnson and Noyes were students there. [1]
They were all influenced by Walter Gropius, who founded the Bauhaus in 1919, and thereafter became head of the architecture program at Harvard.
The small town of New Canaan is nationally recognized for its many examples of modern architecture. Approximately 100 modern homes were built in town, including Johnson's Glass House and the Landis Gores House, and about 20 have been torn down. Four are now listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places: the Landis Gores House, the Richard and Geraldine Hodgson House, the Philip Johnson Glass House, and the Noyes House.
Other notable architects lived in New Canaan and designed residences for themselves and clients there, including John Black Lee, Hugh Smallen, Victor Christ-Janer, Alan Goldberg, [2] and Carl Koch. [3]
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of Bauhaus in Weimar (1919). Gropius was also a leading architect of the International Style. Gropius emigrated from Germany to England in 1934 and from England to the United States in 1937, where he spent the rest of his life.
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an American architect who designed modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the postmodern 550 Madison Avenue in New York City, designed for AT&T; 190 South La Salle Street in Chicago; the Sculpture Garden of New York City's Museum of Modern Art; and the Pre-Columbian Pavilion at Dumbarton Oaks. His January 2005 obituary in The New York Times described his works as being "widely considered among the architectural masterpieces of the 20th century".
New Canaan is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 census. The town is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region.
The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to functional and utilitarian designs and construction methods, typically expressed through minimalism. The style is characterized by modular and rectilinear forms, flat surfaces devoid of ornamentation and decoration, open and airy interiors that blend with the exterior, and the use of glass, steel, and concrete.
Marcel Lajos Breuer was a Hungarian-German modernist architect and furniture designer. He moved to the United States in 1937 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1944.
The Glass House is a historic house museum on Ponus Ridge Road in New Canaan, Connecticut, built in 1948–49. It was designed by architect Philip Johnson as his own residence. The New York Times has called the Glass House his "signature work".
Eliot Fette Noyes was an American architect and industrial designer, who worked on projects for IBM, most notably the IBM Selectric typewriter and the IBM Aerospace Research Center in Los Angeles, California. Noyes was also a pioneer in development of comprehensive corporate-wide design programs that integrated design strategy and business strategy. Noyes worked on corporate imagery for IBM, Mobil Oil, Cummins Engine and Westinghouse.
Landis Gores was an American architect, born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Landis was known for his modernist Gores Pavilion, the Gores Family House, and the House for All Seasons.
John MacLane Johansen was an American architect and a member of the Harvard Five. Johansen took an active role in the modern movement.
John Black Lee was born in Chicago in 1924. He was a mid-century modern architect based in New Canaan, Connecticut. His inspiration came from Marcel Breuer and Philip C. Johnson. Lee designed multiple homes in New Canaan and beyond. One of his most famous is the Desilver house, built in 1961. This house was later made into a “kit” house, meaning its plans were published and marketed to be built with conceived parts to be designed quickly and efficiently that can be copied all across the country.
King-lui Wu was a Chinese-American architect and professor at Yale University from 1945 to 1988.
Stillman House (1950) follows Marcel Breuer’s Gregory Ain demonstration “House in the Garden” built the year before for the MOMA Museum, which now sits at the Rockefeller Kykuit estate in Hudson Valley, NY. The Stillman house boasts three separate architectural commissions by Breuer between 1950-1953: a main house, a studio, and pool and porch redesign, with the latter featuring an 18’x10’ pool mural wall by friend and sculptor, Alexander Calder. During this time, fellow first-generation Bauhaus friend and artist, Xanti Schawinsky, executed an interior mural wall as well.
The Landis Gores House is a historic house on Cross Ridge Road in New Canaan, Connecticut. It is a "Wrightian" house that was designed by architect Landis Gores and built by John C. Smith for the Gores family's use. The design represents an innovative fusion of American Wrightian modern architecture and the more International style of the Bauhaus in which Gores was trained. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
The Richard and Geraldine Hodgson House is a historic house at 881 Ponus Ridge Road in New Canaan, Connecticut. It is an International Style house that was built in 1951 to a design by Philip C. Johnson and Landis Gores. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
The Booth House is a single-story modernist house in Bedford, New York. Built in 1946, the house was American architect Philip Johnson's first residential commission, and is a stylistic precursor to Johnson's better-known 1949 Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut.
The Alan I W Frank House is a private residence in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, designed by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius and partner Marcel Breuer, two of the pioneering masters of 20th-century architecture and design. This spacious, multi-level residence, its furnishings and landscaping were all created by Gropius and Breuer as a 'Total Work of Art.' In size and completeness, it is unrivaled. It was their most important residential commission, and it is virtually the same today as when it was built in 1939–40, original and authentic.
William W. Landsberg was a Brooklyn-born modernist architect who designed dozens of homes, synagogues, and commercial buildings in the New York metropolitan area in the 50s and 60s. Landsberg studied at the Harvard Graduate School of Design under Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius. He worked for both after graduation.
The Marcel Breuer House II, also known as the New Canaan Breuer House I, is a historic house at 122 Sunset Hill Road in New Canaan, Connecticut. Built in 1947, it was designed by architect Marcel Breuer as a home for his family. It is an important early example of his Modern Movement designs, with a cantilevered design featuring glass and stone finishes. The house, occupied by his family for just four years, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
The Arthur and Lyn Chivvis House is a historic house at 2 Wydendown Road in New Canaan, Connecticut. Built in 1977-78, it was designed by architect Eliot Noyes for a family friend, and was his last residential commission. Its Modern Movement design is based in part of the architect's own residence in New Canaan. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
The John Black Lee House I is a historic house at 729 Laurel Road in New Canaan, Connecticut. It was designed by architect John Black Lee and built in 1952, and was the first of several houses he designed for his family's use. The house is an excellent expression of minimalist Bauhaus style Modern architecture, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.