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.
Stillman house sits adjacent the Huvelle House (1953) by John M. Johansen and together, they represent the first and second modern homes in Litchfield, Connecticut, existing between a forest reserve and the town’s historic North Street. In 1953, the Stillmans decided to split their 6-acre property in two, inviting the Huvelles to join their modern experience on the condition their choice of architect was to remain modern. John Johansen, fellow Harvard Five architect and student and associate of Breuer, built the adjacent home. The house is a study in simple form, natural light, and thoughtful design. It also sits in complementary juxtaposition to the Stillman House in appreciation of its patterned use of glass, primary color panels and pool mural.
Although Stillman House was the beginning of a client-architect friendship and collaboration that spanned 30 plus years, the house serves as important reminder to what creative thinking and out-of-town influence can do. To date, and in reaction to these homes, the Borough of Litchfield restricts the further use of modern design within its borough’s historic boundaries as protection to its Colonial and Greek Revival heritage. Nevertheless, what has become clear to everyone familiar with these homes is just how complementary and special they have become in telling the history of Litchfield’s architectural heritage. The 6-acre property is now reunited, and the homes are fully restored to their original detail.
Correspondence between Rufus and Leslie Stillman and Marcel Breuer (60 letters) at the Smithsonian Institution and Archives of American Art: "Marcel Breuer papers, 1920-1986"
Harry Seidler, AC OBE was an Austrian-born Australian architect who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus in Australia.
The International Style or internationalism is a major architectural style that was developed in the 1920s and 1930s and was closely related to modernism and modern architecture. It was first defined by Museum of Modern Art curators Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson in 1932, based on works of architecture from the 1920s. The terms rationalist architecture and modern movement are often used interchangeably with International Style, although the former is mostly used in the English-speaking world to specifically refer to the Italian rationalism of architects such as Giuseppe Terragni and Gino Pollini, or even the International Style that developed in Europe as a whole.
Garrett Eckbo was an American landscape architect notable for his seminal 1950 book Landscape for Living.
Marcel Lajos Breuer, was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer. At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which is “among the 10 most important chairs of the 20th century.” Breuer extended the sculpture vocabulary he had developed in the carpentry shop at the Bauhaus into a personal architecture that made him one of the world's most popular architects at the peak of 20th-century design. His work includes art museums, libraries, college buildings, office buildings, and residences. Many are in a Brutalist architecture style, including the former IBM Research and Development facility which was the birthplace of the first personal computer. He is regarded as 'one of the great innovators of modern furniture design' and 'one of the most-influential exponents of the International Style'.
The Gropius House is a historic house museum owned by Historic New England located at 68 Baker Bridge Road in Lincoln, Massachusetts, United States. It was the family residence of Modernist architect Walter Gropius, his wife Ise Gropius, and their daughter Ati Gropius. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000 for its association with Walter Gropius, as he was an influential teacher and leader of Modernist architecture. The house includes a collection of Bauhaus-related materials unparalleled outside Germany.
Gregory Ain was an American architect active in the mid-20th century. Working primarily in the Los Angeles area, Ain is best known for bringing elements of modern architecture to lower- and medium-cost housing. He addressed "the common architectural problems of common people".
The Harry and Penelope Seidler House is a heritage-listed modernist house located at 13 Kalang Avenue in the Sydney suburb of Killara in the Ku-ring-gai Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by architects Penelope and Harry Seidler and Harry Seidler & Associates, and built from 1966 to 1967 by Peter Cussel. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 20 June 2008.
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, native to Cincinnati, Ohio. Landis was known for his modernist Gores Pavilion, the Gores Family House, and the House for All Seasons.
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.
John MacLane Johansen was an architect and a member of the Harvard Five. Johansen took an active role in the modern movement.
Francis Reginald Stevens Yorke, known professionally as F. R. S. Yorke and informally as Kay or K, was an English architect and author.
The Robert C. Weaver Federal Building is a 10-story office building in Washington, D.C., owned by the federal government of the United States. Completed in 1968, it serves as the headquarters of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Built by the General Services Administration, it is a prime example of Brutalist architecture. The structure is named for Dr. Robert C. Weaver, the first Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the first African American Cabinet member.
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.
Shofuso , also known as Japanese House and Garden, is a traditional 17th century-style Japanese house and garden located in Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park on the site of the Centennial Exposition of 1876. Shofuso is a nonprofit historic site with over 30,000 visitors each year and is open to the public for visitation and group tours.
Wolfson Trailer House is a 1949 house designed by the pioneering modernist Marcel Breuer in Salt Point, New York, and commissioned by Breuer's friend, the artist Sydney Wolfson. It is among the most distinctive of Breuer's residential designs, as Wolfson requested that Breuer integrate his 37-foot 1948 Spartan Royal Mansion trailer as one wing of the house, which Breuer initially resisted before agreeing to. The house features many Breuer hallmarks: cantilevered living space, central fireplace made of native stone, and natural wood finishes. The house sits on 20 acres of land abutting Wappingers Creek in Dutchess County north of New York City.
William W. Landsberg was an 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 Horner House is a historic house at 2 Merrivale Street in Beverly Shores, Indiana. It is an excellent example of the mid-twentieth century architectural movement known as the International Style, interpreted by architects like Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius and Philip Johnson for buildings constructed in America following World War II. It is the work of a master artist of the second generation to be influenced by this school, the Swiss architect and designer, Otto Kolb.
Torin Building is a heritage-listed former factory and now factory and office space located at 26 Coombes Drive in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith in the City of Penrith local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Marcel Breuer and built from 1975 to 1976. It is also known as the Former Torin Corporation Building and Breuer Building. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 15 May 2009.
945 Madison Avenue, also known as the Breuer Building, is a museum building in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City. The Marcel Breuer-designed structure was built from 1964 to 1966 as the third home for the Whitney Museum of American Art. The Whitney moved out in 2014, after nearly 50 years in the building. In 2016, it was leased to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and became the Met Breuer, which closed in 2020. The building currently houses the Frick Madison, the temporary home of the Frick Collection set for a two-year period that began in March 2021. There are no public plans for the building after the Met's lease expires in 2023.
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Stillman Back
Stillman Pool
Stillman South Side
Stillman Pool and Mural wall
Stillman Front
