Customer Reviews

The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes, and Others

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

William Earls reveals an interesting fact in his introduction: that a small group of brilliant young architects uniquely designed houses for themselves and others in this conservative small town in the post-war years. The book details thirty-seven modern houses though it has to be said that nine were demolished. Each house starts on a spread with photos, floor plan and a brief description.

This should have been an interesting editorial concept but I thought it had all the signs of a quickie production not helped by a rather bland design. The distribution of pages to each house varies quite a lot (most likely depending on what images were available). Philip Johnson's Glass House estate gets sixteen pages, Frank Lloyd Wright's Rayford House gets six pages but Marcel Breuer's demolished Mills house gets a spread with one photo. The book's title refers to the Harvard Five and they have the most houses but twelve architects are actually featured.

Many of these houses are standing and occupied but there is no contemporary reference to them. The author rightly says that private homes are not open to the public but surely it would have been worthwhile to contact the owners and ask them what they thought of the house and were there any technical problems in living in a 'modern' house that is now some decades old. Some owners would probably have agreed to allow a photo of their house so the reader can see its contemporary look.

Because the screen size is only 133dpi so many of the photos are grey and also much of the cropping does not bring out the best in these buildings. I wish more thought had gone into the design. Some photos have nearly unreadable text on them, captions are sometimes white out of a photo while others are placed (correctly) underneath the image.

Certainly this is an interesting idea for a book but I don't think it really comes off.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

I enjoyed this book and return to it often. The beautiful photos offer one a glimpse into the way it was (and should still be) along with excellent descriptions and floor plans of many of the houses. The only thing I would have loved to have is more current pictures of the best kept houses, along with more biographical information on some of the lesser known architects in the book, such as Christ-Janer, whose houses truly piqued my interest and left me wanting more. I took this book with me to New Canaan and it was very helpful in my meanderings through the town. If you live in the NYC area or plan to visit, I wholeheartedly encourage you to buy this book, take a day to drive to New Canaan, drive around the town, and take a tour of Philip Johnson's Glass House (buy tickets in advance).

New Canaan was a household name according to a 1953 issue of House and Garden magazine: it referred to five architects who designed houses for themselves and their clients in New Canaan, Connecticut. An introductory essay provides the history, recounting how the town became the figurehead of a new modern movement in housing experimentation: chapters which follow analyze the structures and works of Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson and Eliot Noyes. Black and white interior and exterior photos abound.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I was taken aback with this book, it was more than I expected and truly demonstrates innovative design and forward thinking which even outshines what is done today under the banner of modern.

This book was offered with another for a lower price, and therefore I bought it without beeing really passionate. Only B/W pictures ... But in fact it is really interesting, even fascinating, to discover the history of these controversial houses in New Canaan (some of them beeing destroyed since then, the book remains as their unique and fragile souvenir). It remains me of the Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart, another fascinating place where founders of modern architecture have created something that has experienced lots of problems with the time beeing. Too modern, too revolutionary! I would love to visit New Canaan to discover these houses, but I have the impression that the book allows for a better visit. The book does not look so fine, it is not very "sexy" but it deserves interest!