Please note: due to unforeseen circumstances this event will be postponed to a future date. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to welcome you at a reassigned date—stay tuned!
New Canaan, Connecticut is home to more significant Modern houses than any other suburb in America. Philip Johnson, whose Glass House is among the most iconic works of American architecture, was among a number of important and talented architects in New Canaan in the post-war era, many of whom studied architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). Johnson, his fellow GSD students John M. Johansen, Landis Gores, and Eliot Noyes, and their teacher Marcel Breuer, known as the “Harvard Five”, all designed houses for themselves and others in New Canaan. Frank Lloyd Wright, Edward Durell Stone and Ulrich Franzen all built houses there as well.
The book Midcentury Houses Today, originally published in 2014 and now newly re-issued in an expanded and updated edition, traces the evolution of New Canaan’s midcentury houses and demonstrates how they are experienced and lived in today. A representative group of 17 houses, built from the 1950s through the 1970s, reveals an evolving legacy, now adapting to contemporary life. Renovations and expansions have been designed by prominent contemporary architects such as Kengo Kuma, Toshiko Mori, Roger Ferris and Joeb Moore. This new edition addresses the issue of preservation and adaptive reuse as a sustainable architectural strategy.
Copies of the new edition of Midcentury Houses Today (Monacelli Press, April 2024) will be available for purchase.
Speakers:
Cristina A. Ross, Architect and Preservationist, Board Member, Preservation Connecticut; Co-author, Midcentury Houses Today
Jeffrey R. Matz, Architect, Jeffrey R. Matz Architects LLC; Co-author, Midcentury Houses Today
John Morris Dixon, FAIA, Director Emeritus, DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State; Introduction, Midcentury Houses Today
About the Speakers:
Cristina A. Ross is an architect and preservationist, based in New Canaan, and a board member of Preservation Connecticut. A resident of New Canaan for over 30 years, she serves on the New Canaan Town Council. She is a co-author of Midcentury Houses Today.
Jeffrey R. Matz is a practicing architect. His firm Jeffrey R. Matz Architects LLC is located in Stamford, Connecticut. He is a co-author of Midcentury Houses Today.
John Morris Dixon, FAIA, has worked as an architectural journalist since 1960 and was chief editor of Progressive Architecture from 1972 through 1995. He is a Director Emeritus of DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State. He wrote the introduction to Midcentury Houses Today.
AIANY Historic Buildings Committee; DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State
