Sunday, May 20th is the date for “May is for Moderns”, the third annual modern house tour celebrating the unique heritage of mid-century moderns in New Canaan and the surrounding area. This year’s tour, from 1 to 5 p.m., features eight homes designed by members of New Canaan’s world famous “Harvard Five” architects, their associates and disciples, as well as Frank Lloyd Wright’s top apprentice/draftsman, John Howe, who worked
with him at Taliesin for over 30 years, and another Taliesin apprentice, Allan J. Gelbin. Some of the homes have never before been open to the public. Five are in New Canaan, and the other three are in Darien, Wilton and Weston.
Included are a home designed by Philip Johnson and two homes designed by John Johansen, another Harvard Five architect - the famous “Bridge House” which straddles the Rippowam River in New Canaan and a home in Darien, both of which show how Johansen was influenced by the classic symmetry of Palladio. The vision of Eliot Noyes , the first of the Harvard Five to settle in New Canaan in l947, is reflected in the Wilton home designed by Rob Graf of Eliot Noyes Architects. Other architects represented include Victor Christ-Janer who studied architecture at Yale before starting his own New Canaan firm, helping transform the town into an incubator for distinctive Modernist dwellings in the l950’s and James Evans of Wilton who studied with Louis Kahn at the Yale School of Architecture. The homes represent a large diversity of styles, while adhering to modernist principles such as lots of light, glass walls to blend inside and outside and easy flowing, open floor plans. Frank Lloyd Wright’s inspiration is evident in John Howe’s New Canaan home utilizing Wright’s last innovation, the “hemicycle” or semi-circular curve, and his “Usonian” home design has been recreated in Weston by Allan J. Gelbin.
All homes have been either restored, updated, renovated or expanded, according to Rita Kirby of William Pitt Sotheby’s in New Canaan, tour sponsor. Some are currently on the market, while others are open to the public only for this tour, thanks to homeowners who are willing to share their part of New Canaan’s modern architectural heritage with others who are interested. Last
year’s “May is for Moderns” tour attracted over 300 people.
The tour is free to the public, but space is limited. Reservations may be made with William Pitt Sotheby’s at 203-966-2633, where maps will be available the day of the tour at 26 Cherry Street, New Canaan.
