John Black Lee was born in Chicago in 1924. He was a mid-century modern architect based in

New Canaan, Connecticut New Canaan () is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 census. About an hour from Manhattan by train, the town is considered part of Connecticut's Gold Coast. The town is bounde ...

. His inspiration came from

Marcel Breuer Marcel Lajos Breuer ( ; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981), was a Hungarian-born modernist architect and furniture designer. At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which ''The New York Times'' have called some of the most im ...

and Philip C. Johnson. Lee designed multiple homes in

New Canaan New Canaan () is a New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 20,622 according to the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. About an hour from Manhattan by train, the town is considered part of G ...

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. Lee's college years at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

were interrupted by service in the Navy V-12 Program and subsequent assignment. Returning after the war he graduated and eventually joined

Eliot Noyes Eliot Fette Noyes (August 12, 1910 – July 18, 1977) 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, Californi ...

' firm in New Canaan before opening his own office. Among the many great houses he designed in that town are two he built for himself and one he did for the Day family. His work has received a number of architectural awards. One of his most prominent houses at New Canaan, constructed in 1956 originally for himself and his family, was renovated in 2010 by Japanese architect

Kengo Kuma is a Japanese architect and professor in the Department of Architecture (Graduate School of Engineering) at the University of Tokyo. Frequently compared to contemporaries Shigeru Ban and Kazuyo Sejima, Kuma is also noted for his prolific writings ...

. He died April 13, 2016, of natural causes at the age of 91.

Selected works

*Lee House I *Lee House II *DeSilver House *Teaze House

References

2016 deaths American architects Brown University alumni People from New Canaan, Connecticut 1924 births {{US-architect-stub