The Harvard Five was a group of architects that settled 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 bound ...

in the 1940s:

John M. Johansen John MacLane Johansen (June 29, 1916 – October 26, 2012) was an American architect and a member of the Harvard Five.

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 i ...

Landis Gores Landis Gores (August 31, 1919 – March 18, 1991) was an American architect, born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Landis was known for his modernist Gores Pavilion, the Gores Family House, and the House for All Seasons. Early life After growin ...

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...

and

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, California ...

. Marcel Breuer was an instructor at the

Harvard Graduate School of Design The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urban ...

, while Gores, Johansen, Johnson and Noyes were students there. They were all influenced by

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...

, who founded the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...

in 1919, and thereafter became head of the architecture program at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. The small town of New Canaan is nationally recognized for its many examples of

modern architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that for ...

. Approximately 100 modern homes were built in town, including Johnson's Glass House and the

Landis Gores House The Landis Gores House is a historic house on Cross Ridge Road in New Canaan, Connecticut. It is a "Wrightian" house that was designed by architect Landis Gores and built by John C. Smith for the Gores family's use. The design represents an i ...

, and about 20 have been torn down. Four are now listed on the U.S.

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

: the

, the

Richard and Geraldine Hodgson House The Richard and Geraldine Hodgson House is a historic house at 881 Ponus Ridge Road in New Canaan, Connecticut. It is an International Style house that was built in 1951 to a design by Philip C. Johnson and Landis Gores. It was listed on the ...

, the

Philip Johnson Glass House The Glass House, or Johnson house, is a historic house museum on Ponus Ridge Road in New Canaan, Connecticut built in 1948–49. It was designed by architect Philip Johnson as his own residence. It has been called his "signature work". The Glas ...

, and the Noyes House. Other notable architects lived in New Canaan and designed residences for themselves and clients there, including

John Black Lee John Black Lee was born in Chicago in 1924. He was a mid-century modern architect based in New Canaan, Connecticut. His inspiration came from Marcel Breuer and Philip C. Johnson. Lee designed multiple homes in New Canaan and beyond. One of hi ...

Hugh Smallen Hugh Jerome Smallen Jr. (May 6, 1919 – June 11, 1990) was part of the second wave of modernist architects to live and practice in New Canaan, Connecticut. Early life Smallen was born on May 6, 1919, in New York City. He decided to pursue a ma ...

Victor Christ-Janer Victor F. Christ-Janer (March 27, 1915 – March 24, 2008) was an American architect who along with the world-renowned Harvard Five helped define the Modernist architectural movement in New Canaan, Connecticut. He was also an educator, artist, an ...

, Alan Goldberg,"Architect for All Seasons,"
by David Gurliacci, Fairfield County Business Journal, January 9, 2006. and Carl Koch.

References

{{Authority control Modernist architects New Canaan, Connecticut Architectural history