5th Iconic Houses Conference May 2018

Modernism on the East Coast – Philip Johnson and the Harvard Five

The Iconic Houses Network will hold its bi-annual international conference in Norwalk, CT, in the New Canaan area.

Full program can be found here

Supported by lead sponsor American Express Foundation, the conference is retracing the root taken by Modernism on the East Coast of the USA when it arrived from Europe. In particular, the New Canaan area has an impressive number of high-quality Modernist homes because the architects who taught at Harvard built houses for themselves and their friends here. Many are the work of Philip Johnson and the architects of the Harvard Five. These unique homes will be the focus of the lectures and conference house tours.

The first general conference afternoon (Thursday, May 17) includes tours of Philip Johnson’s Alice Ball House, the Boissonnas House, the Hodgson House, as well as a guided tour of Johnson’s own iconic Glass House (1949), where New Canaan is naturally mainly associated with.

The second afternoon House Tours (Friday, May 18) will lead to four significant private masterpieces, designed by architects from the Harvard Five, such as the family home of Eliot Noyes; the Goodyear House by John Johansen; the John Rayward House/Tirranna (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1955), and Richard Meier's iconic Smith House (1967).

The Pre-Conference House Tours (Wednesday, May 16) includes guided tours of the Marcel Breuer House in the Pocantico Hills of Tarrytown; Russel Wright’s home and studio 'Manitoga' in Garrison; the Usonia community and the Roland Reisley House (Frank Lloyd Wright, 1951), a Usonian Home in Pleasantville, New York.

There’s also a three-day Post-Conference trip to the modest Modernist holiday homes on Cape Cod which also takes in Cambridge and ends with Boston’s Gropius House (Saturday, May 19 - Monday, May 21). Tours on Cape Cod include houses designed by Serge Chermayeff, Jack Hall, Paul Weidlinger and Charlie Zehnder.

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Full program can be found here.

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Click on below photos for interviews with key persons and speakers

Natascha Drabbe, Conference Chair, Founder Iconic Houses

Tim McClimon, President, American Express Foundation

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DAILY SCHEDULE

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16 May, Wednesday: Add-on Event

Pre-Conference House Tours

This tour day you will visit the Marcel Breuer House in the Pocantico Hills of Tarrytown, Russel Wright’s home and studio 'Manitoga' in Garrison and the Roland Reisley House, a Usonian Home by Frank Lloyd Wright in Pleasantville, New York. The homes will be visited in rotation. Each shuttle will visit a different home first.

Welcome reception

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17 May, Thursday: Conference Day 1 [included in conference fee]

Lectures in the morning

Modernism on the East Coast – Philip Johnson and the Harvard Five

In the 1940s, a group of five modern architects from Harvard inspired by the Bauhaus ideas about architecture settled in the bucolic town of New Canaan, CT, where they stirred up an experimental modernist movement in the sleepy New England town. Marcel Breuer, Eliot Noyes, Landis Gores, John Johansen and Philip Johnson, established what would become a center of experimental Modern residential design. Their informal network became later known as the “Harvard Five”. Speakers will offer an insight about the role of architect Philip Johnson and the Harvard Five in the 20th century.

Keynote Address by Terence Riley:
Philip Johnson - Portrait of the Curator as a Young Man

Riley will focus on how Philip Johnson came to fall in love with modern architecture and how he influenced it as a curator at the Museum of Modern Art and as the architect in his own right. Architect Terence Riley is a founding partner of Keenen/Riley. Riley served as the Philip Johnson Chief Curator for Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art (1991-2006), where he curated critical exhibitions on both historical figures as well as contemporary architects. From 2006 until 2010, Riley was director of the Perez Art Museum Miami, leading the institution through a transformative process of planning and designing a new waterfront facility. In addition to writing and researching contemporary topics, Riley is often a visiting design critic at various universities, including the University of Miami School of Architecture.

A panel discussion will be moderated by Hilary Lewis, Chief Curator & Creative Director at The Glass House, with architects John Arbuckle, President of DOCOMOMO New York/Tri-State, Stover Jenkins, co-author of The Houses of Philip Johnson and William D. Earls, author of The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Frederick Noyes.

Click on below photos for interviews with our speakers

Speakers:

• Architect Frederick Noyes will lecture about his childhood home, the Noyes House (1954) in New Canaan. Designed by Eliot Noyes and included on the National Register of Historic Places, the house’s unique composition — two enclosures for public and private functions connected by an open air courtyard — remains highly provocative. Fred will analyze the intent and design of the house in comparison to the Glass House (1949), designed by Philip Johnson.
• Architect Craig Bassam and Creative Director Scott Fellows own the Company BassamFellows, celebrated for its Craftsman Modern aesthetic in interiors, furniture, and lifestyle products. They are the private owners of the Hodgson House (1951), designed by Philip Johnson in New Canaan and are in the process of restoring the house meticulously.

Click on below photos for interviews with our speakers

Afternoon House Tours

The House Tours in the afternoon will lead to four private houses designed by Philip Johnson in New Canaan: the Alice Ball House, Boissonnas House, Hodgson House and culminating in a tour of Philip Johnson's own iconic Glass House.

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18 May, Friday: Conference Day 2 [included in conference fee]

Lectures in the morning

Iconic Houses in Latin America

A second theme is Iconic Houses in Latin America, the new focus of the organization’s awareness-raising efforts. Representatives of house museums from several Latin American countries will share their struggles to overcome obstacles, as well as their successful survival strategies.

Keynote Address by Jorge Francisco Liernur:
Iconic houses in Latin America: the Multiple Faces of Modernity

By presenting a group of cases this presentation will try to show how many different cultural traditions constitute the referential frame for local leading architects and how the diversity calls into question the very idea of Iconic Houses in Latin America. As a Professor at Torcuato Di Tella University in Buenos Aires, Jorge Francisco Liernur, was also co-curator of MoMA’s recent exhibition and book Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955–1980. In his lecture he will explain how Modernism in residential design developed in Latin America.

Followed by presentations by heritage experts and representatives of house museums in Latin America:

• Architect and professor Fabio Grementieri, advisor to Casa Victoria Ocampo in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• Catalina Corcuera Cabezut is Director of Casa Estudio Luis Barragán in Mexico City
• Architect and urban planner Renato Anelli, is Board Member of Instituto Lina Bo e P. M. Bardi in São Paulo, Brazil and former director of Lina Bo Bardi's Casa de Vidro and as such overseeing the Keeping it Modern/Getty Foundation's conservation project.

Click on below photos for interviews with our speakers

Afternoon House Tours

The House Tours in the afternoon will lead to Tirranna or Rayward House, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s last grand works and to significant private houses designed by architects of the modern Harvard group, such as the Noyes House II, the family home of Eliot Noyes, the Goodyear House by John Johansen and to Richard Meier's iconic Smith House in Darien.

Closing Cocktail

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19-21 May, Saturday- Monday: Add-on Event
Open to Iconic Houses members and recurring Friends of Iconic Houses

Post-Conference Tours to Cape Cod and Boston area

The Post-Conference House Tours to Cambridge, Cape Cod and the Boston area, will be exclusively to offered to 40 attendees who are members or recurring Friends of Iconic Houses. This three day trip includes tours of seven houses; on Cape Cod the Weidlinger House by Paul Weidlinger, Kugel Gips House by Charlie Zehnder, Hatch House by Jack Hall and Chermayeff Studio and House by Serge Chermayeff. With the Walter Gropius House in Lincoln Massachusetts we conclude our fantastic journey.

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EXPERT MEETINGS

15 May, Tuesday: Expert Meetings [included in conference fee]
Open to Iconic Houses Members and recurring Friends of Iconic Houses

Expert Meetings

1) The American Art of Fundraising

Around the world, nonprofit organizations must increasingly seek private donations to supplement the funding they receive from public authorities. In their efforts to broaden and diversify their sources of financing, they might draw inspiration from their colleagues in the United States. This expert meeting is designed to introduce you to the factors that have helped our American counterparts achieve continued success in fundraising. It will cover key topics such as strategic planning, prospect identification, membership giving, donor cultivation, capital campaigns, corporate partnerships, planned giving and trustee involvement.

• Amanda J. Nelson, former Deputy Director of Development, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Director MFA Arts Leadership Program Virginia Tech. Building a Donor Base Through Membership: A Toolkit
• John Bacon, Deputy Chief Development Officer for Planned Giving at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. An Introduction to Planned Giving
• Erik Z. Gensler, President Capacity Interactive, New York. Fundraising in a Digital World – Digital Marketing Priorities
• Jean Paul Warmoes, Executive Director, King Baudouin Foundation United States (KBFUS), New York. Tapping into American generosity - An Introduction for Foreign Cultural Institutions

Click on below photos for interviews with our speakers

2) Alternatives to the House Museum Model – Four Case Studies

Sadly, many residential masterpieces quietly disappear as time goes by. However precious they may be, preserving them through multiple generations is never easy because they are private properties. In numerous countries worldwide, many owners of significant 20th-century houses are looking for ways to preserve this emerging heritage. These presentations are designed to suggest new strategies to ensure that the architectural integrity of such houses is secured for future generations. We give the stage to four organizations that have developed alternative approaches to the house-museum model to safeguard the residential icons of the 20th century.

Moderator is Chandler McCoy. At the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, he manages the Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative.

• Katherine Malone-France, Vice President for Historic Sites at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington USA.
• Anne Mette Rahbæk, Head of Communication and special assignments of Realdania Byg, Kopenhagen Denmark. Philanthropic Investments as a Strategy for Preservation
• Architect Peter McMahon, Founder of the Cape Cod Modern House Trust, Wellfleet USA. Saving Abandoned Modern Houses on Cape Cod
• Architect Toshiko Kinoshita, Board Director of the Heritage Houses Trust, Tokyo Japan. Passing Modern Japanese Heritage Houses to the Next Generation

Click on below photos for interviews with our speakers

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Lead Sponsor

American Express Foundation

Organizing Partners

Sponsors

Sponsors in Kind

Media Partner

Homeowners/Site Partners

Sandra and Richard Bergmann, National Trust for Historic Preservation, The Marcel Breuer House at Pocantico, Roland Reisley, Manitoga, Craig Bassam and Scott Fellows, Reja Bakh, Bill Matassoni and Pamela Valentine, Chuck Smith, Fred Noyes, Lia and Diego Ferro, Mattie Roberts-Whitney and Eric Whitney, Cape Cod Modern House Trust, Peter Chermayeff and Historic New England.

A special thanks to Janet Lindstrom, former director of the New Canaan Historical Society and Inger Stringfellow, who are incredible sources of knowledge about Modernist architecture in Connecticut and who generously shared that with us.

Posted on 4 April 2018