The Landis Gores House is a historic house on Cross Ridge Road 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. The town is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region.
About an hour from New York City by train, the town ...
. 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 innovative fusion of American Wrightian modern architecture and the more International style of the
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...
in which Gores was trained. The house was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 2002.
[
]
Description and history
The Landis Gores House stands in a rural residential setting in northern New Canaan, on the east side of Cross Ridge Road north of North Wilton Road. It is a single-story wood-frame structure with a flat roof and is long, set well back from the road on a lot. It has austere glass walls, with rough wood and stone elements separating them. A central section has a raised ) ceiling, and houses the main living and dining area. A breezeway connects the house to the garage, designed by Gores and using similar materials to the main house. The pool area behind the house was also designed by Gores.Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
by Gores and other modern architects. Gores was one of the Harvard Five The Harvard Five was a group of architects that settled in New Canaan, Connecticut in the 1940s: John M. Johansen, Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, Philip Johnson and Eliot Noyes. Marcel Breuer was an instructor at the Harvard Graduate School of Desig ...
, architects who had studied under Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-born American architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of ...
at Harvard. Gores collaborated with Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect who designed modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the postmodern 550 ...
on his famous Glass House
Glass house or glass houses may refer to:
Architecture
* Greenhouse, a building where plants are cultivated
* Glass works or glasshouse, a manufactory building used for glassblowing
* Glasshouse (British Army), a term for a military prison in the ...
. When this house was built it was a somewhat striking departure from even the Bauhaus origins of his formal training, merging the more naturalistic styles of Wright into a modern design.[ and ] As of 2019, the Gores family still owns the house.
See also
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gores, Landis, House
Houses in New Canaan, Connecticut
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Connecticut
Houses completed in 1948
National Register of Historic Places in Fairfield County, Connecticut
Modernist architecture in Connecticut