Brick House
Woodbridge, Connecticut
Built 1938, Architect unknown.
25 April 2011
We do not yet know who designed this house but it is as extraordinary as it is unusual.
It is always a facination to me when I try to understand historic designs and how they came to be.
Who was the original architect influenced by? What were they looking at? What books were on their desk when they were drawing?
There are obvious precedents here in European modernism but there are other influences as well. There are some of the stylizations of Art Deco,
the symetries and proportions of Adolf Loos, some Frank Lloyd Wright - especially in the cottages of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel from just about the same time.
Coming upon this house for the first time as I did soon after I came to New Haven for graduate school in 1984 is a revelation. The site is spectacular
and the idea that a house like this can fit in to that landscape so well is amazing to experience.
The Hugh Smallen House
New Canaan , Connecticut
Hugh Smallen, Architect 1957
4 February 2010
Smallen designed this house for himself and his family. A Yale trained architect in a town overrun with graduates of Harvard, his influences are interesting. The living room facade of glass in particular
resembles one of Lou Kahn's earliest works, the Weiss House of 1949. The living room in Smallen's work is so simple, yet wonderfully proportioned.
A long stone clad fireplace, white walls and a walnut floor define the room. The compact form of this house is a very good model for contemporary interests in efficiency of material and
energy use.
The Alice Ball House
New Canaan , Connecticut
Philip Johnson , Architect 1953
24 September 2010
There is a great deal of interest in preserving this small house.
There are so many interesting ways in which that can be done while at the same time
extending the composition and refurbishing the structure.
