With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Address Restricted, New Canaan
- Noyes House 2
- Eliot Noyes
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The architect designed Noyes House 2 for his family after it outgrew their first house in New Canaan. The property, still owned by the family, has a preservation easement held by Preservation Connecticut.
- Description of Significance/Historical Narrative
- Completed between 1954 and 1955, Noyes House 2 was featured in Life and Time magazines, was awarded the AIA Award of Merit in 1957, and based on the amount of media coverage it received, is the most famous of all the houses Noyes designed. The Noyes House was featured on multiple Modern House tours in New Canaan, including the 1953, 1955, 1957, 1959, and 1963 tours. The house was built by Borglum and Meek, who also built Noyes House 1. The house demonstrates Noyes's appreciation for New England's natural materials, particularly fieldstone walls. Though the major walls were built of local stone, the secondary and courtyard façades are primarily glass and steel, rendering the house decidedly Modern. The house was among the first to use wall-size sheets of glass to open up the living area into the outside courtyard. This allowed the house to blend with its environment and to make an unobtrusive statement from the exterior. With basic, rectilinear spaces separated by elements of function rather than configurations of material, the Noyes House is the ultimate expression of its designer's concepts of what an ideal house should be.
- Date of Construction
- 1954
- Historic Designation(s)
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- National Register Individual