Projects by Name

In May of 1947, Breuer purchased property in New Canaan, CT. next to land owned by his client Edward Mills. Breuer designed the house before he left for an extended trip to South America, and Eliot Noyes and Harry Seidler oversaw its construction. A larger volume, clad in wooden siding seemed to float above a concrete base, which contained a workshop, storage, playroom, bedroom and bath. Bedrooms were located at one end of the rectangular upper level, with the living and dining rooms at the other. A dramatically cantilevered porch could be accessed from the living room or by a metal cantilevered stair with wooden treads, which would become a signature Breuer element. Marine cables did not provide enough support for the porch or its sunshade, and Breuer had to add a stone wall under the northeast corner. Breuer asserted that the diagonal siding of the upper level was a necessary structural component of the cantilevers, but scholars such as Edward R. Ford have contested this assertion. Most of the furniture was built-in, but Breuer also included tubular steel and Isokon furniture of his own design. Breuer sold the house in 1950. His former partner, Herbert Beckhard renovated and expanded the house in 1986.