Projects by Name

Rufus and Leslie Stillman commissioned a house from Breuer after visiting the House in the Museum Garden at MoMA. The couple would become lifelong friends of Breuer, and he would design a number of houses for them. Their patronage also led to several schools in Litchfield and nine buildings for the Torin Corporation, where Rufus Stillman was vice-president. Breuer designed a two-story, flat-roofed rectangular building with two projecting porches. The lower, partially submerged level contained the children's bedrooms and playroom. A massive, white-painted brick fireplace separated the open plan living and dining rooms on the upper floor, which also contained the master bedroom. The upper floor was clad in vertical cypress siding and colorful panels painted in blue, red and yellow. Other distinctive features included the entrance canopy, suspended by marine rigging from piers that extended above the roof of the house, and the Alexander Calder mural painted on a brick wall at the end of the swimming pool. Breuer added a garage and studio in 1951, and the clients lived in the house until 1964. The Stillmans commissioned two more houses from Breuer, but moved back to their original house in the 1990s.