Bremer House by Eliot Noyes 1951. ( Photo All rights reserved by Jörn Schiemann. Used with permission) Inset: Ambassador L. Paul Bremer (courtesy Wiki Commons. Not part of the Jörn Schiemann Bremer House Photo)

On a “what could it hurt” kind of whim we contacted Ambassador L. Paul Bremer and asked if he could spare a few moments to talk about growing up in the iconic “Bremer House” by Eliot Noyes in New Canaan. Through his assistant the Ambassador was gracious enough to find and set a time for a few moments to talk about his experiences.

The house was built, according to the Modern House Survey done by The Glass House, The National Trust for Historic Preservation, The New Canaan Historical Society and others, in 1951 by Borglum & Meek for Paul and Nina Bremer. He was the president of Christian Dior and she was a lecturer on Art History at University of Bridgeport.

Initially one house with a 24′ x24′ guest house added in a second smaller version of the main house around 1953, the house was home to the Bremers and their three children. Amb Bremer’s school friendship with Robert Graham, and Robert’s visits to the Bremer House, led to Eliot Noyes being hired by Graham to built his house in Stamford.

Modisabi: What was it like growing up in the house?”

Amb Bremer: “The bedrooms were really small” he said. “When the guest house was added my brother and I moved out there which was a pretty good arrangement.”

Modisabi: What house did the family occupied prior to moving in to what is, in our opinion, one of the most iconic houses built by The Harvard Five in New Canaan.

Amb Bremer: “There were two actually. The first was a house near St. Marks [Episcopal Church on Oenoke Ridge in New Canaan], the second was a colonial on Marvin Ridge [New Canaan].”

Modisabi: How old were you when the house was built, nine-ish?

Amb Bremer: “Nine or so, yes.”

Modisabi: Did you have any input on its design or layout?

Amb Bremer: “No, I do recall going to the site with my parents while it was being built.”

Modisabi: How was it growing up in the house?

Amb Bremer: “It was interesting.”

Modisabi: How did your friends react to the house?

Amb Bremer: “Most didn’t know what to make of it. I don’t think any of my friends from school or university lived in modern houses so their reaction to the house was sort of like, ‘what is it?’”

Modisabi: Do you recall hanging out with or the alleged parties of the Harvard Five at the house?

Amb Bremer: “Yes, they were always over. My dad was a good friend of Marcel Breuer, they were martini drinking pals, but they were always around. Noyes, Johnson, Breuer, Johansen were always around. Other non-architects too. Jens Risom, Lee Ault and others were friends of my parents.

Modisabi: Did you go to any of their houses?

Amb Bremer: “Yes, my brother and I were friends of Eli and Fred Noyes. We were over there a lot.”

Modisabi: Do you live in a modern now?

Amb Bremer: “No, a 1930’s Fieldstone house in Maryland.”

Modisabi: How did growing up in the house affect your outlook on life if at all?

Amb Bremer: “That’s a tough question, I am kind of an iconoclast and I think that growing up in a house that was different may have played a role in developing that.”

Our thanks to the Ambassador for his time and insight.

I was talking to a neighbor of the DeSilver house, on XBox Live as a matter of fact, and they said the house had been sold and moved in to. The new owners are a young family. How cool would it be to be a kid and grow up in an icon!

New Canaan: John Black Lee’s DeSilver House, a system house designed for and with Harrison DeSilver, is for sale for $1.45 million. See the listing here. We were fortunate to get a tour a couple years ago. Our post and photos are here.

The front of John Black Lee's DeSilver House

Here are some moderns and near moderns we have found in and around Wilton Connecticut. We are trying to find some information on these as well as seeing if we can’t arrange closer looks.

There is an interesting diversity in Wilton Moderns from the iconic, Foster’s Round House and Van Summern’s family house to what I would term as either very early moderns or near moderns. That it has modern features like a flat roof, smaller footprint and the like but, from the experience of being in two of them on Route Seven, they are traditional 1950s style houses on the inside. The first house in our little photo tour below is one of these. The icons run in condition from possibly over restored to in need of repair (both those statements come from secondhand observations).

The houses seem to be clustered either in tight little bunches or in close proximity.

Here is our little drive-by photo tour. Hopefully more later.

A small mod near Silvermine.

A spectacular restored/maintained mod near the reservoir.

This is a beautiful mod in southwestern Wilton.

This small modern is near the reservoir.

This is the back house of the Route Seven cluster.

The first house in the Route Seven cluster.

This is the main house in a Route Seven cluster.

Modern near Wilton High School.

Van Summern's family house in central Wilton.

This is a beautiful smaller modern in Northcentral Wilton.

A fun little mod.

Well, we have had a very busy summer outside of blogging on modern architecture and our domain “EmbraceModern” somehow expired and we missed the notification.

So now Modisabi (a combination of Modern and Wasabi. It’ s a long story which I’ll tell you later).

Some links and pictures don’t work and permalinks are down but we’ll get them fixed in short order.

Thanks for your support.

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DISCLAIMER: John M Johansen is not, I repeat NOT a finalist.

He is,  at almost 94, the last of The Harvard Five surviving Eliot Noyes (1977), Marcel Breuer (1981), Landis Gores (1991) and Philip Johnson (2005).  One has only to be offered the chance to hear him speak and perhaps to meet him to convince one to rearrange schedules, apologize to relatives and program the GPS. One such occasion presented itself this Sunday when Mr. Johansen appeared at the home of the late, and great, photographer Robert Damora’s home which is now being offered for sale in Bedford New York.

The house itself  is of some note as well. As previously reported here, it is Philip Johnson’s Booth House, his first post grad commission after graduating Harvard. The Damora family jokes openly about the “feedback” they have been receiving after labeling the house “Philip Johnson’s First House”. That house, known as the Ash Street House was done while Johnson was still at Harvard and although it is arguably Johnson’s “first” I think we can all understand that this is his first professional house.

The house has it’s own website at http://philipjohnsonsfirsthouse.com, is surrounded by park-like grounds and includes Robert Damora’s own studio. It is being offered at $2m.

The event gave us the opportunity to meet Janet Lindsrtom from the New Canaan Historical Society, folks from The Glass House, other fans of mid century modernism and reconnect with others we had met before like Frederick Noyes who was nice enough to talk to us a couple of years ago at Noyes House II (see the interview here) and William Earls author of The Harvard Five in New Canaan, a great book on the subject.

The best part was, however, meeting and talking with John Johansen. This man is a direct link to The Harvard Five and through Walter Gropius (and his wife Ati Gropius Johansen), The Bauhaus. While he is 94 he still has a great sense of humor and was engaging to speak with.  A full out blast.

All in all a fine day with a true American Idol.

When, a couple years ago, I first heard from one of the owners of Philip Johnson’s first post-grad project we talked about a trip to the house. Schedules being what they are that trip has never taken place.

Now the same contact has let it be known that the house is going on the market. Believe me, if I had the money and could convince the wife and daughter that moving father away from friends and work would be a good idea I’d snap it up in a heart beat.

The home was originally designed and built in 1946 as a home for an advertising executive but was acquired by noted architectural photographer  Robert Damora in 1955 and his family has lived there ever since. Here are an article on Modern Magazine about the house and the listing page for the house (with great pictures).

Let’s help the owners find buyer who is sensitive to what they are buying.

http://www.idealmodern.com/2010/03/philip-johnsons-first-foray.html

http://www.philipjohnsonfirsthouse.com

A big congrats to the city government of Chicago.
Hot on the heals of loosing it’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, the city of Chicago has begun the process which will forever label it “The Number One Destroyer of Walter Gropius Buildings in the World” and a big hats off to them for that. Most cities lack the necessary historical infrastructure to accomplish such a feat and to be able to accomplish it at a time when the rest of the world is celebrating 90 years of the Bauhaus Master’s work, well that’s pure marketing genius.
No longer will the city have to struggle with it’s identity, is it the birth of the blues, is it deep dish pizza, is it the windy city? Nope, no more.
Although I do question why the demolition, which was supposed to be for the Olympics, is going forward since the Olympic bid is done. Could it be that the Olympics were an excuse for razing the complex for development? Hmmmm.

On Facebook this morning we learned from the Gropius in Chicago Coalition that Chicago is moving forward with the demolition of the Michael Reese Medical Center. This will make the city of Chicago, and those running it, the single largest destroyer of Walter Gropius buildings in human history.

Read the article here:

http://www.savemrh.com/news/2009/10/22/alert-demolition-to-begin-immediately-7-of-8-gropius-buildin.html

They are set to build a new “mixed income neighborhood”.

Maybe they could build a something to compliment the on hold Chicago Spire (a giant Wee Wee).

When, in 1966, Robert Graham was fresh out of the army and newly married his grandfather made a proposal. His grandparents had some land and, like they had done for his parents before him, they wanted to give him some and help him build a house for both he and his new bride. Robert knew the property well having spent most of his early years running around it with his brother and chose a bedrock outcropping off a small street in northwestern Stamford.

His grandfather had said that he should find an architect but he had no idea where to start. Then he thought of his schoolmate Lewis Bremer, known to the rest of us as L. Paul Bremer US Ambassador to Iraq under President George W. Bush. Mr. Bremer grew up in New Canaan in a now iconic house designed by one Eliot Noyes in the international style. Graham was not a huge fan of that style with its small living spaces and so decided that maybe he could contact Noyes for guidance in finding an architect that worked in a style more to his liking. So he called.

“Noyes was very nice about it”, Graham said, “and invited me over to his office”.

While he was there, Noyes showed the young non-client around Noyes showed him models of both built and unbuilt projects the firm had in the office. One set caught Graham’s eye. Noyes proposed “Wall Houses”. These were houses where two huge walls formed a center corridor of indoor street and off of which the living spaced cantilevered away from the outside of the street like the buildings in the small towns in Italy.

Graham was hooked and the process began.

“Our budget was around $100k for the house but when the project went out to bid we received bids ranging from $200k to over $600k. That’s it, I thought, we’re done.”

But when discussions moved forward with the contractor who would eventually get the contract the cost was cut to about $150k (approximately $1.03m in 2008 dollars).

“This was done by using the stone from the property’s stone walls. “ Graham said.

They moved forward and what was supposed to be a nine month project turned in to a year and a half project with the bulk of the time going to planning. Graham was there almost every day which is one of the reasons that the house remains in what can only be said to be spectacular condition.

“Since I saw it all go together, I sort of became my own maintenance man. I know how it works and where everything is.”

The house is located on an enormous outcropping of bedrock some forty feet above the Mianus River. The walls themselves are basically “glued” to the rock using concrete and the sheer weight of the structure. There was some initial concern over whether or not it was bedrock or just a really big boulder dumped there during the last ice age. If the later were true then it was conceivable that the weight of the structure could unbalance the rock and it could roll over. A geologic survey put those concerns to rest. It was indeed bedrock.

The rest of the house is cantilevered using large poured concrete beams that are pretensioned using cables embedded in them between the rebar which also adds strength to the beams. Steel was considered instead of concrete but cost prohibited its use. 

When you enter the house from the front porch situated between the two walls you are faced with a bright and airy corridor. Tree tops are clearly visible at the end of the hall though the dining room and den windows. Skylights provide wonderful natural light in the space where the owners have an abundance of plants.

Each doorway or stair leading one off the “street” takes you to another wonderful sunlit space with views to die for and, like Noyes 2 in New Canaan, one is surprised by the solitude, the quiet and the tranquility of the space.

Graham has raised three children in the house and some remodeling has been done to update and change a few things. When possible he used people who had worked with and for Noyes including Alan Goldberg who helped open the kitchen up to the eat-in area.

What’s next for the house? In the works is a bid for listing it on the National Register of Historic Places, a task one would assume should not be two difficult given its status an example of one of Noyes favorite themes and one echoed in his own second home in New Canaan.

Unlike “Noyes 2” however, there is nothing one would have to “put up with” in the Graham house. Don’t get me wrong, I love Noyes 2 but I would think that running between bedroom and kitchen outside in February would test one’s mettle. Graham House is just a stunning, reasonably scaled work of art, certainly one of Noyes greatest works if not one of the greatest modernist homes in America.

More Pictures: