MODERN LAIR FOR SALE

Thanks to Design Within Reach, an interesting item showed up on our radar today. For Spy Vibers who are looking for the perfect lair, now is your chance to own the Goodyear house by John Johansen. The home is located near where I grew up in Connecticut. Some of you may know that my family started the New York School of Interior Design. The Whiton home was designed and built in Wilton, CT, and my grandfather was also part of a modern design community in the area. For many years, we lived in a modern structure with large glass walls. Sadly, all of the houses in our community were later replaced by McMansions. Just over the hills from us, however, were protected projects by more prominent designers, Phillip Johnson, Elliot Noyes, and John Johansen. 

From DWR: "The only surviving member of the Harvard Five, architect John Johansen settled in Connecticut in the 1940s, along with Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, Philip Johnson and Eliot Noyes. Drawn to the New Canaan area for its open landscape, the men experimented with new materials and construction methods as well as open floor plans and indoor-outdoor living. The homes they built for themselves and their clients attracted other architects to the area, which resulted in more than 80 modern houses being built over the next two decades.

The most famous is Philip Johnson’s Glass House, now a National Trust historic site and open to the public for tours. Many are still owned by the original families, and on the rare occasion that one of these homes comes up for sale, the hope is that the buyer will be a passionate fan of American mid-century modern architecture.

In the case of the Goodyear House, built in 1955 and located on more than two acres in Darien, Conn., the house is surprisingly large for its day, and nicely suited to today’s way of living. Listed by Halstead Propery, the house showcases Johansen’s use of spatial symbols, such as the cave, bridge and labyrinth. I’m guessing that the “lower level hockey arena” is not original to the home, but the structure appears to be unaltered." More info at DWR.