Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Modernism in Westchester County, New York

Marcel Breuer's "House in the Garden." Originally exhibited in the garden of the Museum of Modern Art in 1949, this model home was sliced into four sections at the close of the exhibition and relocated to the Rockefeller country estate Kykuit where it was reassembled and now serves as a guest house. These stairs lead to a bedroom.

This 1957 house in Armonk, N.Y., was designed by Arthur Witthoefft, who worked for Minoru Yamasaki and SOM. Nowadays the owner of a private practice in Florida, Witthoefft moved from the house in 1989 and it became, if you can imagine, a storage unit for construction paraphernalia. Mid-century devotees Todd Goddard and Andrew Manolene have in recent years performed a platinum-plated restoration on this unsung masterpiece.

 A side shot of the staggeringly gorgeous Witthoefft House.

The kitchen window of Reisley House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1952 and located in Usonia, Wright's only fully realized planned community. On a 100-acre tract of land (officially in Pleasantville, N.Y.), Wright masterminded a plan of 55 circular one-acre lots surrounded by 40 acres of wooded, shared space. Of the 50 or so houses there, three were designed by Wright himself and the rest follow design guidelines he helped establish.

 Another house in Usonia.

 Freidman House (1950) by Frank Lloyd Wright. All the lots in Usonia are circular but Wright was the only architect to mirror this form for a house plan.

 The carport at Freidman House.

 Another home in Usonia.

 Entry breezeway for Resnick House (1949) by Aaron Resnick, Usonia.

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