“The Harvard Five” as they became known –Philip Johnson, John Johansen, Landis Gores, Eliot Noyes and Marcel Breuer– were fueled by a sense of hope and optimism in the wake of WWII, but their modern ideals and avant-garde designs were snubbed by the locals in this traditional town who did not understand these pioneers –or their ”Kleenex box” houses. Nevertheless, the Harvard 5 found New Canaan’s wooded, rolling hills to be the perfect canvas for experimentation with Bauhaus ideals in design and architecture. From there, they triggered an intellectual movement that not only changed the landscape of this New England community forever, but would resonate worldwide.
