SAT | Rural Modernism: Farms to Families (Bus Tour)

After World War II there was a burst of residential development fueled by returning veterans that spread into the farmland and rural areas adjacent to cities. Amid this locally we will visit three mid-century houses. One by the legendary Marcel Breuer and two by local architects Carl Blanchard and the partnership of Robert and Jean Coolidge.

Robert and Jean Coolidge came to New Haven from the Harvard School of Design and the Graduate School of Smith College in Cambridge to join the Yale Department of Architecture. They opened a practice in 1947 together with Carleton and Diana Granbery. Their design for ceramics artist Roz Schwartz is a house in Woodbridge built in 1950 that features a large clerestory window in the single incline roof of the main living area.

Blanchard’s house was designed in1956 to accommodate the Healey family that grew to seven. Clearly influenced by Wright’s Usonian houses, it has a long low flat-roof with a dramatic carport. The interior is primarily redwood with a modest U-shaped kitchen as the pivot point between the formal living and dining space and the informal family area.

Not far is one of Marcel Breuer's binuclear planned houses designed in 1949. It divides the private and public parts of the house by a light-filled entry. The living-dining area feature one of Breuer’s sculptural fireplaces and the lower level was dedicated to the children’s bedrooms that flanked a playroom with outdoor access.