New Canaan MCM, New Canaan, Connecticut

This mid-century modern home, originally design by architect John Black Lee in 1957, received a thoughtful renovation and addition designed by architect Joel Sanders. This pavilion-like home, surrounded by traditional manse-style houses, which necessitated simple drifts of evergreen screening to allow the home to have the classic modernist park-like setting as the background. The landscape adjacent to the house embodies another classic modernist approach of “marrying” the house and garden. The landscape is formalized into four “courts”, taking cues of architectural walls extending into the landscape from the house. Inspiration was taken from Dan Kiley’s Miller House garden, treating the planting beds as carpets extending out from the house and defining outdoor rooms. This understated use of low planting beds create a unique landscape graphic and plinth for the house to sit. A steel vertical blade fence creates a visual foil, separating the parking court from the entry garden, while emphasizing the interior walls of the house.

Architect
Design Architect: Joel Sanders Architect / Architect of Record: Ampersand Architecture
Photography
© Peter Aaron/OTTO