Silvermine Guild Architecture Tour fundraiser tickets available

Silvermine Guild Art Center
1037 Silvermine Rd., New Canaan, (203) 966-9700
Architecture and Landscape as Art
Sun., June 29, 2008

Press release

Silvermine Guild Arts Center, located in New Canaan, CT will host its third architecture and landscape tour on Sunday, June 29th, Architecture and Landscape as Art. This unique tour (exteriors only) focuses on architecturally significant houses in New Canaan that demonstrate a symbiotic relationship between architecture, landscape and art.

The six participating properties are mid-twentieth to post-twentieth century modern houses designed by New Canaan architects Richard Bergmann, Marcel Breuer,John Black Lee and Eliot Noyes. Included in the tour are two houses designed by Noyes, (one of New Canaan's famous "Harvard Five'): the Noyes House built in 1954 for his family, and the Weeks House built in 1952. Updated and expanded by Alan Goldberg (Eliot Noyes's partner) in 1988, this house is a fine example of New Canaan's modern movement. Also on the tour are two houses designed by John Black Lee, including the "Systems House" built in 1961, which received the AIA House & Home Better Living Award in 1964, and the first house which Lee built for himself in 1952, high on a rock ledge and built off the ground. Also on the tour is Breuer House No. 1, built in 1948 by another "Harvard Five" member, Marcel Breuer. Recognizable by its American construction and tension cables to hold up the deck, this house caused quite a stir in the community and with architectural circles when it was completed. The sixth site—a contemporary house built in 1968 that appears to be as much a part of its terrain as the surrounding nature—was designed as two pavilions by Richard Bergmann, who apprenticed with Eliot Noyes, and is currently adding an addition to the house.

Participants have the option to attend a pre-tour Symposium at 10 a.m moderated by our co-chair, architect Richard Bergman, FAIA, ASLA (a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and member of the American Society of Landscape Architects) with a panel to include prominent architect Frederick Noyes, FAIA (son of Eliot Noyes), Charles Perry, renowned international sculptor, Brian Carey, Landscape Architect and Designer of AC/BC Associates (and project architect for the Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey), Christy MacLear, Executive Director of the Philip Johnson Glass House, and architect John Black Lee. Audience participation and conversations are encouraged. An opportunity will be available to Symposium attendees to purchase tickets for 2009 tours of the Philip Johnson Glass House.

The previous two architecture and landscape tours were both sold out. Enid Munroe, a Silvermine Guild Artist member and garden writer, and Richard Bergmann, FAIA, ASLA, who conceived and organized the past tours, are once again co-chairs for this fundraising event. Installations of contemporary sculpture by Guild Artist members at the various sites will be curated by Silvermine Guild Artists Rain Kiernan and Diana Moore, both residents of Norwalk.

A special feature this year will be the location for a boxed lunch, the Gores Pavilion Lawn in Irwin Park. The Pavilion is a modern guest and pool house on the estate of Jack Irwin by Landis Gores, another member of the "Harvard Five." Gores was Philip Johnson's associate during the design and building of the Glass House as well as the garden at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

New to the format this year will be guided tours to each site by van transportation to start from the Silvermine Guild Arts Center at 11:30 a.m. (just after the Symposium) and return to the arts center at the end of the day, at about 4 p.m. All are welcome to attend a reception in the Silvermine Galleries from 4 p.m.—7 p.m.

Proceeds from "Architecture and Landscape as Art" will go to the Silvermine Guild Arts Center and its many programs. The guided tour of the six sites is $175 per person and includes van transportation, a box lunch and the post event reception (self guided, individual cars will not be allowed on the tour). Tickets for admission to the Symposium are an additional $75 per person, including continental breakfast. Advance reservations are needed for both the Symposium and Tour. For more information or to make reservations, call 203-966-9700, ext. 14 or visit our website at www.silverminart.org.