Mies Van Der Rohe Morris Greenwald

Mies Van Der Rohe Morris Greenwald House
11 Homeward Lake
Weston, Connecticut

Rarely does an architectural masterpiece become available for sale. So please forgive us when we list an excessive amount of pictures since we hope that by posting them, they can be safeguarded for future reference for many years to come. This unique home was designed by legendary architect Mies Van Der Rohe. Renovated and complimented with two additional structures by famed architect Peter L. Gluck. Walls of glass allow you to embrace the enclave of sloping lawns, bluestone patios and stone walls on 5.4 acres along 800 feet of a CT river. The home is in impeccable condition. Truly an exceptional property. Designed by Mies Van Der Rohe in 1960. Interesting to know is that we found out that Mies Van Der Rohe and Philip Johnson had a partnership in New York City on 219 East 44th Street "Mies Van Der Rohe and Philip Johnson Architects".

Rooms: 11 · Bedrooms: 5 · Baths: 3 full / 2 half · Style: Contemporary, See Remarks · Year Built: 1956 · Garage: 2-car · Heating: Oil · Cooling: Central Air · Basement: Partial, Finished · Approx Sq. Feet: 4,900 · Est. Taxes: $24,565

Offered at $6,500,000

Listing Agent:
Anthony Ardino
William Raveis International
203.968.2222 phone
http://www.raveis.com/

Additional Information:

LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE designed a small house in 1955 for a site on a Connecticut river, one of only three built by the architect in the United States. His client was the brother of a Chicago developer who had commissioned Mies’ great apartment project on Lake Shore Drive. Family ties did not end here. The little house incorporated into its façades the same pattern of mullion and glass used in the Chicago apartments – suburbanized with a coat of white paint – and even used surplus materials from the Chicago job site.

This borrowing was no simple economy. Rather, it was expressive of a central preoccupation. Mies, the great apostle of “less is more,” was a Classicist, a believer in universal values, and his was a search not for variety but for perfection. The Connecticut house not only resembled the Lake Shore apartments, it was a virtual twin to a 1951 row-house design meant as a prototype for urban mass housing (a vision, it seems, that fired the enthusiasm only of the rich). But even beyond such similarities as these, it is the hallmark of the Miesian system that every work accomplished according to its rules is a little summa, making conspicuous in all its parts the tents underlying its construction. In the Connecticut house, the simple plan, with its unimpeded flow of space, the reliance on a gridded geometry, the frank, unadorned use of materials, the penchant for glass and steel, are not just immediate particulars but emblems of a life’s work.

The property changed hands, and New York architect Peter Gluck was hired to add guest quarters, entertainment space, and a pool to the compact original, which together would considerably exceed the size of the existing house. Gluck’s was a double challenge. First, he faced the preservationist imperatives of dealing with an impeccable given. And second, he was to be designing a response to a specific architectural ethic now widely seen as barren of domestic charm. Fortuitously, this latter difficulty pretty much solved itself. The new owner was looking less for a comfy primary domicile than for a place to entertain, not for domestic
privacies but for poolside party pavilions that would take full advantage of a lovely wooded site. It was a set of requirements that virtually invited glass houses, and Gluck – responding to the scale and spirit of the original – provided two.