DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State’s next Modern Conversations event features Gwen North Reiss, author of New Canaan Modern: A Preservation History, who will share a fascinating look at what the New Canaan community has done to preserve and protect its historic modern architecture.

In the 1990s, when New Canaan’s historic modern houses were quietly being demolished, preservationists, architects, and other residents who understood their significance, banded together to try to save them. Among New Canaan’s historic modern structures are houses by Marcel Breuer and the other members of the Harvard Five—Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, and Eliot Noyes—as well as Willis Mills, Victor Christ-Janer, John Black Lee, Alan Goldberg, Hugh Smallen, Allan Gelbin, James Evans, Gates and Ford, and many others who were drawn to New Canaan in the postwar years. In addition, Frank Lloyd Wright and Edward Durell Stone each designed one house in New Canaan.

In the crisis years of the late 1990s and early 2000s, historic listings, educational programs, a change to the zoning regulations, and several other initiatives helped these houses survive. The New York Tri-State chapter of DOCOMOMO was getting its footing in the mid-1990s and New Canaan was an early test case in how to work with a local community on a preservation agenda both urgent and long term. Reiss’ New Canaan Modern: A Preservation History is a record for and about the New Canaan community, focusing on its efforts to rescue modern houses and reset the course of their history. Illustrated with vintage and contemporary architectural photography, the book includes both a historical narrative on preservation efforts and a selection of interviews with recent or current owners who took on the complex work of restoration and renovation.

Gwen North Reiss began writing articles about New Canaan’s modern houses in 1999. Her work has appeared in DOCOMOMO’s international Journal, The New York Times, Preservation, Connecticut Cottages & Gardens, Connecticut Explored, and other publications. She has a degree in Literature from Yale, and her published work includes poetry as well as writing about art and architecture. She received the 2025 Nutmeg Poetry Award from the Connecticut Poetry Society, and is the author of a poetry chapbook, Notes on Metals. Reiss is also a co-author of Oaxacan Folk Art: Response to Covid-19, which was designed and edited by Alan Goldberg and published in collaboration with the Mexican Museum in San Francisco. She is part of the education staff at The Glass House and has conducted oral-history interviews with artists and architects who have close ties to the site. A resident of New Canaan, Reiss has participated in the New Canaan Museum & Historical Society’s many projects on modern architecture.

Keeping on theme, the event venue is Church of St. Matthew and St. Timothy (1969) designed by New Canaan modernist Victor Christ-Janer on Manhattan’s Upper Westside.

Monday May 19, 6:30pm
Reception will follow the talk
Church of St. Matthew/St. Timothy
26 West 84th Street, NY

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New Canaan Modern: A Preservation History is available from the New Canaan Museum and Historical Society at nchistory.org. Copies will also be for sale at the event.

DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State wishes to thank the Church of St. Matthew and St. Timothy for providing the venue for this event.