The History
A Home with International Style
The Davison House was designed by Robert L. Davison and John Calendar, both early 20th century visionaries in the American Architectural profession who championed early 20th Century International Style.
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The Davison Home designers were partners in the Fort Salonga Colony, a group of like-minded modernists who bought 20 acres to build four homes. Using new materials and construction techniques that were engineered to be energy saving and simpler to build, the homes also introduced a visionary open plan concept, designed to be more contemporary, efficient use of living spaces. The Colony became a historically significant site where some of the first early 20th century International Style modern homes on Long Island and in the U.S. were built. Of the four homes built in the 1930s today only two remain.
International Style is the early 20th century period of modernist design which took off in the 1920s and 1930s, created at the Bauhaus in Germany by architects Mies Van der Rohe, Gropius and Albert Frey and was introduced to the US by Phillip Johnson when he designed MOMA.
So striking were the engineering and material concepts that Davison’s work was featured in 1932 at an early MOMA event about Modern Architecture. It was an International Exhibition at Grand Central Hall, NYC, featuring new building materials, fireproof constructions and modern building methods.
Residential International Style is characterized by clean, horizontal lines and sheer, unadorned verticals; the use of concrete, stucco, steel and glass; featuring flat roofs, lightness of exterior appearance, free-flowing interior spaces; and organic interaction of the natural setting with the design.
TIMELESS STYLE
The design aesthetic of early International Style will satisfy today’s modern lifestyle enthusiasts. Over the years the home has been expanded to four bedrooms to provide more family space and a partial basement. Happily, the designers’ original intent to create a rural retreat and escape from urbanity where they could relax, enjoy and be inspired by the glorious naturalized landscape around the home endures.
