Description

The design of private residential communities proved to be an important direction for TAC as architects and designers began to rethink the modern home during the postwar era as malleable, inexpensive, and expressive of progressive ideals. Shortly after TAC’s founding, the firm’s partner’s developed two residential communities: Six Moon Hill and Five Fields in Lexington, Massachusetts.

In 1947, TAC purchased twenty acres of land in what would become the Six Moon Hill development. Residents were largely TAC families and their friends. Consisting of twenty-nine mid-century modern homes, the development is innovative due to the strong connection between building and landscape. As one of the first neighborhoods in Massachusetts of modern homes that deeply considered the home’s relationship to site, Six Moon Hill is emblematic of emerging practices in landscape architecture. Each home consists of a flexible plan, but also a common visual vocabulary of modernist architectural elements—vertical redwood siding, flat roofs, large glass windows, and Plexiglas skylights. In addition, the neighborhood features a common park-like space shared by residences. Examples of Six Moon Hill residences in the MIT Museum’s collection include E. Clarke House and Thompson House.