As the principal architect for the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and an associate architect for Radio City Music Hall, American architect Edward Durell Stone (1902-1978) is one of the country’s most esteemed architects. After absorbing many of the Modernist movement’s ideas during travels through Europe in the late 1920s and early ’30s, he gradually came to embrace New Formalism, prioritizing what he saw as more timeless, universal architectural values over passing trends. Critics didn’t always agree, but his surviving residential designs remain every bit as compelling today as when they were built.

Case in point: Celanese House, a midcentury residence completed in 1959 that presides over two acres in New Canaan, Connecticut. Originally built to showcase the Celanese Corporation’s synthetic textiles, the four-bedroom, four-bath abode has since been renovated and expanded with a new kitchen and primary suite. 

The home, with its distinctive lattice facade and 12 pyramid skylights that flood the interiors with natural light, was owned for nearly half a century by Frederick Willcox, an inventor, and his wife Velma, according to the New Canaan Preservation Alliance. Velma lived there until her death in 2005 and three years later it was purchased for $4.1 million by Joel Disend, a retired chairman and chief executive of a financial consulting company, and his wife, Shen-Hsin Hung, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

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The Manhattan-based couple spent four years searching the tri-state area for a weekend getaway home before discovering Celanese House. “It was intriguing,” Disends told the Journal last December, but they didn’t like how the interior had been redone by a past owner who placed the kitchen where there had originally been a central courtyard. “The aesthetic wasn’t great,” he continues, but they bought it anyway and subsequently carried out a two-year renovation at a cost of about $2 million.

The refurbishment introduced new oak floors and sheetrock walls installed to float just above the floor. The couple also converted wood-burning fireplaces to gas and replaced their brick surrounds with marble. Other updates include a sand-blasted glass floor where a water feature once sat in the foyer and new cabinetry and appliances in the kitchen, along with radiant-heated marble floors and a Boffi pipe shower in the primary bath. 

Records show the property was listed in April 2023 for $4.7 million and has since seen two price cuts before landing at its current price of $4 million. Disend and Hung lived there for six months during the pandemic. In 2023, however, they returned to spending nearly half their time at their New York apartment in Chelsea and, wanting to travel more while avoiding the demands of maintaining two homes, decided to put it back on the market. Inger Stringfellow of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty holds the listing.

Click here for more photos of the New Canaan property.

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  Demetrius Simms

  Demetrius Simms is a digital staff writer at Robb Report. Following a brief stint in public relations, their work has now appeared in lifestyle and culture publications such as Men's Health, Complex…

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