Devon Chivvis

For the first time in history, National Geographic Channel and a group of scientists search the ocean floor for a series of shipwrecks many Americans never heard about. Everyone knows that on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. But what most don't know is just days later, Hitler sent his own force to devastate the East Coast. On December 19, the German Naval War Staff sent three U-boats to American waters. It was an assault so deadly, it was covered up by the U.S. government.

“The Harvard Five” as they became known –Philip Johnson, John Johansen, Landis Gores, Eliot Noyes and Marcel Breuer– were fueled by a sense of hope and optimism in the wake of WWII, but their modern ideals and avant-garde designs were snubbed by the locals in this traditional town who did not understand these pioneers –or their ”Kleenex box” houses. Nevertheless, the Harvard 5 found New Canaan’s wooded, rolling hills to be the perfect canvas for experimentation with Bauhaus ideals in design and architecture. From there, they triggered an intellectual movement that not only changed the landscape of this New England community forever, but would resonate worldwide.

For the first time in history, National Geographic Channel and a group of scientists search the ocean floor for a series of shipwrecks many Americans never heard about. Everyone knows that on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. But what most don't know is just days later, Hitler sent his own force to devastate the East Coast. On December 19, the German Naval War Staff sent three U-boats to American waters. It was an assault so deadly, it was covered up by the U.S. government.

“The Harvard Five” as they became known –Philip Johnson, John Johansen, Landis Gores, Eliot Noyes and Marcel Breuer– were fueled by a sense of hope and optimism in the wake of WWII, but their modern ideals and avant-garde designs were snubbed by the locals in this traditional town who did not understand these pioneers –or their ”Kleenex box” houses. Nevertheless, the Harvard 5 found New Canaan’s wooded, rolling hills to be the perfect canvas for experimentation with Bauhaus ideals in design and architecture. From there, they triggered an intellectual movement that not only changed the landscape of this New England community forever, but would resonate worldwide.