Solomon Resnick House

The Solomon Resnick House is a Modernist home in Chappaqua, New York. The house was built in 1953 by architect Leonard Feldman, with assistance from architect Kaneji Domoto. In 1967 the home had design alterations by architect Aaron L. Resnick, whose renovations added space in the west elevation and the northeast corner of the home. During the post World War II era the modern architectural movement grew in popularity, especially with younger architects. This design approach included fewer interior walls, multipurpose spaces, sliding glass walls and doors. A defining attribute was the role of ornamentation, and volume, not mass. Since the renovations in 1967, the home has remained virtually unchanged. The Solomon Resnick House was added to the National Register of Historic Places due to the combined artistic perspective of Resnick, Feldman and Domoto.

Solomon Resnick served as an artist in the Army during World War II. He provided illustrations for the Armed Services YANK magazine at Camp Gordon, Georgia. He also created military posters, including one describing the danger of phosgene poison gas. After the war, Resnick became a professional illustrator, with many of his works appearing in The New York Times. In 1951, two of his ex-army friends, Leonard Feldman and Philip Meyer, were his neighbors in a Manhattan apartment on East 20th Street. All three decided to move out of the city and build homes for their growing families in a less urban environment.

Leonard Feldman was born in New York City on May 4, 1921. He joined the United States Army Air Force after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and served as a staff sergeant from 1942-1946. When the war was over, Feldman trained as an architect, studying at the University of North Carolina in 1946 and the University of Chicago in 1947, before going on to receive his Bachelor of Architecture degree from New York University in 1947.

Built in 1953, the Resnick House is a single-story, modern, flat-roofed building. It is comprised mainly of steel, glass, and concrete. It was designed as a passive solar house, capable of blocking the sun in the summer and allowing it to penetrate in the winter. In 1967 the home had design alterations by architect Aaron L. Resnick, whose renovations added space in the west elevation and the northeast corner of the home.

The hardscaping of the house is a subtle blend of designed plantings and native rock terrain, which was orchestrated by Kaneji Domoto. The garden, designed by Domoto, was simple and naturalistic, without containing foundation plantings, grass lawns, or rectilinear flower beds. The landscape had a low-carbon footprint, relatively low maintenance vegetation, and was unfenced, and deer-friendly. Domoto used a cream-colored gravel to create a moat between the house and natural environment. Domoto referred to the house as his “Miyami” house, which is a term used to describe grace, refinement and beauty in the Japanese culture.

1. Towers, Chelsea . Solomon Resnick House. Historic Preservation Program Analyst. Published February 23rd 2021.
2. Keefe, Dan. State Historic Preservation Board Recommends 20 Nominations for State & National Register of Historic Places , Parks.ny.gov. March 11th 2021. Accessed July 26th 2021. https://parks.ny.gov/newsroom/press-releases/release.aspx?r=1636.
3. "Paid Notice: Deaths DOMOTO, KANEJI (KAN)." The New York Times (New York1) February 10th 2002. , 1 sec, 39-39.