Six Moon Hill

The Big Dig House

Six Moon Hill is a residential community dwelling that was designed by The Architects' Collaborative (TAC) and is located in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Originally conceived in 1947 to house the young architects of TAC, Six Moon Hill has now grown to 29 housing lots, the most recent of which was completed in 2004. To build the community, TAC established a nonprofit corporation and bought 20 acres (81,000 m²) on which to build. It took the name from the six antique Moon Motor Car automobiles the previous owner had stored on the property.

The first houses were designed and built in a modernistic way. The method of design was rectangular, flat-roofed, timber-sided homes, which was typical for residences designed by TAC. The houses are situated on a sloping hill lining a small road that forms a cul-de-sac.

Six Moon Hill runs as a consensus-based, collective community in which each member family pays dues and is concerned with community issues. Among the original architects (and residents) were Benjamin C. Thompson, Norman C. Fletcher, Jean B. Fletcher, John C. Harkness, Sarah P. Harkness, Robert S. McMillan, Louis A. McMillen and Richard S. Morehouse. Other notable residents include Nobel chemist Konrad Bloch, Nobel physicist Samuel C.C. Ting, Dr. Thomas C. Chalmers (past president of the Mount Sinai Medical Center), Wallace E. Howell (New York City's first official rainmaker), Robert Newman (co-founder of Bolt Beranek and Newman) and John C. Sheehan, the first chemist to synthesize penicillin.

Art historian Simon Schama lived on Moon Hill between 1981 and 1993 and described it as "a great place for kids and historians" in a 2010 interview with the Times of London.

The most recent house is dubbed the "big dig house" as it is built from remnant construction material used in the Big Dig, Boston's recent central artery and tunnel project. Owner Paul Pedini, a vice president at the Big Dig's biggest contractor, Modern Continental envisioned the house as a conglomerate of such material as concrete roadway decking and spare rebar. Designed by Boston firm, Single Speed Design, the house is noted for being environmentally friendly and energy-efficient, and won a Metropolis award for innovative design.

References

• "Sarah Pillsbury Harkness: Homemade Modernism," Progressive Architecture, July 1995, v76, p77.
• Strutt, Rachel, "Was Six Moon Hill a Success?", The Boston Globe, October 31 2004.
• Flint, Anthony, "He could call it his Big Digs: Contracting firm's vice president aims to turn project leftovers into main course, his Lexington home," The Boston Globe, April 25, 2004.

Coordinates: 42°25′24.8″N 71°12′41.0″W / 42.423556°N 71.21139°W / 42.423556; -71.21139

External links

• Six Moon Hill at Google Maps
• Historic Survey of Six Moon Hill at lexingtonma.gov
• ModernMass.com - A brief history of modernist neighborhoods and houses in Lexington and Boston's western suburbs from a realtor's perspective