Five Fields is a modernist residential neighborhood inLexington,Massachusetts developed starting in 1951. It consists of 68 half-acre (0.2 hectare) lots with modernist houses on an 80-acre site designed byThe Architects Collaborative (TAC). Partners in charge from TAC wereNorman Fletcher andLouis McMillen with Richard Morehouse as senior associate.[1] A 20-acre portion is held in common and includes community facilities such as aswimming pool andplayground.[2][3]
Setbacks from the roads were staggered and orientations varied according to the gentle rise and fall of the land. TAC preserved the farm’s old stone wall and as many old oak trees as possible. Five Fields attracted the same kind of young intellectuals [as Six Moon Hill]: The first neighborhood group that formed met to read Ancient Greek together.
Five Fields was one of a series of "innovative contemporary housing developments" in Lexington, starting withSix Moon Hill (The Architects Collaborative, 1948), and then Five Fields (1951),Peacock Farm (Walter Pierce and Danforth Compton, 1952), andTurning Mill / Middle Ridge (Carl Koch, 1955).[4] Several other modern housing developments were built later.[5] Like theCase Study Houses in Los Angeles and the other Lexington developments, Five Fields was "intended as a corrective to the cheap historicism of many new developments".[6]
The development was established on the former Cutler dairy farm,[4] near theWaltham line. Stone walls divided the area into five fields. To keep costs down, the houses were originally limited to three standard plans, which allowed the use of common, mass-produced components.[7]
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