Download Glass House
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The Glass House has been "universally viewed as having been derived from" the Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe according to Alice T. Friedman, though the Farnsworth House was not completed until 1951, two years after the Glass House. Johnson curated an exhibit of Mies van der Rohe work at the Museum of Modern Art in 1947, featuring a model of the glass Farnsworth House.[4] It was an important and influential project for Johnson and for modern architecture. The building is an example of minimal structure, geometry, proportion, and the effects of transparency and reflection. The estate includes other buildings designed by Johnson that span his career. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997. It is now owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is open to the public for guided tours, which begin at a visitors center at 199 Elm Street in New Canaan.
The house is an example of early use of industrial materials in home design, such as glass and steel. Johnson lived at the weekend retreat for 58 years; 45 years with his long time companion David Whitney, an art critic and curator who helped design the landscaping and largely collected the art displayed there.[5][6][7][8]
The house is mostly hidden from the street. It is behind a stone wall at the edge of a crest in Johnson's estate overlooking a pond. Grass and gravel strips lead toward the building.[6] The house is 56 feet (17 m) long, 32 feet (9.8 m) wide and 10.5 feet (3.2 m) high. The kitchen, dining and sleeping areas were all in one glass-enclosed room, which Johnson initially lived in, together with the brick guest house. Later, the glass-walled building was used only for entertaining.[9] The exterior sides of the Glass House utilize charcoal-painted steel and glass. The brick floor is 10 inches above the ground. The interior is open with the space divided by low walnut cabinets; a brick cylinder contains the bathroom and is the only object to reach floor-to-ceiling.
The house builds on ideas of German architects from the 1920s ("Glasarchitektur"). In a house of glass, the views of the landscape are its "wallpaper" ("I have very expensive wallpaper," Johnson once said.[6]) Johnson was also inspired by the design of Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House. The Glass House contains a collection of Bauhaus items including furniture designed by Mies.[6]
Johnson is quoted as saying that his idea for Glass House grew from "a burnt wooden village I saw once where nothing was left but foundations and chimneys of brick."[10] Mark Lamster, in his biography of Johnson The Man in the Glass House, notes that this was plausibly Johnson's attempt to "intentionally re-create the 'stirring spectacle' that was the burning of Jewish shtetls he had witnessed driving through Poland with the Wehrmacht".[10] Historian Anthony Vidler went further stating that the Glass House could be read as "a Polish farmhouse 'purified' by the fire of war of everything but its architectural 'essence'".[11]
The pastoral landscape surrounding the buildings was designed by Johnson and Whitney, with manicured areas of gravel or grass, trees grouped in what Johnson called outdoor "vestibules", and with care taken in the shape of the slopes and curves of the ground. In part, the landscape was a reflection of a landscape painting, The Funeral of Phocion by School of Nicolas Poussin (circa 1648) placed in a seating area of Glass House. The view through the glass walls to the landscaped grounds was strikingly similar, as Johnson designed it to resemble Poussin's picture. The estate overlooks the valley of the small Rippowam River to the west (seen from the back of Glass House, past a grassy rise). To the north and south are sloping scenery that particularly mimic the painting.[6]
Several buildings on the property served specific functions: the Glass House served for entertaining, the study was used for work and the galleries for storing and displaying the art collection.[9] Johnson called other buildings his "follies" because their size, their shape or both made them unusable, such as the low-ceilinged Pavilion on the Pond or the Ghost House, a structure built with chain-link fencing on the foundation of an old barn and with lilies planted inside, inspired by his friend architect Frank Gehry.[13] Three other existing vernacular houses on the estate (Popestead, Grainger, and Calluna Farms) were remodeled by Johnson.[14][6]
The building created such a stir that at one point a police officer was posted nearby to keep out trespassers, and Johnson put up a sign near the street, stating: "This House Is Now Occupied Please Respect the Privacy of the Owner. It will be Open to the Public on specified days".[9] New York Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff wrote in 2007 that Glass House was "once one of the most famous houses in the United States. [...] [I]ts celebrity may have done more to make Modernism palatable to the country's social elites than any other structure of the 20th century."[20]
As a curator at the Museum of Modern Art, Johnson had publicized Mies' work, and the American acknowledged his debt to the German architect, particularly in a 1950 interview in Architectural Digest magazine. Even though Johnson's building was completed a year before Mies's glass house, Johnson's building "was universally viewed as having been derived from it", according to Alice T. Friedman. Johnson curated an exhibit of Mies work at the Museum of Modern Art in 1947, featuring a model of the glass Farnsworth House.[4]
For many Yale University architecture students, it was considered a rite of passage for decades after the house was built to sneak onto the property and see how long they could walk around until Whitney discovered them and told them to leave.[6]
The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1997.[2][22] The house was the place of Philip Johnson's passing on January 25, 2005, at the age of 98.[23] Whitney, his partner, died later the same year and left a bequest to support programming and maintenance of the site.[7] Johnson passed on ownership of the Glass House to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which opened it to visitors in April 2007. The trust expanded the size of the property, buying adjacent lots which extended it to 200 acres (0.81 km2).[6]
With floor-to-ceiling windows, natural light fills the dining room while a stately quartz bar spans the space. Hanging greenery adorns the walls and ceilings, softening the modern, contemporary lines of the building. An adjacent bocce court and fire pits invites a jubilant cocktail hour setting. Glasshouse Kitchen is the perfect spot for a professional lunch, a milestone celebration or just a casual, long overdue catch up with friends.
The whole team was helping us move out on the day of closing as there was a lot to stuff and sellers were coming for a final walk through. Team showed a lot patience, kept their focus and professionalism. I am thankful to Khalil for not only focusing on selling the house but also understanding the emotional aspect that was related to the process.
Glasshouse offers a unique collection of studios, one, two and three bedrooms as well as a selection of penthouses. Each home offers open floorplans, floor to ceiling windows, oversized patios and impeccable finishes and fixtures tailored to fit your lifestyle.
One of the first English attempts at industrialization and manufacturing in America was glassblowing.The Company hoped glass production might provide the profit that it was looking for. The New World abounded with raw materials -wood for fuel and ash, and sand (silica) for the glass. All that was needed were artisans and various laborers to produce the glass.
Arriving with Captain Christopher Newport on the second resupply in early October 1608, the Virginia Company of London sent eight Dutchmen (Germans) and Poles to produce glass, pitch, tar, and soap ash. By early December, Newport departed for England with "trials of Pitch, Tarre, Glass, Frankincense, Sope ashes, with what Clapboard and Waynscot that could be provided." However, what type or form of glass and how much was actually produced is unknown. This first attempt at a full glass production facility in the New World would not be successful.
The glasshouse may still have been active in 1610 when William Strachey, secretary for the Virginia Company of London wrote from Jamestown that the glasshouse was "a goodly house ... with all offices and furnaces thereto belonging."
At "glass point" near Jamestown, the glass furnaces were re-discovered and excavated in 1948. Today, in a reconstructed, interpretive facility, glassblowing is again performed at Jamestown. Modern artisans, in reproductive clothing, produce common glass objects very much as they must have done almost 400 years ago.
Visitors can see the remains of the original furnaces used by those early glassblowers and watch as modern glassblowers produce wine bottles, pitchers, candleholders and various other glass objects. Today's glass furnaces are heated by natural gas, rather than by wood as in 1608. Glassblowers, however, use tools and methods similar to those of the 17th century.
Come witness what was surely one of England's first industries in North America. You will be mesmerized as artisans form glass into useful household products. Many of these treasures can be purchased through our sales outlet at the Glasshouse. For more information about the Glasshouse Gift Shop use this link.
All its exterior walls are gentle curves. It has 94 double glass doors opening out onto a magnificent prairie forest. In summer, open all the doors and it is a breezy pavilion. In winter, it is a warm oasis sitting gently in the winter forest.
70 people can be seated for a meal inside the house, 250 standing and sitting inside and outside, with space to set up a tent with further capacity abutting the house, up to 300 people seated. We have chairs, tables, table settings, and table linens for hire.