This past Monday Sherry and I (finally) visited the famous glass house in New Canaan. We’ve been trying to go for years – some advanced planning and good timing permitted us to take a two hour guided tour exploring multiple buildings and the grounds.
Sherry and I have always been fans of architecture and especially mid-century design. We frequently take architecturally focused walking tours when we visit a new city and greatly enjoy the thought processes motivating the designers. So, Phillip John’s glass house, nearby in CT has been a desired trip for many years.
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005)
We learned that Philip’s father gave many shares of the Aluminimum Company of America (Alcoa) to him when he was young, making him very wealthy in his twenties. He spent time in Germany and studied architectural history. He founded and become the curator of the architecture department of the Museum of Modern Art at the tender age of 24, beginning the museum’s first exhibition dedicated to modern architecture. This launched a movement known as International Style, which he co-wrote the book on.
As an aside, when I managed the development of the Today Show’s Window on the World, the building was designed using that very same International style Philip so loved and we spent countless hours working with the NYC landmark department to preserve the look, while envisioning a new use for the ground floor of the building.
Politics and Architectural School
Beginning in 1934 Philip engaged in politics and was a supporter of the Nazis, creating his own small organization called the Gray Shirts. He later reversed his position and in 1996, referring to this time told Charlie Rose “It was the stupidest thing I ever did, and I never forgive myself and I never can atone for it. There’s nothing I can do… That’s been torture to me ever since.”
At age 35 he enrolled in the Harvard Graduate School of Design (by far the oldest student in his class). Our guide, Amy shared that Phillip was excused from the required architectural class on International Style, since he wrote the text book.
For his thesis project, he designed and built his first house in Cambridge MA, pretty cool for someone just completing his degree.
NBC’s “Window on the World” Today Studio 1A model for landmarks commission, in the International Style Johnson studied
The Glass House
Johnson began to purchase property in New Canaan in the late 1940s and completed the Glass house in 1949 as a weekend residence. It actually started as two buildings, one glass and one with almost no glass. The glass enclosed structure contains a kitchen, dining, living, bedroom areas and a bathroom which is enclosed in a circular structure. The brick structure houses another more private bedroom, reading room and another bath – but importantly houses the mechanicals for both buildings in its basement.
A fun story the guide shared with us is that after his first night in the glass house, Johnson complained that due to the reflections, “everywhere I look I see myself!” So he brought in a theater designer who helped by adding interior lights against the glass and garden illumination to reduce the effect.
But wait, there are more unusual buildings
The property was a lifelong project for Johnson, who kept adding structures ever few years, including a conical library, a renaissance style waterfront structure and a freestanding staircase to no-where (that he climbed up until his 80s) and Da Monsta entry pavillion. Each one was a creative technical solution to a problem and I was fascinated with his creativity and problem solving.
One of the challenges of collecting art while living in a glass house, is there is simply no place to display it. So he built a new building into a mound with three rotating sets of panels. His guests would visit and he would flip through the art like a vertical rolodex. I was blown away by the immense size of the display and the collection, which included a portrait of Phillip done by his friend Andy Warhol.
The unique design of his art library did not leave room for sculpture, so he built yet another, adobe inspired building – providing a feeling of being outdoors inside this immense indoor space. Each of these buildings were a creative outlet for him, and I appreciate seeing a lifetime of effort all on one property. It was an excellent tour and it made me want to see more of his work.
A reason to return
On the shuttle bus, we learned that New Canaan not only has several additional houses designed by Phillip Johnson. It also has more than a hundred mid century homes designed by him and some of his school peers including John M. Johansen, Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes and even some by Frank Lloyd Wright. It turns out the New Canaan Museum and Historical Society offers a tour of these every two years in October. This year’s event is sold out, but I will keep this on my calendar for future years!
