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Courtesy of Paul Warchol |
A see-through icon of architecture
Visitors can now tour architect Philip Johnson's famed Glass House in Connecticut.
By April Austin | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the September 19, 2007 edition
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New Canaan, Conn. - The entrance gate to architect Philip Johnson's property here gives the effect of a stage curtain rising: A thick aluminum bar levitates between two concrete obelisks, promising tantalizing sights to come.
I've come to visit the Glass House, an emblem of the International Style of architecture and Johnson's acknowledged 1949 masterpiece. This style relied on strict geometric forms and industrial materials, and its origins date to the 1930s Bauhaus architects. Johnson was not the first to conceive of a house with glass walls, but his was the first actually built.
The Glass House was a touchstone for Johnson – a beloved weekend retreat and a place where he wasn't beholden to the whims of clients or the constraints of a traditional house. "That's what this is, a playhouse. You pull the rope in after you, and it's yours," he once said.
"Glass House" refers to the actual building and is also shorthand for the entire 47-acre property set in the rolling Connecticut hills.
For more than 50 years, the architect designed additional structures, experimenting with styles and materials but integrating them into the whole property.
A guided tour will take us through the house, a guesthouse, art gallery, visitor center, and sculpture gallery.
Philip Johnson (1906-2005) was a native of Cleveland, but New York City became his stomping ground. His noteworthy designs there include the AT&T (now Sony) Building and the sculpture garden at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). He founded the department of architecture and design at MoMA and served as a curator and trustee.
Visiting was considered a privilege
The Glass House site, which he donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1986, opened to the public in June and has already become a magnet for design mavens.
Before then, visits were by invitation only and were given out sparingly to friends and students of Johnson's, who taught architecture at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. This exclusivity added to the undeniable mystique of the Glass House.
Our guide is Gigi Fernandez, an architect who worked in Johnson's New York office from 1996 to 2004. Ms. Fernandez says the architect's aim was to create a sense of procession: He wanted visitors to feel each transition from the moment they entered the grounds until they caught their first glimpse of the house. She calls it "hide and reveal," and it's an architectural tease.
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