People in Glass Houses Should Not Throw Stones

People in Glass Houses Should Not Throw Stones

I have been dying to go to see Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut since it opened again but it's already sold out for 2007! So I was very excited to see to see that Grace Booney of Design Sponge had gone on a tour for House & Garden online. Now, I can live vicariously through her until I can hopefully visit next year!

There were so many photos, I had to stop myself from posting them all so please visit the H&G site for more. I think most people assume that The Glass House is just a glass house but in reality it encompasses so much more than just that one building. Originally, just the house and guesthouse sat on 5 acres, while it now includes 47 acres of land and 14 structures!

The interiors are filled with what are now considered classic Mies van der Rohe Barcelona furniture of simple lines so as not to compete with the views of the surrounding landscape.

Johnson also found ingenious ways to display his priceless art in a house with no walls!

The only "room" in The Glass House with walls is the bathroom in the center, which is funny to me because my firm actually builds a lot of bathrooms with showers that have glass walls to the outside.

The Brick House below was used as a guest house for those who apparently wanted a bit more privacy.

I love the interior decoration of the Brick House and the chairs that remind me of unzipped sleeping bags by designer Gaetano Pesce.

What appears from the outside to be a bomb shelter, is in fact the entrance to the Painting Gallery. Johnson was an avid collector of modern art and was the first Director of Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

"In his gallery, he installed large hanging panels that could be rotated to reveal new paintings behind them, allowing guests to view a few specific pieces at a time."

Philip Johnson is almost unrecognizable in the Andy Warhol portrait below without his trademark glasses!

After seeing photos of The Glass House, I am even more excited to visit it in person! It's so disappointing though that it's sold out for the rest of the year. I was thinking maybe I should splurge for the $500 Patron Tour. Too bad my birthday's not for another eight months! That would have been a very chic present!