One of the archi­tec­tural gems of Con­necti­cut is Philip Johnson's Glass House. Opened to the pub­lic in 2007, the 47 acre prop­erty in New Canaan is sim­ply spec­tac­u­lar. When you con­sider John­son started with 5.5 acres and built the glass house in 1949, you under­stand his descrip­tion of the prop­erty as his "50 year diary". The guided tour starts at the top of the site near the road — all the land slopes down­ward and away from the street, pro­tect­ing all the views from and of the house.

As vis­i­tors walk down the dri­ve­way, on the left is the Library/Study. Built in 1980 and used by John­son as his study, the cone at top fea­tures a sky­light. There are no win­dows on the dri­ve­way fac­ing façade, but a small win­dow oppo­site the cone pro­vides a view of the Ghost House. The Ghost House is a folly built in 1984 and ded­i­cated to Frank Gehry. It is not a func­tional struc­ture, com­posed of chain link within a steel framework.

Library/study and Ghost House from the driveway

Con­tin­u­ing down the dri­ve­way, vis­i­tors pass a 1971 Don­ald Judd con­crete sculp­ture and an impres­sively sized stone wall. The wall was built atop the orig­i­nal farm wall to block Johnson's view of his vis­i­tors' parked cars.

don­ald judd sculp­ture with stone wall and glass house beyond

philip johnson's glass house

Tra­vers­ing walk­ways through the clipped grass "car­pet", enter the glass house directly into the liv­ing area, with seat­ing ahead, kitchen to left and bed­room to the right. The cab­i­netry seen behind the paint­ing forms the back­drop to the sleep­ing area and pro­vides storage.

glass house seat­ing area fea­tures a 1649 Nico­las Poussin painting

glass house din­ing area located to the left of the liv­ing room area

Between the din­ing area and the kitchen is this 1930 Elie Nadel­man sculp­ture "Two Cir­cus Women".

elie nadel­man sculp­ture in the glass house

a cor­ner of the glass house kitchen and view toward driveway

the glass house fireplace

the shower room is located on the reverse of the fire­place column

the bed­room, anchored by cab­i­netry, is open on all sides

Step­ping out the back of the house, the views are magnificent.

the view from the glass house bedroom

In the fore­ground is the pond with its 1962 Lake Pavil­ion. The folly ceil­ing height is only 63 inches. Behind and to the left is the Lin­coln Kirstein Tower, a 30 foot tall scal­able sculp­ture com­pleted in 1985. Vis­i­tors are not allowed to climb, but we were told there is a secret inscrip­tion at the top which can­not be revealed to non-climbers!

view from the back of the glass house

Could you live in a glass house? I def­i­nitely could, and Peep­ing Toms be damned! No clut­ter and no place for clut­ter — none of the debris of daily liv­ing — for me, the pres­sure to put every­thing away would be too much! Of course, I don't know if John­son actu­ally lived this sparsely, but if he did, I salute him!

There are sev­eral more build­ings to explore on the grounds, which I will share in my next post.