tiny newsletter #47: glass house tour

hello hello!

this past weekend friend of the newsletter rachel dodell and i visited the glass house in new canaan, ct. so, let’s do a tiny tour! designed by architect philip johnson and built in 1949, it's – you guessed it! – a house made of glass. 

johnson is famous for mighty buildings like lincoln center in nyc and the ally center in detroit. he also used his family's funds to start moma's architecture dept, kinda crazy! but we came for this house, which was his and his partner david whitney’s private residence.

the glass house is located on 49 acres johnson used as his personal experimental grounds, building miniature versions of his concepts as part of his ideation process. he housed an extensive painting and sculpture collection of other artist's works here too.

there's 14 structures scattered across the landscape, but the crown jewel is the glass house. it's petite, clocking in at 1815 sq ft, and truly striking. interior details include this combo fireplace/bathroom cylinder and an original prototype of the barcelona couch. special stuff! 

interestingly enough, the house can't function on its own. adjacent to it is the brick house, a far-less-famous structure connected via an underground tunnel that holds all the working support for the glass house, like the furnace. beauty truly is nothing w/o brains!! 

all in all, the glass house is a gorgeous example of modern architecture i'd love to stay in for a night. but i must tell you two important notes about the architect, one that was included in the tour and one that was not. 

the first is that johnson stole the original idea from his mentor mies van der rohe. he saw mies's drawn up plans to create a home made completely of glass and then rushed to build his own version of it first. can you imagine?? bold! shady! yikes!

the second is that unfortunately he was a nazi. s/o to fotn arielle schoen for breaking the news to me. listen, he did a damn good job with the house. but i wanted you to know the whole story and i think we should've learned it on the tour too.

💌 and that's the tiny letter! thank you for reading, xo aud