Glass House Philip Johnson

This tour includes a one mile walk on paths and grass.

Glass house philip johnson. It was an important and influential. The house which ushered the international style into residential american architecture is iconic because of its innovative use of materials and its seamless integration into the landscape. It was never envisioned as a home house to live in but a life style stage to live with. Among his best known designs are his modernist glass house in new canaan connecticut and postmodern 550 madison avenue in new york designed for at t and 190 south la salle street in chicago.

Text description provided by the architects. Please note this tour is not available in december. Philip johnson one of the early advocates of the modern movement in the united states and one of the first architects to point to its shortcomings in the fifties designed in his own glass house one of the world s most beautiful yet least functional houses. Philip cortelyou johnson was an american architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture.

In 1978 he was awarded an american institute of architects gold medal and in 1979 the first pritzker architecture prize. Philip johnson who lived in the glass house from 1949 until his death in 2005 conceived of it as half a composition completed by the brick house. Inspired by mies van der rohe s farnsworth house the glass house s exterior walls are made of glass with no interior walls a radical departure from houses of the time. It was designed by philip johnson as his own residence and universally viewed as having been derived from the farnsworth house in plano illinois design according to alice t.

Johnson curated an exhibit of mies van der rohe work at the museum of modern art in 1947 featuring a model of the glass farnsworth house. The glass house built between 1949 and 1995 by famed architect philip johnson in new canaan connecticut is one of the nation s greatest modern architectural landmarks. The glass house or johnson house is a historic house museum on ponus ridge road in new canaan connecticut built in 1948 49.