I worked for three or four years throwing out ideas. The Glass House started because of the land that was there. In other words, all these things are mixed up in it but basically it is the last of the modern, in the sense of the historic way we treat modern architecture today, the simple cube. The Glass House stylistically is a mixture of Mies van der Rohe, Malevich, the Parthenon, the English garden, the whole Romantic Movement, the asymmetry of the 19th century. In my case, there were a lot of historical influences at work. Mies’ was, of course, primary and mine was an adoption from the master, although it’s quite a different approach. Mies van der Rohe and I had discussed how you could build a glass house and each of us built one. “In the case of the Glass House, the stylistic approach is perfectly clear. Although today open space floor-plans are common, it was highly unusual in 1949. It is separated from the living room by a series of built-in storage cabinets with walnut veneer. The “room” with the greatest privacy is the bedroom, which also contains a small desk. The fixed furniture plan contrasts with the surrounding landscape, which is ever-changing through weather and season. The living room is the focal point of the house, and like nested boxes, it is the center from which the site is successively occupied: living room, house, courtyard, and landscape. A rug defines the living room area, while seating around a low table anchors the space. Despite the very modern style of the house, the layout could easily be a colonial home, something Johnson noted.Īs detailed in the floor plan, the placement of furniture throughout the house is precise. Although there are no walls, Philip Johnson referred to areas within the rectangular, loft-like space as “rooms.” There is a kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom, hearth area, bathroom, and an entrance area. The floor plan of the Glass House reveals a fairly traditional living space. It is a small version of a marble sculpture that is in the lobby of the New York State Theater (now David H. The sculpture, Two Circus Women, by Elie Nadelman stands opposite. Barr, Jr., the first director of the Museum of Modern Art. The image, Burial of Phocion, depicts a classical landscape and was selected specifically for the house by Alfred H. A seventeenth-century painting attributed to Nicolas Poussin stands in the living room. In fact, Mies designed the now iconic daybed specifically for Johnson. Most of the furniture came from Johnson’s New York apartment, designed in 1930 by Mies van der Rohe. Since its completion in 1949, the building and decor have not strayed from their original design. 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. 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. Each of the four exterior walls is punctuated by a centrally located glass door that opens onto the landscape. The house is 55 feet long and 33 feet wide, with 1,815 square feet. Invisible from the road, the house sits on a promontory overlooking a pond with views towards the woods beyond. The Glass House is best understood as a pavilion for viewing the surrounding landscape.
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