Philip Johnson’s Glass House

Some photos from the post-conference trip to see Philip Johnson’s Glass House are on my site here.

kazys at the glass house

Is that Mies and Corb walking off in the lower right hand corner?

Some photos from the post-conference trip to see Philip Johnson’s Glass House are on my site here.

kazys at the glass house

Is that Mies and Corb walking off in the lower right hand corner?

2 thoughts on “Philip Johnson’s Glass House”

  1. would that students could’ve gone …
    ENVIOUS. and what a gorgeous picture.

    sadly, they didn’t allow students on your special speaker trip to the glass house. i’ve still not been. was it gorgeous?

    • smell
      Sad you couldn’t come!

      But the National Trust people said that if someone wanted to see the Glass House, all they have to do is ask. Maybe you can put together a (small) group and ask for a visit? I think we just about maxed out the site as it was. I think you’ll also have better luck between April and October (this has to do with the agreement with the town), plus it was really cold! My Contax G2 stopped functioning. That was very sad too.

      As for the Glass House.

      Well, it was great to go. But … It did settle Mies or Johnson for me once and for all. Mies! Give me an apartment in 900 Esplanade over the Glass House anyday, but then I’m a Chicagoan by nature and I just don’t get the idea of looking out at some woods when you could be gazing at Lake Michigan.

      And the brick house, well that may just redefine your idea of camp. I think many of us left genuinely shaken.

      Smell is important to understanding the Glass House. Like Muzak, smell is something that we forget when we look at architecture. In the case of the whole estate, the smell was overwhelmingly that of an estate sale. Lots of mold in the Brick House too.

      The painting gallery was in sad shape, something that the photographs don’t really convey. It had that kind of Eastern European ultra run down 1960s modernist museum feel to it. Look closely in the photos and you may see the stains on the walls, floor, and ceiling. It needs some love. But I guess that’s what the Trust is for.

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