At the center of the house's notoriety was the architect Philip Johnson himself. For fellow modernist trendsetters, an invitation to the Glass House was considered the holy grail, meaning you had joined the intellectual zeitgeist, were important enough to be asked to this private wonderland, and that Johnson considered you worthy of an extended conversation. With Johnson, the history of architecture was currency - if you knew it, you were in. You would not, however, be asked to spend the night. Johnson would disperse lingering houseÂguests with a hand clap and remark, "All right, kiddies, it's time to go."
Now it is possible to see what all the fuss was about. Johnson, who died in 2005, donated the Glass House to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which in 2007 opened the home to the public for the first time in its history, along with some of the 14 other structures to be found on the 47-acre estate.
The guided tour includes the Brick House, adjacent the Glass House, built on the same proportions and containing the environmental support systems for its transparent sister, in addition to a womblike windowless guest bedroom and a study; you also see the Painting and the Sculpture Galleries, the former an earthen bunker inspired by classical tombs - inside, racks of paintings hung on carpeted panels display Johnson's private collection of Warhols, Stellas, Rauschenbergs and others, which can be flipped through like a jukebox selection; and the polymorphously geometric visitor's pavilion Johnson liked to call Da Monsta. The site also has three vernacular structures Johnson integrated into the landscape, all enclosed within with the native stone wall created for the original 1735 farmhouse. Finally, there is a miniature pond pavilion set into the landscape, a small classical element like that of Capability Brown's Little Temple at Newsam in the English countryside - only this one is reminiscent of a tiny Lincoln Center. Johnson liked to refer to the estate as his 50-year diary with "no limitations of client, budget or function," which he "edited" in a process of reduction, construction and landscaping. The result is an eclectic mix demonstrating Johnson's talent as an impresario of the new, and his fluidity in adopting the current styles.
Like Henry David Thoreau's cabin, an endeavor to which Johnson might have flatteringly compared his project, the Glass House is within striking distance of its neighbors. Within easy reach of New York City, New Canaan is an affluent place that outside of its architectural treasure will probably hold no other interest for the traveler. Tourists may get the feeling that is precisely how New Canaanites want to keep it.
The house was often thought of as an architectural amusement, a toy, but despite the doubters, Johnson did live here. What the tour makes clear is that for someone of Johnson's appetite to maintain the purity of the Glass House - someone other than a monk - he required the extensive network of supporting structures to function as a single residence. For a visitor, this demystifying experience of the whole, this contextualization of a modernist icon that is often pictured as being solitary, monolithic and ascetic, is one of the big takeaways of the experience. To appropriate a quote from Johnson himself: "The Glass House is full of distractions."
Getting there
* Join the commuters and escape New York from Grand Central on the Metro North to Greenwich: www.mta.info/mnr. Riding the rails through the scrubby trenches of southern Connecticut, it is easy to see the source of Johnson's quip that "Connecticut is a beautiful state, but you can't see it for the trees."
Reservations and tours
* The Glass House is accessible by reservation only, and begins at the visitor center in downtown New Canaan, directly across from the train station. Inside, the visitor is treated to voyeuristic slide views of Johnson's Rolodex, book spines on his library shelves and his personal correspondence. A shuttle takes visitors to the site, where they can explore on foot.
* Tours begin at 10 a.m. daily except Tuesdays, April through October. Visitors can choose a 90-minute guided tour for $25 (strangely, no photography is permitted), or extended tour for $40 per person, available once a day (with photography allowed). Tours are blissfully limited to 10 people, with six tours per day. Reservations should be made at philipjohnsonglasshouse.org.
