Glass House

May 11, 2018

Tour mid century-modern icons from Philip Johnson, Marcel Breuer, Frank Lloyd Wright, and more

From May 15-18, the Iconic Houses Network will hold its bi-annual international conference in New Canaan, Connecticut and the surrounding area. This year’s conference, titled “Modernism on the East Coast – Philip Johnson and the Harvard Five,” will highlight the work of the famous five Harvard architects--Philip Johnson, John M. Johansen, Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, and Eliot Noyes--who “stirred up an experimental modernist movement in the sleepy New England town.” There will be a number of different events, but perhaps most exciting is the slew of tours of modernist icons such as Johnson's Glass House, Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonia community,
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April 3, 2018

15 art museums outside NYC worth the trip

New York City is filled with amazing art so why go any further? Because there are some spectacular museums with extraordinary collections set in nearby locales that demand attention. Art can be appreciated for the work itself but taken within its context and history, it can be so much more. 6sqft found a variety of incredibly interesting art destinations in the tri-state area that are worth a trip. Perhaps when planning your next staycation or day-trip, choose one of these museums to set your itinerary.
Check out our list of the top 15
November 29, 2016

Own a glass-box Hamptons home designed by One World Trade Center’s structural engineer

Jeff Smilow is the Executive Vice President of buildings at WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff, and perhaps his greatest accomplishment has been serving as the structural engineer for One World Trade Center. His streamlined, rhythmic approach is also seen at this contemporary glass and steel home in East Hampton, which he completed just this year. Now on the market for $5.5 million, the transparent residence best exemplifies Smilow's handiwork on its first floor, where the 5,000-square-foot open plan is surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows, completely unencumbered by columns.
Check it all out
June 25, 2015

$2M Gefter-Press House Was Designed as an Homage to Philip Johnson’s Glass House

This must be the week of glass houses: Yesterday we took a look at Philip Johnson's Wiley House–built as a successor to his world-famous Glass House–which is on the market for $14 million; today we're checking out the $1,950,000 Gefter-Press House, inspired by Johnson's Glass House as well as Mies van der Rohe's Farnswoth House in Plano, IL. The U-shaped, single-story, all-glass-and-steel home was designed in 2007 by Columbia University professor and architect Michael Bell, "as an essay in transparency," according to the listing. He had previously displayed a model of the home at a 1999 MoMA exhibit titled "The Un-Private House." Philip Gefter, the former culture pictures editor at the New York Times, and his partner, filmmaker Richard Press, had seen the model, and called Bell when they were ready to build their own version of the modernist masterpiece on their 12-acre property in Ghent, NY.
Check out the entire home here
February 17, 2015

Two Non-Glass Homes on Philip Johnson’s Iconic Glass House Campus Will Open to the Public

If you've never visited Philip Johnson's world-famous Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, you probably imagine it as a single, transparent structure sitting on a vast swath of land. But, in fact, it's one of 14 buildings on the 49-acre campus, which together made up what Johnson and his partner David Whitney considered "the perfect deconstructed home." So, the couple didn't live in the Glass House quite like most of us thought, but rather used it as the focal point of a glamorous weekend retreat. When the Glass House compound reopens for tours this spring, two of these lesser-known structures will be open to the public–the 1905 shingled farmhouse Calluna Farms, which was used as an art gallery and sometimes as a sleeping spot, and an 18th-century timber house called Grainger that served as a movie room for Johnson and Whitney.
More on the Glass House compound
October 21, 2014

Daily Link Fix: Photo Shoot at Philip Johnson’s Glass House; The Knicks are More Popular Than the Yankees

J.Crew does a photo shoot at Philip Johnson’s iconic Glass House. “Clean-lined modern architecture meets tailored coats and cozy sweaters,” says the fashion brand. The Knicks are more popular than the Yankees in New York City. And DNAinfo has the map to prove it. The Village Voice’s “Best of NYC” issue is out. Categories include […]

August 13, 2014

Live in the Plywood Version of Philip Johnson’s Glass House for $1.6M

Philip Johnson is best known for his use of glass, and his iconic Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, is without question his most famous work. But did you know that Johnson also dabbled in plywood construction? In fact, the architect designed several wood homes in the forestlands of Connecticut, including the Wiley Speculative House. The home was the first (and ultimately, only) of Johnson's "speculative houses" planned for a large scale residential development headed by the Wiley Development Corporation in 1954. Though built without a hitch, and despite Wiley's willingness to replicate the home for anyone, anywhere in Connecticut's Fairfield County, Wiley's hope for a Johnson-designed development flopped as nobody wanted to pay $45,000 to live in one of the houses. As a result, the Wiley Speculative House saw a somewhat sad fate and remained under the ownership of Wiley's trust until it was sold off a year later. Since then, the home has changed hands at least nine times, and now nearly 60 years later it's for grabs again, this time for $1.575 million.
More on the lesser-known Johnson house here