112 DIGS.NET
|
12.15.2017
Most surprising about the structure to Hilary Lewis, chief curator and creative director of the
Glass House, who spent 10 of her 25 years at the proper working alongside Johnson, is just how
much one place can change. How it shis with the seasons, appearing different on a cloudy day
than a sunny one. And just how much color actually exists in the minimalist masterpiece. e
way its saddle-hued Barcelona chair, for example, turns coppery in streams of sunlight and the
truly extraordinary expanse of green visible from every point. "Johnson used to joke that he
had very expensive wallpaper," says Lewis, referencing the extraordinary surroundings outside
the transparent walls. "e whole point wasn't to have some glass object; it was to be in nature.
Johnson liked being surrounded by trees and greenery and seeing birds. He always had a home
in Manhattan, but his place in Connecticut was where his heart was."
Best comprehended as a porthole through which to view its magnificent setting, the just over
1,800-square-foot Glass House was completed in 1949 and maintains its initial design. It has
very few things in it. Most of the furnishings, pulled from Johnson's New York apartment,
are Mies van der Rohe designs. e lone painting is a classical landscape from the 17th
century attributed to Poussin. ere is a fireplace for colder climes and centrally located
doors in the middle of each glass wall that open the house up to nature. Opposite the Glass
House is the Brick House, which is nearly completely enclosed save for skylights and circular
forms referencing Brunelleschi's Dome in Florence. e Brick House shelters underground
connecting mechanicals and support systems for both buildings. A green courard separates
the structures, but they are two wings of the same house.
(le) Inside the
minimalist Glass
House. (right) e
Brick House.
