Archinect - News

Three famous modernist houses set the stage in this video art exhibition

2018-06-29T17:57:00-04:00

At Pioneer Works, in Brooklyn, the show “Gerard & Kelly: Clockwork” — photographs, text, installations, and live and filmed dance — references the three small structures and the intertwined careers of their architects: the Schindler House in West Hollywood, Calif., by R. M. Schindler; Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Conn.; and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Plano, Ill.

Artists Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly's film Schindler/Glass uses three iconic modernist houses as the backdrop in which issues of gendered space and domestic intimacy are explored. The video piece is part of an ongoing series by the artists called “Modern Living". Shot on site at the Schindler House, the Glass House, and the Farnsworth House, performers interact with the complicated architectural histories in each structure.

A new ceiling for Philip Johnson's iconic The Glass House

2018-04-30T15:07:00-04:00

The scope of the project included the replacement of the entire plaster ceiling, metal lath, and fasteners. The ceiling replacement began on December 1, 2017 and took approximately three months to complete. The project team included EverGreene Architectural Arts, Silman Structural Engineers, Glass House staff and Ashley Wilson AIA, ASID, Graham Gund Architect of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

To see the new ceiling in person, make plans to visit this summer as The Glass House re-opens May 2018.

Ceiling replacement complete. Photo by Michael Biondo

Two of a kind: photographer Robin Hill contemplates the Farnsworth House and Glass House simultaneously

2015-07-15T17:28:00-04:00

Naturally paired, but too quickly equated. Photographer Robin Hill takes on the iconic and somewhat contending Farnsworth House and Glass House in his photo series, "Side by Side: The Glass Houses of Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson". With eighteen magazine-ready spreads, Hill matches shots of each house as a “dyptych”, often aligned to show how one house’s element can be extended into the other, but with clear atmospheric differences. Other shots are paired by their similar perspectives, or proportional beauty – the hinge of the dyptychs serving as the axis of symmetry between the two houses.

The gaze in these photos isn’t critical – the goal doesn’t seem to be to declare a winner in the Glass House battle. Instead the pairings have a composed distance that seems genuinely concerned with illustrating the buildings’ co-evolutionary existence. The series takes a fresh look at these iconic, historical buildings to consider why they appear so similar in the first place, and then br...

A living museum of American style

2015-03-08T21:44:00-04:00

The rest of the buildings came naturally, if gradually. The idea of having a slew of small houses for different activities, moods and seasons, complemented by decorative 'follies,' was Johnson’s conception for the site from early on. He called it a 'diary of an eccentric architect," but it was also a sketchbook, an homage to architects past and present

Alexandra Lange explores the 49 acre grounds and architectural neighbors of Glass House. Ranging from; the "bunkerlike Brick House" and "postmodern Library" to the more historic structures of Calluna Farms and Grainger.

Johnson’s Glass House re-opens to self-guided tours

2014-05-16T12:14:00-04:00

Diane Daniel calls attention to the fact that Glass House in New Canaan, Conn., will now have a twice-monthly option of taking a self-guided tour.

Previously

New director to take over reins of The Glass House

2012-02-20T12:24:00-05:00

The Glass House and The National Trust for Historic Preservation have announced Urbach's appointment as Director of the historic site. "I can hardly imagine a place more full of potential than the Glass House," said Urbach. "It has long contributed to culture by bringing together art, architecture, landscape and people in significant and inventive ways. That is exactly what I hope to foster."