Many people assume that Philip Johnson actually lived in his iconic Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. However, the transparent modernist home, finished in 1949, was one of 14 structures there; the architect and his partner David Whitney used each building for a different purpose. Johnson never truly lived in the Glass House, Alexandra Lange points out in T Magazine, "at least not in the self-contained sense in which the rest of us occupy our homes." This spring, two other homes on the 47-acre campus will open to the public for the first time: a 1905 farmhouse, Calluna Farms, that was used as an art gallery and occasional sleeping quarters, and an 18th-century timber house, Grainger, where Johnson and Whitney watched films.
Together, the 14 buildings were the "perfect deconstructed home," according to Lange. The couple slept in a house made of bricks, Johnson worked in a postmodern library with turrets. The Glass House, a 50-foot-long rectangle, was one of the campus's first two structures, and Whitney often cooked there. Calluna Farms was purchased and renovated in 1981, and Grainger was acquired in 1990. Painted black, it "became the couple's version of a man cave." The two buildings will open for tours on May 1, 2015. Advance reservations are required.
· Philip Johnson's Not Glass Houses [T Magazine]
· All Philip Johnson coverage [Curbed National]