The Philip Johnson Glass House

The first authoritative book on the history of the Glass House property—Philip Johnson’s fifty-year project of iconic modernist design, encompassing the remarkable buildings, landscape, and follies. From its completion in 1949 to the present day, Philip Johnson’s Glass House has drawn cognoscenti and the curious from around the world to New Canaan, Connecticut, to experience what might be the most photographed modernist residence in America. The property—an architectural playground on forty-seven acres with eleven Johnsonian follies dating from 1949 to 1995—is an icon of twentieth-century architectural and landscape design. The book chronicles how Philip Johnson and David Whitney, the architect and the plantsman, lived on the property for decades and used the landscape as an ever-changing canvas for their designs—the result of a unique synthesis of influences and ideas from across history and geography. New research reveals Johnson’s and Whitney’s interaction with the landscape and the evolution of the site from a five-acre parcel to a world-renowned gentlemanly estate for modern times. The Philip Johnson Glass House—beautifully illustrated with vintage and commissioned photography—will be a must-have for connoisseurs of architecture, landscape design, photography, and social history.

A "smoothly written and fair-minded" (Wall Street Journal) biography of architect Philip Johnson -- a finalist for the National Book Critic's Circle Award. When Philip Johnson died in 2005 at the age of 98, he was still one of the most recognizable and influential figures on the American cultural landscape. The first recipient of the Pritzker Prize and MoMA's founding architectural curator, Johnson made his mark as one of America's leading architects with his famous Glass House in New Caanan, CT, and his controversial AT&T Building in NYC, among many others in nearly every city in the country -- but his most natural role was as a consummate power broker and shaper of public opinion. Johnson introduced European modernism -- the sleek, glass-and-steel architecture that now dominates our cities -- to America, and mentored generations of architects, designers, and artists to follow. He defined the era of "starchitecture" with its flamboyant buildings and celebrity designers who esteemed aesthetics and style above all other concerns. But Johnson was also a man of deep paradoxes: he was a Nazi sympathizer, a designer of synagogues, an enfant terrible into his old age, a populist, and a snob. His clients ranged from the Rockefellers to televangelists to Donald Trump. Award-winning architectural critic and biographer Mark Lamster's The Man in the Glass House lifts the veil on Johnson's controversial and endlessly contradictory life to tell the story of a charming yet deeply flawed man. A rollercoaster tale of the perils of wealth, privilege, and ambition, this book probes the dynamics of American culture that made him so powerful, and tells the story of the built environment in modern America.

Philip Johnson designed some of America’s greatest modern architectural landmarks—most notably the Glass House. This new publication, with a foreword by Paul Goldberger and essay by Philip Johnson, presents an exclusive tour of the Glass House, its grounds, treasures, and patrons, and honors the legacy of one of modern architecture’s most famous creations. Johnson’s private residence on forty-seven acres in New Canaan, Connecticut, which opened to the public in 2007, preserves some of the most exciting innovations in the fields of architecture, art, and landscape design, executed under the tutelage of Johnson and partner David Whitney over the course of nearly fifty years. This book serves as a virtual visit to the modern masterpiece and its grounds. Included are photographs of the interiors and exterior facades, as well as snapshots of Johnson and guests on the premises. An introduction to the work of Philip Johnson, The Glass House appeals to visitors of the house and enthusiasts of modern architecture and design.

Provides a look at the tastes and influences of architect Philip Johnson and includes a full inventory of Johnson's collection.

A comprehensive portrait of one of the last century's most influencial architects takes readers on a visual tour of his most spectacular achievements. 12,000 first printing.

Famous for its transparency, the Philip Johnson Glass House--the icon of modernism that Vincent Scully called "the most conceptually important house of the century"--has nonetheless proven vexingly opaque to interpretation. Its architect, Philip Cortelyou Johnson, has been equally elusive, a polarizing and influential cultural figure on whom no psychological character study yet exists. In her new book, Adele Tutter addresses both enigmas. Dream House: An Intimate Portrait of the Philip Johnson Glass House reveals how this superficially nonrepresentational physical structure encodes aspects of its architect's aspirations, motivations, and conflicts--how it acts as a veritable self-portrait of his inner world. An envious, vulnerable man emerges from this intimate synthesis. Fearing he lacked talent or genius and possessing a character prone to fragmentation, Johnson perpetually searched for a dominating mentor or style to bolster his sense of self and help organize his chaotic inner world, while concealing the forbidden sense of greatness with which he justified his desire for power and influence. Tutter's analysis reconciles the contradictory forces in a man who was both a one-time advocate of Hitler and a humanist homosexual, a dogmatic modernist and an errant postmodernist.Through its rigorous, radical reappraisal of the Glass House, this book paints a fresh and psychologically revealing portrait of the man who built it.

Tour book for the great icon of architecture opening in June of 2007.

A spectacular visual biography of one of the most celebrated architects and cultural icons of the twentieth century With his elegant suits and trademark round black glasses, Philip Johnson - a witty, wealthy, and well-connected architect - was for many years the most powerful figure in the society and politics of his profession. This impressively illustrated book traces his seven decades of larger-than-life influence, innovation, and controversy in the realm of architecture and beyond. Hundreds of images and documents, many published here for the first time, trace the remarkable life and career of a true legend.