The Philip Johnson Glass House: An Architect in the Garden

About this book

The first authoritative book on the history of the Glass House propertyPhilip Johnsons fifty-year project of iconic modernist design encompassing the remarkable buildings landscape and follies. From its completion in 1949 to the present day Philip Johnsons 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 propertyan architectural playground on forty-seven acres with eleven Johnsonian follies dating from 1949 to 1995is 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 designsthe result of a unique synthesis of influences and ideas from across history and geography. New research reveals Johnsons and Whitneys 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 Housebeautifully illustrated with vintage and commissioned photographywill be a must-have for connoisseurs of architecture landscape design photography and social history.