Bedtime Under Glass

[RA]

Johnson's Glass House today in the New York Times Home and Garden section on line. Wonderful photos.

[Reidy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/12/garde ... .html?_r=0

A search on "johnson glass house" at nytimes.com brings up several more articles.

[RA]

Thanks Reidy for listing the link. My bad.

[SDR]

An enticing article, one which teases but leaves me unsatisfied. So much more could be said (I'd have thought) about a night -- and a morning -- in this structure . . . ?

Nevertheless, thanks for the read. Yes, the photos are good. One never sees a shot of the "back" of the house, for instance -- and the view from the bedroom corner says it all.

SDR

[Craig]

Agreed SDR. I went to the print edition thinking the rest of the article was missing online. Odd that there was not one word regarding the actual experience of spending the night in the house. I guess one needs to spend the $30,000 to find out.

[Unbrook]

The author of the article really didn't do his research. Not only did he get the location of the Nadleman sculpture wrong, the Barcelona daybed was not designed for the German Pavilion in Barcelona. It was a later design based on the chair used in Barcelona.

[DRN]

I recall an interview with Johnson relative to the Glass House in which he described the experience of living there. I was struck by one of his comments, something to the effect that he discovered the night has as many tonalities of light as the day.

[Roderick Grant]

One error is attributing Farnsworth as Johnson's source of inspiration. Johnson was built in 1948; Farnsworth in 1950.

The underscaled pavillion in the lake looks forlorn and in very bad repair.

The library, I believe the last structure built, is by far the best design on the property. The guest house, probably the least interesting.

What has always bothered me about the interior of the Glass House is that the transparency of the walls draws attention to the flat ceiling, making it ominous and oppressive, as if it's about to collapse. FLW visited the house, walked in, took of his porkpie hat, put it back on, took it off, put it on, then turned to Johnson and said, "I don't know whether to take my hat off or put it on."

[Roderick Grant]

By the way, Phillip Johnson didn't actually live in the Glass House; there was an old gate lodge (since demolished) where he actually resided. He considered the Glass House unlivable.

[peterm]

The author of the article really didn't do his research. Not only did he get the location of the Nadleman sculpture wrong, the Barcelona daybed was not designed for the German Pavilion in Barcelona. It was a later design based on the chair used in Barcelona.

The most recent scholarship points to the fact that the designer of the original daybed was not Mies, but Lily Reich. You're correct; it wasn't designed for the German Pavilion, but it was drawn for another European project about the same time.

Knoll put it into production, but she received no credit for the design. Let me find the info...

[RA]

According to the Farnsworth web site, the model for the Farnsworth house was exhibited in a Mies MOMA exhibit of 1947 and completion of the build was 1951. Johnson curated this exhibit for MOMA. Glass House build completed in 1949 according to the Johnson Wiki bio.

[SDR]

I could still kick myself for not picking up a book that was available in the 'eighties or early 'nineties, which contained some if not all of the preliminary studies for the house. Notable was the number of variations on the brick cylinder; Johnson seems to have considered any number of geometries for that element, including one that reminded me of the A.D.A EDITA logo, an S-shaped figure. The final design exhibits remarkable restraint in comparison to some of these studies . . .

SDR

[Unbrook]

The commission for the Farnsworth House came to Mies in 1945. Dr. Farnsworth didn't have the funds available right away, construction was delayed until 1950. Philip Johnson did include a model of the structure in the MOMA show on Mies and I believe that date is as mentioned previously.

Riech was responsible for Mies's interiors as a collaboration. The day bed was designed after the Barcelona chair. I believe Johnson had a day bed in the apartment Mies had designed for him in New York.

[Unbrook]

Johnson and David Whitney "lived" in an old Connecticut farmhouse on property which abutted the Glass House acreage. Remember that Johnson designed the brick Guest House which basically had no windows. I believe this building served as a bedroom until the farmhouse was acquired. The Guest House is currently being restored. what fascinates me about the Glass House is the description as America's most famous salon.

When Mies visited Johnson in New Caanan, he evidently realized where he was to spend the night and violently requested to be driven back to the railroad station to catch the last train back to the city. Frank Lloyd Wright stood in the middle of the doorway and asked if he should take his hat off--was he inside or outside.

[peterm]

In 1930 the first "Mies" daybed appears in the U.S. for the Philip Johnson apartment:

http://www.miessociety.org/legacy/proje ... ona-couch/

1929 design for The Crous apartment by Lily Reich (second photo is of a reproduction of the original):

http://www.projektmik.com/artist_info_e ... Crous,1930

Christianne Lange claims that the drawing (which I have seen but can't find online...) and daybed design were solely by Reich, unlike the Tugendhat and Barcelona chairs.