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Inside Out: Alena at Philip Johnson's Glass House

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Our friend Alena got to visit Philip Johnson's Glass House recently and sent us a link to her awesome post about it. There are pictures in a slideshow and many interesting notes about the house, which just opened up to the general public this summer...

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...Johnson spent much of his life at the property and called it his “50 year diary”. The title “Glass House” refers not only to the glass home he built there but also to the other structures and sculptures on the 47 acre estate...

While the Glass House itself if often published, we were surprised to get a peek at the other buildings on the "estate," particularly contrasting one's like the Brick House. There's a lot of weird stuff up there! And Alena's pics of inside the house are excellent at communicating just how BARE this house really is (and was to live in).

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Originally Published July 30th, 2007

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Comments (13)

Surely it doesn't get better than this? Absolutely beautiful.

posted by IQAmsterdam on 2007-07-30 16:42:26
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Wow. That's amazing.

posted by shani-o on 2007-07-30 17:25:29
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i was there for the opening gala picnic..and it was amazing..

posted by bellaknollie on 2007-07-30 17:45:17
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They must go through a buttload of Windex.

posted by kyle on 2007-07-30 17:50:28
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This almost seems more Miesiean than Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth house.

posted by art on 2007-07-30 18:17:46
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Wow, did you see her site?

I want to know what she does for a living, she's on vacation almost every week!!!

posted by tallguylehigh on 2007-07-30 20:38:28
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Kyle's got a great corporate sponsor for the place there:

-----------------------------------------
OK, here's the TV spot;

All-white screen,
Music fades in: mid-195Os jazz over cocktail party sounds, glasses, laughter, conversation...

Fade in in black & white: closeup of glamorous brunette: dark lipstsick, cat's eye glasses, drinking champage from gloved hand that also holds cigarette in holder/
cut to hands on piano/
cut to sleek young man in black turtleneck/
cut to Cary Grant laughing/
cut to smoke curling out of beautiful female lips/
cut to bartender pouring martini/
cut to intellectual blonde bending to light her cigarette from man's lighter/
cut to Paul Rudolph gesturing broadly indicating large forms in space/
cut to group of young men laughing near piano, silhoetted through smoke lit from dappled sunlight/
cut to close-up of cigar in crystal asjshtray/
cut to exterior of glass house, filled with party crowd & filled with smoke as..
[muffled piano ends with strong dissonant chord & muffled applause as screen fades to black.

(silence)
Cut to interior of Glass House, brightly lit in black & white/
cut to empty glasses on glass table/
cut to overflowing ashtrays on counter/
cut to NYC phone number written in grime covering window
Cut to man's hand lowering tone arm on record player
(vinyl pops & hisses)

cut to record spinning
(then, Whistle While You Work)

Cut to Philip Johnon in white shirt, dark trousers, bow tie, round glasses & frilly floral apron apron
washing windows & whistling.
The overall scene remains black & white , but as PJ washes the grimy windows, the bright yellow-green of Connecticut woods appears where he wipes./
Cut to PJ smiling broadly.

Cut to PJ cleaning stainless steel refrigerator/
cut to PJ cleaning countertops,
Cut to PJ cleaning glass-top cocktail table/
Cut to PJ copying phone number off window,
Cut to PJ whistling/
Cut to PJ removing apron,
Cut tp PJ's hand hanging apron in round closet module
Cut to closet interior full of frilly floral aprons.
Cut to closing closet door.
(Whistle While You Work ends as door closes)

(brief silence changes to
(Sound of birds singing, footsteps crunching on gravel)
Cut to long shot of Glass House, backlit & sparkling in sunlight, figure of PJ in black suit, walking quickly offscreen right.

White Helvetica title & Windex bottle superimposed over exterior long shot of The Glass House:
WINDEX: Offical Cleaner of The Glass House

You are all free to run with this with no strings attached, except that I get a credit line and a CD of the finished product.

Magnaverde.

posted by magnaverde on 2007-07-31 00:50:52
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Great pictures to start the day with.

posted by Mason on 2007-07-31 06:53:34
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I wonder how many birds fly into that house?

posted by Archie on 2007-07-31 09:35:02
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A caption from Metropolis's story on the Glass House (http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2379): “The nature comes inside the house,” MacLear says of the glass. Throughout the building’s history, birds have flown into the walls. Two summers ago a turkey broke through a glass panel, leaving behind feathers and other bird detritus.

posted by michaels on 2007-07-31 10:18:22
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I just bought tickets this weekend... for next august!

posted by frenchie on 2007-07-31 11:12:04
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Omigosh Archie, I was just just having a conversation about this, about beautiful glass houses and the amounts of birds that must be sacrificed in order for them to exist.

Unless there's something I don't know, like whistles installed under the eaves or nefarious scents to keep them away.
Does anyone know? Do these glass masterpieces have any built-in bird warnings?

posted by annalyssa on 2007-07-31 11:45:38
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At this glass house, they put up a bunch of coyote cutouts to discourage the turkeys from venturing too close.

posted by michaels on 2007-08-01 14:45:22
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