“Trees are becoming the building material of the place.” -Philip Johnson

This video demonstrates the idea that the Glass House is as much about nature and landscape as it is about modern materials. Johnson was purposeful about every aspect of the Glass House landscape. He created it through a process of reduction (removing trees to shape the view), and he left the vernacular stone walls, which he called the site’s “organizing principle.”

Photographs: Drew Harty, 2005.

Film, no audio, also on view at The Philip Johnson Glass House Visitor Center in New Canaan, CT, USA.