Study Tour

Gardens + Landscape

Experience the gardens and landscape of the Philip Johnson Glass House on a half day study tour led by noted scholar Maureen Cassidy-Geiger in celebration of the publication of her new book The Philip Johnson Glass House: An Architect in the Garden. Tickets for this program will include a complimentary signed copy of the book An Architect in the Garden.

Known as one of the world’s best and most recognizable modernist structures, the Glass House serves as an icon of twentieth-century landscape and architectural design. The Philip Johnson Glass House: An Architect in the Garden provides the complete story of the evolution of the landscape and building designs of the New Canaan campus. This tour will analyze the evolution of this architectural gem built on forty-nine acres with eleven Johnson-designed follies dating back from 1949 to 1995. With over half a century of their gardening and landscaping partnership, Philip Johnson and David Whitney produced a sublime and scenic setting for the Glass House and the site’s other structures. This site preserves some of the most innovative and exciting contributions to art, architecture, and landscape design.

Maureen Cassidy-Geiger is an internationally recognized curator, scholar and educator with special expertise in European decorative arts, patterns of collecting and display and the history of architecture, gardens and photography. She is also a free-lance contributor to Departures, Elle Décor, The Magazine Antiques and Bentley Magazine. She has been studying the Glass House landscape since 2010 and was featured in the 2011 article by Suzanne Gannon on the Glass House landscape, ‘Natural Artistry,’ published in New Canaan/Darien/Greenwich magazine.

Please note that tour participants must be able to climb hills of moderate grade and stand for extended lengths of time. We regret that visitors using wheelchairs or scooters are not permitted on this tour.