Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson Glass House New Canaan

Lecture on Art and Architecture of Philip Johnson

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New Canaan Library and The Glass House are pleased to present Hilary Swift, Chief Curator and Creative Director of the Glass House, speaking about the art and architecture of Philip Johnson. The event will be held in the Library’s Adrian Lamb Room on Thursday, February 22 at 6:30 p.m., preceded by a light reception at 6 p.m. Please register online at the New Canaan Library website. Hilary Swift speaks as part of Glass House Presents at New Canaan Library, an occasional series of talks and events about architecture, design, and Modernism in New Canaan and beyond, organized collaboratively by The Glass House and New Canaan Library. The program is generously supported by the New Canaan Community Foundation. Philip Johnson came to his life in architecture via early exposure to art and design during his childhood.

Arts & Entertainment

‘This Is Part of Our Obligation’: Much-Needed Ceiling Replacement Underway at the Glass House

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For years, even when its creator, Philip Johnson was still alive, the southwest corner of the plaster ceiling inside the Glass House in New Canaan has been sagging. It’s been getting progressively worse in recent years — to the point where three of the doors into the iconic structure (there’s one on each face of the house) could not be opened. About three years ago, those in charge of the National Trust for Historic Preservation site oversaw a temporary stabilization in the troubled corner, working with Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Evergreene Architectural Arts. “It sagged about three inches in that corner,” Brendan Tobin, senior buildings & grounds manager at the Glass House said Tuesday afternoon, standing near Johnson’s building on the Ponus Ridge site. “They stabilized it by putting some lag bolts and washers in place so it would not further sag, and they gave us basically three proposals to restore or preserve the ceiling.”

Glass House officials reviewed those proposals (more on them below) and settled on one so that work could start days after the 2017 season ended on Nov.