The Glass House and Farnsworth House Inspire ‘Modern Views’

Philip Johnson’s Glass House and Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House established one of architecture’s great formal dialogues. Both were designed and built during the same period—the Glass House between 1945 and 1949 (in New Canaan, Connecticut), and the Farnsworth House between 1945 and 1951 (in Plano, Illinois)—and Johnson and Mies were inspired by and responded to each other’s work, resulting in a pair of Modernist masterpieces. Both homes have been designated National Historic Landmarks and are now owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Glass House was given to the trust by Johnson in 1986 and opened to the public in 2007 (with identity and visitors center designed by Pentagram), and the Farnsworth House was saved at auction in 2003 and came under the management of the trust earlier this year.

Modern Views: A Project to Benefit the Farnsworth House and the Glass House is a new yearlong initiative to raise $1 million to help preserve the residences. The trust’s Center for Modernism asked 100 artists, designers and architects to create works that continue the dialogue between the two iconic designs. Among the participants are Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Thom Mayne, Daniel Libeskind, David Adjaye, Tadao Ando, Richard Meier, Michael Graves, Cesar Pelli, Ken Smith, Vito Acconci, Maira Kalman, Robert Morris, Ed Ruscha, Yves Behar, Annie Leibovitz, Constantin Boym and Pentagram’s James Biber and Paula Scher.

The works will exhibited in New York and Chicago this fall, culminating in an auction in each city. Proceeds from the auction will be used to restore the Brick House at the Glass House site and to repair damage to the Farnsworth House from a 2008 flood. Modern Views is being underwritten by Sotheby’s and was introduced at an event at the Four Seasons earlier this month.

Paula Scher’s print, titled Modernism USA, uses the footprint of the two houses at various scales to construct a map of the United States. The design will appear on the cover of a book of the collected works for Modern Views, to be published this fall by Assouline.

James Biber, who designed the visitor center for the Glass House, was inspired by the homes’ relationship to their environments: the Glass House is built of dark materials and is close to the earth, while the Farnsworth House is white and seems to float above ground, a world in itself. Biber’s drawing, called There It Begins, takes its title from a 1959 quote by Mies: “Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins.” The drawing brings the two “bricks,” or houses, together.