The Dallas Architecture Forum and Dallas Contemporary Present
A Special Lecture
PHILIP JOHNSON AND THE GLASS HOUSE
by Hilary LEWIS
Chief Curator + Creative Director
The Glass House, New Canaan, CT
Tuesday, 6 March 2018
7 pm with check-in at 6:30 pm
No reception for this Event
Venue: Cathedral of Hope Interfaith Peace Chapel
Design by Philip Johnson and Cunningham Architects
5910 Cedar Springs Road, Dallas
Presented by Dallas Contemporary with Collaboration from The Dallas Architecture Forum
Free and Open to the Public, No Reservations Needed
Limited Seating Due to Size of Venue
www.theglasshouse.org
www.hilarylewis.com
See Additional Media Coverage:
New York Times Video/New York Times Article/ Architectural Digest Article
https://goo.gl/5asotD
https://goo.gl/nb5fVk
https://goo.gl/Gpg5Gb
Hilary Lewis is the Chief Curator and Creative Director of The Glass House, the iconic home of the late architect Philip Johnson. She is an expert on architecture, urban planning and real estate development who has produced books, articles, magazines, websites and film. Trained in public policy, urban planning and history of architecture, she examines and comments on the challenges confronting the 21st-century city. With eminent architect Philip Johnson, she wrote two books, multiple articles and produced a short film during twelve years of ongoing work. Lewis recorded extensively Johnson’s memoirs and ideas on architecture, making her today a primary source for information on the late architect. Johnson and Lewis co-authored pieces for magazines and exhibitions, including work for The New York Times Magazine, Details and the Venice Biennale. Following Johnson’s passing in 2005, Lewis curated a major museum exhibition on the architect and served as the Philip Johnson Scholar at the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Glass House site.
FROM THE GLASS HOUSE WEBSITE:
Glass House, 1949
The Glass House is best understood as a pavilion for viewing the surrounding landscape. Invisible from the road, the house sits on a promontory overlooking a pond with views towards the woods beyond. The house is 55 feet long and 33 feet wide, with 1,815 square feet. Each of the four exterior walls is punctuated by a centrally located glass door that opens onto the landscape. The house, which ushered the International Style into residential American architecture, is iconic because of its innovative use of materials and its seamless integration into the landscape. Philip Johnson, who lived in the Glass House from 1949 until his death in 2005, conceived of it as half a composition, completed by the Brick House. Both buildings were designed in 1945-48.
Since its completion in 1949, the building and decor have not strayed from their original design. Most of the furniture came from Johnson’s New York apartment, designed in 1930 by Mies van der Rohe. In fact, Mies designed the now iconic daybed specifically for Johnson. A seventeenth-century painting attributed to Nicolas Poussin stands in the living room. The image, Burial of Phocion, depicts a classical landscape and was selected specifically for the house by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the first director of the Museum of Modern Art. The sculpture, Two Circus Women, by Elie Nadelman stands opposite. It is a small version of a marble sculpture that is in the lobby of the New York State Theater (now David H. Koch Theater) at Lincoln Center in 1964.
The floor plan of the Glass House reveals a fairly traditional living space. Although there are no walls, Philip Johnson referred to areas within the rectangular, loft-like space as “rooms.” There is a kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom, hearth area, bathroom, and an entrance area. Despite the very modern style of the house, the layout could easily be a colonial home, something Johnson noted.
About the Dallas Architecture Forum
The Dallas Architecture Forum is a not-for-profit civic organization that brings leading architectural thought leaders from around the world to speak in Dallas and also fosters important local dialogue about the major issues impacting our urban environment. The Forum was founded in 1996 by some of Dallas’ leading architects, business, cultural and civic leaders, and it continues to benefit from active support and guidance from these citizens. The Forum fulfills its mission of providing a continuing and challenging public discourse on architecture and urban design in - and for - the Dallas area. The Dallas Architecture Forum's members include architects, design professionals, students and educators, and a broad range of civic-minded individuals and companies intent to improve the urban environment in North Texas. The Forum has been recognized nationally with an AIA Collaboration Achievement Award for its strategic partnerships with other organizations focused on architecture, urban planning and the arts. For more information on the Forum, visit www.DallasArchitectureForum.org.
Among the over 230 speakers who have addressed the Forum’s Lecture Series are Shigeru Ban, Brad Cloepfil, Diller + Scofidio, Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Daniel Libeskind, Thomas Phifer, Rafael Vinoly, Juhani Pallasmaa, AIA Gold Medal Winner Peter Bohlin, and regional architects David Lake and Ted Flato. Pritzker Prize winners speaking to the Forum have been Kazuyo Sejima, Rafael Moneo, Thom Mayne, Rem Koolhaas and Norman Foster (the latter two in collaboration with the ATT Performing Arts Center). Other speakers for the Forum have been leading designers Calvin Tsao, Andrée Putman, and Karim Rashid; landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh; and National Trust President Emeritus Richard Moe. Important critics, authors and patrons who have spoken to the Forum include Emily Pulitzer, Terence Riley, Pulitzer Prize winners Robert Campbell and Blair Kamin, Aaron Betsky, and the late David Dillon.
The Forum organizes and presents an annual series of Panels—local, informal, open, and offered free of charge as a public service to the community—led by a moderator who brings a subject of local importance along with comments by participating panelists. Moderators and Panelists have also come from both other Texas cities as well as from national institutions that were connected with particular Panel subjects. Panels offer attendees the opportunity to participate in creating discourse. Important topics addressed in Panels in recent years include: “Thoughts on the Dallas Comprehensive Plan”; “The Kimbell Expansion: A Discussion”; “Filling Out the Dallas Arts District”; and “Re-envisioning the Trinity”.
For more information on the Dallas Architecture Forum, visit www.dallasarchitectureforum.org. For questions about the Forum, call 214-764-2406.
To follow us on Facebook visit https://www.facebook.com/DallasArchitectureForum?ref=bookmarks
For Twitter, our account is DallasArchForum.