Philip Johnson's Brick House is Restored and Open to the Public After a 15-Year Closure
Situated on a verdant patch of land in New Canaan, Connecticut, Philip Johnson’s Glass House is completely transparent. Across a grassy court, his contrasting Brick House is entirely opaque, save for three round windows on the rear wall and four skylights. This not only allowed the architect to retreat into privacy, but also hid the mechanical systems that sustain both structures, built a few months apart in 1949. “The Brick House is really the guts, the brains, of the Glass House,” says Mark Stoner, the National Trust’s senior director of preservation architecture.
The National Trust acquired the 14-building complex in 2005 as one of its historic sites, but after just one season of tours, the Brick House was shuttered due to ongoing water infiltration and mold issues.
photo by: Michael Biondo
Philip Johnson’s personal library inside the Brick House was meticulously restored, including the original bookshelves.
Now, the personal hideaway that Johnson shared with his life partner, David Whitney, is once again open following a $1.7 million National Trust–led restoration. After making it watertight, Stoner and his team meticulously restored every detail of the 860-square-foot house, from repointing the exterior masonry to treating mold-infested plaster to having Johnson’s collection of books conserved (and arranging them exactly how the architect had left them in his library when he died in 2005).
The Brick House reopened for tours in April 2024, ushering in one of the museum’s busiest seasons to date, as well as the site’s 75th anniversary—which coincides with that of the National Trust.
“Everybody loves to get in there,” says Glass House Executive Director Kirsten Reoch of the Brick House. “You feel like you’re passing through this very private portal into someone’s personal space.”
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