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

For years, even during Philip Johnson’s life, the southwest corner of the plaster ceiling inside the Glass House 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.

Did You Hear … ?

Scores of New Canaanites joined students of architecture and fans of the Midcentury Modern style at The Glass House on Saturday for the annual Summer Party, a fundraiser for the National Trust for Historic Preservation site. Sipping Taittinger champagne and bringing picnic baskets prepared by Campagna and The Bedford Post Inn, attendees roamed the 49-acre property on a bright, sunny day, entering buildings that include not just the famous Glass House but also Da Monsta and Philip Johnson’s painting gallery and library. Others lounged by a pond down the back of the property or by the pool near the main house. See photos above. ***

A woman who hurt herself after falling on the sidewalk in front of Dunkin Donuts on Elm Street in January has filed a letter of intent to sue New Canaan, according to a notice filed with the town. It happened at about 2:30 p.m. on Jan 12 at what the woman’s New Canaan-based lawyer is calling “a dangerous and unsafe pedestrian sidewalk which was improperly repaired, maintained, cleared of snow, sleet and/or ice and/or improperly treated with salt, sand or the like.” The woman hurt her “right fingers, right hand, right wrist, right arm, right elbow, right shoulder, neck back and buttocks,” according to the Notice of Intention to Commence Action Against Municipality.

Philip Johnson-Designed Midcentury Modern on Oenoke Ridge Sells for $2.3 Million

Philip Johnson Ball Residence New Canaan, CT
A prominent Midcentury Modern home designed by Philip Johnson has sold for $2.3 million, according to a property transfer recorded Monday in the Town Clerk’s office. The 1953-built ‘Alice Ball House’ at 523 Oenoke Ridge Road—built just after the Glass House—includes three bedrooms, 2,500 square feet of living space and sits on 2.2 acres, its assessor field card says. It had been listed on the market last summer at $2.8 million, according to Architectural Digest. Its owner since she bought the house for $1.5 million in 2005, Cristina Ross, sold it to ‘Main Liberty LLC,’ according to the transfer. It isn’t clear who owns that company—no entity by that name is listed with the Connecticut Secretary of the State, according to the agency’s online database.