Business

Local Business Q&A: Design Store of The Glass House

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In this installment of our Q&A series spotlighting local businesses, we hear from New Canaan’s Christa Carr of The Glass House, whose Design Store is open 24/7 online and in-person at 199 Elm St. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays Dec. 4, 11 and 18, as well as Dec. 20 to 23. 

Here’s our exchange. New Canaanite: Before we get to The Design Store itself and what you have to offer shoppers this holiday season, talk to us about how the 2021 season is going for The Glass House.

Around Town

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

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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.

Around Town

‘A Huge Amount of Interest’: Philip Johnson Glass House Sees Record-High Visits in September

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Anchored by a popular, special installation, the Philip Johnson Glass House in September set a new high-water mark in visits for a single month since opening to the public in 2007. The National Trust for Historic Preservation site welcomed 2,595 visitors to its iconic 49-acre campus on Ponus Ridge last month (by way of shuttles from Elm Street), primarily through tours, according to the nonprofit organization. The figure marks a 111 percent year-over-year increase for visits in the month. It likely had to do with Yayoi Kusama’s “Dots Obsession” installation, which closed last week, while the artist’s “Narcissus Garden” and “Pumpkin” installations will run through Nov. 30, the season’s end, according to Christa Carr, communications director at The Glass House.

Around Town

New Canaan Chamber of Commerce Adds Eight Directors

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The New Canaan Chamber of Commerce is pleased to announce the addition of eight new members to its Board of Directors as well the creation of a new, dedicated board composed of past chamber presidents that will help oversee the organization’s charitable foundation. Nimble, engaged and innovative, the new chamber directors form an exciting group of business and organization leaders in town, according to Tucker Murphy, executive director of the chamber. “Our mission is ‘connecting community with commerce,’ and we kept those four words very much top of mind in putting together this board,” Murphy said. “Our new directors not only represent successful local businesses stories—they’re also deeply involved in our town. Beyond participating in chamber events such as the Sidewalk Sales, Holiday Stroll and Taste of the Town, they actively fundraise for community agencies, volunteer with service organizations and connect with each other for their mutual benefit.”

The newly appointed directors each have started serving a 3-year term, and they are:

David E. Hoyle Esq.—Hawthorne, Ackerly & Dorrance
Lisa Oldham—New Canaan Library
Mamoune Tazi—Le Boudoir
Anna Simons—New Canaan Pediatric Dentistry
Michael Dinan—NewCanaanite.com
Ben & Elaine Young—New Canaan Dance Academy
Sara Koch—Oxygen Fitness
Kinsey Ferguson—Vineyard Vines

Helping to acclimate them are three current directors who now form a new executive committee for the chamber: Steve Risbridger of Reynolds & Rowella is president, Tom Stadler of the Town of New Canaan First Selectman’s Office is treasurer and HamletHub’s Rachel Lampen is secretary.

Around Town

‘We Are Part of the Community’: Glass House Spotlights, Bolsters Tour Offerings for Locals

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Christa Carr recalls the tremendous anticipation that surrounded the opening to the public of the Glass House in 2006. Handed over to the National Trust for Historic Preservation 20 years prior, it opened to tourists following the passing of its world-renowned architect and occupant, Philip Johnson, in 1985, and those tours essentially “sold out for the first two years,” said Carr, communications director for the Glass House. “Everybody knew Philip Johnson,” she recalled on a recent afternoon in downtown New Canaan, at a coffee shop around the corner from the Visitor Center and Design Store downtown, where buses depart 12 times per day on weekdays for the 47-acre Ponus Ridge property. “It was a real treat to be invited to Philip Johnson’s house when he was alive.”

And it’s a treat to go now, though to this point, the overwhelming majority of visitors are out-of-towners. In 2014, statistics from the Glass House shows, during the site’s May 1 to Nov.