Around Town

Liz Diller, Designer of NYC’s ‘High Line,’ Coming To New Canaan’s Glass House on Sept. 26 [Q&A]

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The Glass House, New Canaan’s internationally renowned National Trust Historic Site, is preparing to host one of the nation’s foremost architects at a special event to be held Sept. 26. 

Liz Diller, professor of architectural design at Princeton University and founding partner of New York City-based Diller Scofidio + Renfro—designer of The High Line, among other famed projects—is coming to New Canaan for cocktails in The Glass House, a conversation with a prominent architectural critic and a seated dinner in the Painting Gallery. (Tickets are $700 for cocktails, conversation and dinner, and $600 for dinner and conversation only.)

We put some questions to Kirsten Reoch, executive director of The Glass House, ahead of the special evening. Here’s our exchange. *** 

New Canaanite: How did “An Evening with Liz Diller” come about?

Around Town

‘My Favorite Time’: The Glass House ‘Summer Party’ Set for June 6

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A world-famous architectural wonder in New Canaan- the primary National Trust for Historic Preservation Site in Connecticut- is preparing to hold its sole annual fundraiser. The Glass House will host its popular event, “The Summer Party,” on June 6. The party brings together people through art, dance, architecture and food, according to Kirsten Reoch, executive director of The Glass House. “We modeled it on the 1967 ‘Country Happening’ that happened on our site when Philip Johnson hosted this party,” Reoch told NewCanaanite.com. 

“We took that idea of having a sort of summer daytime picnic event that combines our own recreation and community building with performance art and visual arts,” she said. The Velvet Underground played at that inaugural “summer party” at The Glass House in New Canaan, Reoch noted. The modern-day event features many works of art, dance and music, she said.

Around Town

Glass House to Host Annual ‘Community Day’ on Aug. 21

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[The NewCanaanite.com Summer Internship Program is sponsored by Karp Associates.]

Every year, The Glass House hosts “Community Day”—a one-day event where the nonprofit organization gives away free tour tickets to residents on a first-come, first-served basis. It’s a way to “give back to the community and hopefully draw in people who’ve never been to the Glass House or just never felt that it was easy to get in to,” said Kirsten Reoch, the executive director of The Glass House. Each year, residents use a specific code to redeem their free tickets. This year Community Day will be held Thursday, Aug. 21, and that code is NEWCANAAN2025. 

“It’s a special opportunity to get to know new people,” Reoch said. 

“Tours are available on our website and using the code, residents can get up to four tickets,” she added.

News

Glass House ‘Summer Party’ Set for June 8 [Q&A]

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The Glass House’s celebrated annual fundraiser, The Summer Party, will be held 12 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 8. This year, attendees can explore the restored Brick House, in addition to the world-famous Glass House and other Philip Johnson structures on the 49-acre campus. We put some questions to Glass House Executive Director Kirsten Reoch ahead of the big party. Here’s our exchange. ***

New Canaanite: It’s a big year at The Glass House, the 75th anniversary as well as the long-awaited restoration and opening of the Brick House.

Around Town

Historic ‘Brick House’ Opens To the Public

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Though New Canaan’s prized centerpiece of Mid Century Modern architecture—the Glass House—has been open for public tours for nearly 20 years, to have it without its counterpart, the Brick House, “is actually to miss a key element of what Philip Johnson was trying to do,” according to architecture critic and writer Paul Goldberger. “Without the Brick House, the Glass House would not exist, not only because the mechanical systems are connected underground, sort of like an umbilical cord, but the joining is almost more important metaphorically as a reminder of different aspects of domestic life,” Goldberger told a crowd of Glass House staff members present and past, supporters, National Trust for Historic Preservation representatives and media members during a formal unveiling of the restored Brick House, held April 30 at the famed 49-acre historic site (the tour season is now open). “Every building, every resident, everywhere any of us live, has aspects of it that are public and aspects that are private,” he continued. “Johnson, very eager to explore that idea, that duality, and make it into kind of an architectural statement in itself, broke the public and private parts apart, and exaggerated both of them. The Glass House, with its transparency, symbolizes the ultimate public space.