THE GLASS HOUSE DESIGN STORE

The Glass House Design Store offers an edited selection of books, furniture, objects, and works on paper that represent the sensibility and ideas that inform the Glass House, both the iconic 1949 structure and the unique synthesis of art, architecture, and landscape that developed over half a century.

Inspired by “Machine Art,” a legendary exhibition organized by Philip Johnson for the Museum of Modern Art in 1934, the Glass House Design Store celebrates Johnson’s curatorial vision through its rigorous offering.  As Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the Museum of Modern Art’s first director, wrote in his foreword to the ‘Machine Art’ catalogue:

“The role of the artist in machine art is to choose, from a variety of possible forms each of which may be functionally adequate, that one form which is aesthetically most satisfactory. He does not embellish or elaborate, but refines, simplifies and perfects."

This is the course that the Glass House and Moss Bureau have pursued in selecting objects for the Glass House Design Store. In addition to whatever function they perform, these objects are intended as keepsakes for visitors to remember their time at the Glass House. In this way, the ideas — and ideals — articulated by Philip Johnson over many years can be enjoyed long after a visit to the Glass House, in the course of daily life.