Painting the Glass House, the front entrance with blue masking tape.
If you visited the Glass House in recent weeks you may have seen that it is in the process of being painted. The edges of the Glass House’s windows have been masked in bright blue tape, and the steel structure is being carefully sanded, stripped, primed and re-painted. This important conservation project is being carried out in phases, painting one side of the building at a time, and maintains the original finish – matte black industrial paint – first applied when the Glass House was built in 1949. During this process visitors will still be able to go inside the Glass House, but certain collection pieces may be covered for their protection.
The Nicolas Poussin Painting at the Glass House, with a temporary wood encasement for protection during painting.
Unlike the colors on the exterior of many of the other buildings on the site, like Da Monsta, Library/Study, Entrance Gate, and Lincoln Kirstein Tower, for which special paints and colors were developed by Architectural Colorists Donald Kaufman and Taffy Dahl, the Glass House’s steel beams are painted in a basic matte black industrial paint, intended specifically for applying to steel.
Exterior detail of the Glass House, the steel has been painted matte black and new caulking joins the glass and steel together.
The last time that the Glass House was painted was in 2007, in preparation for its opening to the public as a National Trust for Historic Preservation site. You can read more about the opening gala, which included a performance by the Merce Cunningham Dance Co., and see photos from the event on our website, philipjohnsonglasshouse.org.
Painting the Exterior of the Glass House
Painting is one of several preservation projects currently happening on the Glass House campus. Other major projects include the Brick House Restoration, and conservation of the site specific Donald Judd sculpture, Untitled, 1971, which will begin in July 2011.
If you have any questions or comments about your visit and the painting, please fell free to leave them in the comments section of this blog post, and we will do our best to answer them. See more photos of the Glass House and the painting process by visiting the Philip Johnson Glass House on Flickr.
June 3, 2011 Blog Post: Painting The Glass House
Filed under: In the News, Architecture, Conservation, Glass House, Modern architecture, Modernism, Paint, Painting, Philip Johnson Glass House, Preservation, Restoration
[...] House team. Aside from a full sleight of interesting tours, we are just finishing scraping and painting the Glass House [...]