While you can’t actually buy Philip Johnson’s iconic Glass House—it’s now owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation—you can get your hands on one of his midcentury residences completed in the same year. Dubbed the Paine House, the glassy abode is sited on the shores of New York’s Lake Champlain and just listed for a cool $3.5 million.
Designed by the architect in collaboration with his partner, Landis Gores, the pad is positioned on a wooded 20-acre lot with 850 feet of water frontage, its own floating dock and a boat launch ramp. The 3,812-square-foot spread also includes eight bedrooms and six bathrooms. Since it was originally built in 1949, it has seen several upgrades thanks to its current owners. They re-sided the home, renovated the kitchen and added a new membrane roof. Plus, a similar-looking structure separate from the main house was built in 2006. Today, it’s used for boat storage and holds a large game room.
Anchoring the house is an open living area with a wood-burning brick fireplace flanked by two walls of glass. The chef’s kitchen is equipped with top-of-the-line appliances, though, it still retains its original soapstone and steel sinks. Elsewhere, an open-air walkway connects the common spaces to the summer wing, which holds six bedrooms and four full bathrooms.
According to the listing, which is held by Covered Bridge Realty, the palatial pad actually takes inspiration from another famous architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, whom Johnson worked with on the Seagram Building. More specifically, it was Mies’s modernist Resor House project in Jackson Hole, Wyo., that Johnson was influenced by. Both dwellings feature a cypress exterior and floor-to-ceiling glazing that frames the surrounding landscape. In this case, it’s Vermont’s Green Mountains that are in view instead of the Tetons.
Click here to see all the photos of the Paine House.
