Government

‘That Property Is Struggling’: P&Z Chairman Voices Support for Expanded Operations at Philip Johnson Glass House

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The Philip Johnson Glass House not only anchors the important Modern architecture of New Canaan, the Ponus Ridge site also has caused the Planning & Zoning Commission fewer problems than have other institutions in residential zones, the group’s chairman said Tuesday night. The National Trust for Historic Preservation site is an “amazing” property and the organization that operates it has been “very, very well behaved” since opening to the public in 2007, John Goodwin said during P&Z’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall. “I’ve also been watching the management of the Glass House, and I know there’s a concern that this just is another director until the next director comes. But I would say that they finally have a business guy. My apologies to the architects, but sometimes it is good to have a business guy.

Government

Facing Financial Crunch and Neighbors’ Concerns, Philip Johnson Glass House Pursues Expansion of Operations

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Officials from the Philip Johnson Glass House said Tuesday night that the three basic ways they make money at the National Trust for Historic Preservation site—donations, tours (and the gift shop) and one annual fundraiser (the Summer Party)—do not generate sufficient funds to preserve and restore their 49-acre campus and the 14 architecturally significant structures on it. The Glass House has an annual operating budget of $2.6 million and significant, heavily regulated capital needs, according to its executive director, Greg Sages—for example, the re-roofing of the site’s painting gallery, dredging of the pond and restoration of the sculpture gallery—have taken about three years to get done and cost some $3 million. With the restrictions built into its special operating permit with the town, the $600,000 raised annually through tours “is just not enough, given the backlog of existing work and future work that will obviously need to occur,” Sages told members of the Planning & Zoning Commission at their regular monthly meeting, held at Town Hall. “Two areas that can fill the gap are donations and site-based revenue,” Sages said. Donations are progressing nicely but “the constraints on site-based activity are keeping us from using site to best advantage,” he told P&Z.

Around Town

‘We Need To Be Doing Better’: New Director Eyes Fundraising, Capital Needs at The Glass House

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For all six years that Greg Sages has worked at this National Trust for Historic Preservation site on Ponus Ridge, the Brick House, a building that complements the campus’s most famous structure, the Glass House—designed at the same time and finished a few months earlier, in 1949—has been closed to the public, its collection in storage. The roof of the Brick House is not intact, there’s water coming in underground and above-grade, and an in-floor radiant heat system must be jack-hammered out with its interior slab and replaced—an approximately $2 million project that Sages said he would like very much to tackle “next” (that is, after the ongoing Sculpture Gallery restoration is finished). “It [The Brick House] needs restoration, and we haven’t identified the funding for that,” Sages, a Stamford native and 1972 Rippowam High School graduate who resides in Greenwich, said on a recent afternoon from this sprawling, sloping 49-acre campus. “It is all a matter of coming up with the funding to undertake this. At the National Trust, we have something called the ‘Critical Priority List.’ What needs to be done on each of the [14] structures here.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Ty Groff winning Connecticut region punt pass kick 2015 for 10-11 age group

Oct 3,2015

 

Congratulations to New Canaan’s Ty Groff on winning the Connecticut “Punt, Pass & Kick” contest’s 10- and 11-year-old age group. You can see Ty’s effort in the video above. In the NFL’s “PPK,” scores take into consideration distance as well as accuracy, so under the rules, how far the ball travels is calculated and then distance from the center line is subtracted. Ty threw 93 feet, punted 61 and kicked 65 and 5 inches, for a total of 219 feet and 5 inches. ***

Officials with Bank of America confirmed for us that their lease on the brick building on the corner of Locust Avenue and Forest Street expired on Sept.

Around Town

Did You Hear … ?

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Scores of New Canaanites joined students of architecture and fans of the Midcentury Modern style at The Glass House on Saturday for the annual Summer Party, a fundraiser for the National Trust for Historic Preservation site. Sipping Taittinger champagne and bringing picnic baskets prepared by Campagna and The Bedford Post Inn, attendees roamed the 49-acre property on a bright, sunny day, entering buildings that include not just the famous Glass House but also Da Monsta and Philip Johnson’s painting gallery and library. Others lounged by a pond down the back of the property or by the pool near the main house. See photos above. ***

A woman who hurt herself after falling on the sidewalk in front of Dunkin Donuts on Elm Street in January has filed a letter of intent to sue New Canaan, according to a notice filed with the town. It happened at about 2:30 p.m. on Jan 12 at what the woman’s New Canaan-based lawyer is calling “a dangerous and unsafe pedestrian sidewalk which was improperly repaired, maintained, cleared of snow, sleet and/or ice and/or improperly treated with salt, sand or the like.” The woman hurt her “right fingers, right hand, right wrist, right arm, right elbow, right shoulder, neck back and buttocks,” according to the Notice of Intention to Commence Action Against Municipality.