$1 million is the ask Most architecture enthusiasts will know the Glass House, Philip Johnson?s modernist masterpiece in the midcentury-modern haven of New Canaan, Connecticut. Much less known, however, is the Booth House in rural Bedford, New York, Johnson?s first commission and a project that would inform his major works to come. This important early design is now under threat and urgently seeking new ownership.
Built in 1946, four years after Johnson?s Harvard Graduate School of Design thesis project and three years before the Glass House, the Booth House is the first postwar structure by a Bauhaus-inspired American architect, and a groundbreaking addition to a town populated with traditional homes. Like the modernist Case Study Houses that would soon begin rising in Southern California, the Booth House was born out of a postwar enthusiasm for experimentation and using new materials to build economical homes for common folks. The 1,450-square-foot abode was erected with concrete blocks and steel beams and columns. The living experience centered on a simple open plan with a statement brick fireplace and 28 feet of glass walls overlooking scenic grounds?an idea that would be taken to world-famous extremes in the Glass House.

Photo by Robert Damora, courtesy the Damora family

Photo by Robert Damora, courtesy the Damora family

Photo by Robert Damora courtesy the Damora family

But with two private bedroo...