Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Conn., opens to the public today, allowing anyone who’s interested to become an insider to one of the best kept secrets of modern architecture: The Glass House is really not about the house at all.

Arriving at the property, the first structure is a monumental gate comprised of two 20-foot-tall concrete forms containing an interior system of pulleys, which mechanically raise and lower a metal bar over the driveway to permit or prevent vehicles from entering. This is just the first in a series of processional events that lead to the Glass House itself.

Johnson used the term “Glass House” interchangeably in reference to both the entire 42-acre property and the much photographed glass structure. He believed that the site, the landscape, and the walk up to the house were as integral to the experience as the physical architecture. For Johnson, architecture and landscape architecture were one art. He makes this point clear throughout the carefully orchestrated approach to the house. Once through the gate, Johnson gives visitors glimpses of nine of the 14 structures and follies on the property, including a site-specific work by Donald Judd, before the driveway reaches the bottom of the hill and turns to the right, allowing the first clear view of the Glass House.

It is for this brief moment when the driveway gives way to the walkway that the Glass House stands out as a remarkable piece of architecture distinct from its site. But the moment truly is brief; once inside, the structure melts away and the focus returns to the choreography of objects and the landscape.

The experience of being inside the house is unexpectedly moving — the scale of the world changes as the walls become a lens for viewing the subtlety of a breeze, the shifting of light, and the speed of time. Despite having just been outside, it’s as if you’re seeing the trees for the first time. The glass walls of the house become reflective screens that layer the composition of the house’s contents — a table, a chaise, two chairs — with the motion of the landscape. The interaction of the reflections becomes a fleeting projection of the activities on all sides of the interior and exterior of the house.

“I have very expensive wallpaper,” Johnson famously said. But what he left out is that each guest for a time becomes a part of that wallpaper. After entering the house, in a matter of seconds, visitors become immersed in the landscape and — through their reflected image — inscribed in his wallpaper. While a common expectation might be to feel naked, trapped, or exposed while standing in a transparent structure, the experience is quite the opposite — standing inside the Glass House gives the feeling of intense calm.

One of the great tricks of the Glass House is its companion across the courtyard: the Brick House. Johnson saw these two structures as one. Without the Brick House, the Glass House could not exist. The Brick House, also known as the Guest House, contains all of the mechanical systems for the Glass House, as well as a bedroom, small library, and bathroom. Electricity and plumbing are run from the Brick House to the Glass House in a tunnel beneath the courtyard and come up through the floor. This allowed Johnson to build the Glass House without heat vents or pipes in the ceiling and walls, emphasizing the spare aspect of the structure.

Johnson purchased the first five acres of the property in 1947. He was attracted to the area because it was rural and the land was cheap. The Glass House was originally a weekend house, a retreat from his life in the city. In 1960, he met his partner David Whitney, and shortly after they began buying more surrounding property and adding buildings and follies to the site. In 1986 Johnson donated the Glass House to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and after his death in January 2005 plans began to make the site accessible to the public. Whitney died just six months later and his estate became a trust to support the site.

In order to prepare for its public debut, the trust has engaged in a number of projects to restore the property. A new roof was put on the Glass House and the glass panels will soon be replaced. The interior of the house is as Johnson lived in it with all of its original furnishings. Due to ordinances passed by the town, tours are limited to 8–10 people at a time with no more than 49 visitors per day. The result is that the experience feels intimate, as if you really were a guest in Johnson’s home.

Some of the other structures such as the painting gallery and sculpture gallery are still being restored, as are a number of the follies. Johnson’s private study — or “monk’s cell,” as he liked to call it — is not open to the public, however, there is a clever video in the visitor’s center that chronicles his extensive collection of books by slowly scanning his shelves. Another video shot in the sculpture gallery, over many days and seasons, is sped-up to demonstrate how the light changes throughout the year and even catches shadows cast by a full moon.

The visitor’s center is located in downtown New Canaan across the street from the train station. In order to control access to the site visitors must schedule an appointment and then will be taken by van from the visitor’s center to the site. The center does a good job with their Visitors Guide, a beautiful and tightly designed collection of postcards with images on one side and information on the back, bundled in a packet with a silver rubber band. By designing the guide as a series of interchangeable cards rather than a linear book, they let visitors choreograph their own way through the project, experiencing each structure as an individual event, while allowing them to see that each piece exists as a part of the larger whole.

Appointments are necessary; philipjohnsonglasshouse.org.