a perfect, no-car day trip from NYC for art + design lovers to...

a perfect, no-car day trip from NYC for art + design lovers to... The Glass House + Grace Farms • New Canaan, CT before we start... Hi! I'm Chloe and I'm a designer living in NYC. i love cool places, clothes, crafts, and generally plan all of the group trips. you can find me across TikTok, IG, city guides I'm writing on Substack! now let's get into it~ we took the 9:02 AM Metro North train from Grand Central to New Canaan (transfer at Stamford), arriving at 10:21AM. do NOT accidentally take the local train to Stamford bc you will be sad and have added on an extra 30 min to your trip Our first stop of the day was at The Glass House by Philip Johnson for a 10:30am, 2 hour tour of the house + art galleries. Known as his architectural masterpiece, Johnson lived in this modernist abode with his partner for over 50 years until his passing. Here to see his work but also know he is not really a good person these were the first Barcelona chairs ever brought to the US! We learned a lot about how he was inspired visiting the Bauhaus and the interesting lighting challenges faced while living in an actual glass house the bathroom is inside a brick column for some privacy the study was so beautiful the living room looked out upon this lake which contained the initial model for Lincoln Center in NYC we also toured separate buildings containing his sculpture gallery modeled after a Mediterranean village and art bunker containing a collection of many Frank Stella paintings Next, we took a 10 minute Uber to Grace Farms and immediately headed to the cafe for lunch I had heard the food is really good here and it was solid! Probably the best museum cafe-vibe cafeteria food you could get had a turkey melt + garden tomato soup Then we popped around the campus and went to the library. Here, the tickets were free and everything was self-guided so you could explore at your own pace! The scenery was so beautiful for the fall. There's also short hiking/ walking trails but I was too cold to entertain them There's a tea pavilion with free tastings of their own tea brand products There's also a basketball court, soccer field, and auditorium area to explore We hopped on the 3:28pm Metro North home and got back by 5pm! Perfect amount of time for a day trip. The Glass House tour was easily my favorite part of the day. I'm not sure if I could recommend a trip out solely for Grace Farms - it's more of a community center to chill out at + take cute pics, but very family friendly. Hope you find this useful! + follow for more design-life ❤️