extended it to . When the Glass House estate first opened for public tours in 2007, tickets sold out quickly. By July 2010, 15,000 visitors had taken the tour. Reception The Encyclopedia of American Architecture (1980) described the Glass House as being "still considered one of [Johnson's] best buildings". According to Nicolai Ouroussoff, Glass House is inferior to Farnsworth House in "intellectual rigor" and exquisite detailing. He wrote that the steel I-beams at the corners of Johnson's building "are clumsily detailed—especially disconcerting in a work of such purity." Nevertheless, the building is "a legitimate aesthetic triumph", with the glass walls beautifully layering silhouetted and reflected images layered on each other, the critic wrote. "[T]he classical references alluded to by its thin brick base and the symmetrical proportions of its frame demonstrate the range of Johnson's historical knowledge." Ouroussoff criticized the underground picture gallery as too "dark and somber", and said the ability to flip the paintings on movable walls is a more rigid situation than it might first appear, since only six works can be seen at any one time. Ouroussoff praised the sculpture gallery as pleasingly open and rejected criticism that the shadows cast by rafters beneath the skylights distorted the look of the sculpture—he thought the changing shadows enhanced the artwork. The poor energy efficiency of the Glass House has been widely discussed. Tours and visitor center Tour groups are limited to 15 people and include a 3/4-mile walk through the estate. Tours begin and end at the Visitor Center in downtown New Canaan, Connecticut (across from the train station), where vehicles transport each group to the site near the New Canaan–Stamford border. "Standard" tours last 90 minutes and flash photography is not allowed. There is a pure glass tour that only visits the house and is an hour long. Extended tours last two hours and cost more. Tours at twilight and "personalized" tours are also offered. Special Events include a "Dine with Design" picnic and film festival, as well as regularly scheduled Conversations in Context which feature prominent figures in the architecture and design community and take place for a limited number inside The Glass House. The Visitor Center, which was designed to reflect Johnson's uncluttered aesthetic, includes a "media wall" with multiple video loops running simultaneously on a wall with 24 computer screens. The screens, not meant to be viewed in any order, are meant to