The Glenstone Museum, internationally recognized for its serene fusion of contemporary art, architecture, and landscape, expanded its campus under the design leadership of Thomas Phifer and Partners. As part of this broader transformation, Glenstone required a new administrative environment to support its growing staff and daily operations. The museum’s founders asked for a workspace that embodied the same quiet clarity and material discipline as the galleries themselves—a place where people, art, architecture, and nature remain in thoughtful balance.
To achieve this, Glenstone selected John Jessen to design the administrative offices in close collaboration with Thomas Phifer. Jessen’s deep respect for Phifer’s architectural language guided every decision, and he approached the project with the goal of echoing and extending the museum’s distinctive aesthetic. Rather than introducing new ideas or materials, he worked deliberately within Glenstone’s established architectural vocabulary—wood, glass, stainless steel, and concrete—ensuring the administrative spaces would feel like a natural continuation of the museum’s built environment.
The resulting interior is calm, rational, and precisely detailed. Conceived as if carved from a monolithic concrete volume, the space is anchored by two expansive glass walls: one facing outward toward the surrounding landscape and sculpture gardens, the other forming an internal transparent spine that organizes private offices, the library, meeting rooms, and the docent lounge. Natural light becomes a defining feature, softening edges, deepening material richness, and supporting the contemplative character so essential to Glenstone.
Throughout the project, Jessen worked closely with the museum founders and with Phifer’s studio to orchestrate an environment where material choice, systems integration, furniture selection, and art placement operate cohesively. His design reinforced Glenstone’s ethos, wherein architecture does not call attention to itself but instead recedes gracefully, creating space for reflection, creativity, and connection.
In crafting the Glenstone administrative offices, John Jessen contributed to the museum’s civic and cultural mission by designing a workplace that feels inseparable from the architecture that defines Glenstone—quiet, intentional, and deeply attuned to the surrounding natural and artistic landscape.
Project location: Potomac, MD
Project size: 18,000 SF
Work previously completed by John Jessen as Principal Architect & Architect-of-Record with VOA Associates (now Stantec).