ARCHITECT PHILIP

JOHNSON J a n u a r y 8, 1906- J a n u a r y 25,

2005
 B e g i n n i n g of Career:
- Founded the
Department of
Architecture and
Design a t Museum of
Modern Art (1930)
- Produced the
landmark show “The
International Style:
Architecture since
1922” as a n
introduction of
modern architecture
to the American public.

What i s M ode r n Architecture?

1. Emphasis on architectural volume over mass (planes over solidity)
2. A rejection of symmetry
3. A rejection of applied decoration
THE GLASS HOUSE:
H I S MASTERPIECE
- Built in 1949 as Johnson’s primary residence.
- Set in the landscape with views as its real “walls”
- The building’s sides are made of glass a nd charcoal painted steel;
floor is brink, not flush with ground but sits 10 inches above
- Interior is open separated by low walnut cabinets
- A brick cylinder contains the bathroom a nd is the only object t h a t
goes from floor to ceiling.
- Johnson continued to add new architectural essays to his Glass
House Estate
 The Brick House The Pond Pavilion Painting Gallery

Each building in his Glass House complex in New Canaan was an exploration
of a new interest, a n d he was able to leave them as a historic collage of his
interests.. He referred to the Glass House site as his “fifty-year diary.”

Sculpture Gallery The Ghost House Da Monsta

The S e a g r a m Bui l di ng
(NYC):
- Johnson collaborated with
Mies van der Rohe to design a
39-story skyscraper in 1958.
- After this, Johnson’s practice
grew a nd he worked on
projects like the Lincoln
Center a nd New York State
Theater.
- After completion Johnson
moved from his glass and
steel tower buildings to
designing spectacular
crystalline structures
sheathed in glass.
Builder of Iconic
Office Towers
(1969-1991)
Collaborated with J ohn Burgee to design numerous towers all over the
county with his famous International Style.

IDS Center, Crystal Cathedral, Pennzoil Place,

Minneapolis Southern California Houston, TX
Th e AT&T Building:
- Build 1984 in M a n h a t ta n
for Sony
- Immediately controversial
for its neo-Georgian
pediment.
- Defied every aspect of
modernist aesthetic.
- Seen as the first
Postmodernist statement
“Philip was an unbelievable conduit between the people with
money and the younger people who design things.”
“He was responsible for
helping so ma n y of us to
launch our careers. The
Pennzoil towers in
Houston changed the
anonymity of the typical
office tower into a more
sculptural object.”

“Johnson was a singular

tastemaker, influencing
architecture, art, and
design during the second-
half of the twentieth
century.”
“His 1932 exhibition placed architecture in the museum, making it
a discipline as important as painting or sculpture. That had a
major effect on the way Americans looked at it, and I don’t know of
any other equivalent in another country, putting architecture in
museums that early.”
“His exhibition in 1932
on International Style at
the Museum of Modern
Art a n d the book that he
wrote with Henry-Russell
Hitchcock sold
modernism to America.
He made it
understandable by
concentrating on the
formal aspects of
modernism, which is
what interested the
public at large”
“Johnson was the Andy Warhol of architecture: He was instrumental in
transforming dogmatic modern practice into an issue of style, and the
status of the architect into celebrity.”