January 8, 1906- January 25, 2005

ARCHITECT PHILIP JOHNSON

Beginning of Career:- Founded the

Department of Architecture and Design at Museum of Modern Art (1930)

- Produced the landmark show “The International Style: Architecture since 1922” as an introduction of modern architecture to the American public.

What is Modern Architecture?1. Emphasis on architectural volume over mass (planes over solidity)2. A rejection of symmetry3. A rejection of applied decoration

- 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 and 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 and is the only object that

goes from floor to ceiling. - Johnson continued to add new architectural essays to his Glass

House Estate

THE GLASS HOUSE: HIS MASTERPIECE

Each building in his Glass House complex in New Canaan was an exploration of a new interest, and 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.”

The Brick House The Pond Pavilion

Painting Gallery

Sculpture Gallery

The Ghost House

Da Monsta

The Seagram Building (NYC):- Johnson collaborated with

Mies van der Rohe to design a 39-story skyscraper in 1958.

- After this, Johnson’s practice grew and he worked on projects like the Lincoln Center and 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 John Burgee to design numerous towers all over the county with his famous International Style.

IDS Center, Minneapolis

Crystal Cathedral,Southern California

Pennzoil Place,Houston, TX

The AT&T Building:- Build 1984 in Manhattan

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 many 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 and 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.”