Philip Johnson

For other people named similarly, seePhillip Johnson (disambiguation).

Philip Johnson
Johnson aged 95, with a model of a privately commissioned sculpture (2002)
Born	Philip Cortelyou Johnson (1906-07-08)July 8, 1906 Cleveland,Ohio,U.S.
Died	January 25, 2005(2005-01-25)(aged 98) New Canaan, Connecticut,U.S.
Alma mater	Harvard Graduate School of Design
Occupation	Architect
Awards	Pritzker Prize(1979) AIA Gold Medal(1978)
Buildings	Glass House,Seagram Building's 2 restaurants,550 Madison Avenue,IDS Tower,PPG Place,Crystal Cathedral

Philip Cortelyou Johnson(July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an Americanarchitectwho designedmodernandpostmodern architecture.Among his best-known designs are his modernistGlass HouseinNew Canaan, Connecticut;the postmodern550 Madison AvenueinNew York City,designed for AT&T;190 South La Salle StreetinChicago;the Sculpture Garden of New York City'sMuseum of Modern Art;and the Pre-Columbian Pavilion atDumbarton Oaks.His January 2005 obituary inThe New York Timesdescribed his works as being "widely considered among the architectural masterpieces of the 20th century".

In 1930, Johnson became the first director of the architecture department of theMuseum of Modern Artin New York. There he arranged for visits byWalter GropiusandLe Corbusierand negotiated the first American commission forMies van der Rohe,after he fledNazi Germany.In 1932, he organized withHenry-Russell Hitchcockthe first exhibition dedicated to modern architecture at the Museum of Modern Art, which gave name to the subsequent movement known asInternational Style.In 1934, Johnson resigned his position at the museum.

During the 1930s, Johnson became an ardent admirer ofAdolf Hitler,openly praised theNazi Party,and espousedantisemiticviews.He wrote forSocial JusticeandExaminer,where he published an admiring review of Hitler'sMein Kampf.In 1939, as a correspondent forSocial Justice,he witnessed Hitler'sinvasion of Poland,which he later described as "a stirring spectacle".In 1941, after the U.S. entered the war, Johnson abruptly renounced his earlier views, quit journalism, organizing anti-Fascist league atHarvard Design School.He was investigated by theFBI,and was eventually cleared for military service.He evaded indictment and jail by cooperating with the prosecution, though, according to some critics, it was because of his social connections.Years later he would refer to these activities as "the stupidest thing I ever did[which] I never can atone for ".

In 1978, he was awarded anAmerican Institute of ArchitectsGold Medal.In 1979, he was the first recipient of thePritzker Architecture Prize.Today his skyscrapers are prominent features in the skylines of New York, Houston, Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Madrid, and other cities.

Early life and career

Johnson, byCarl Van VechtenJanuary 18, 1933

Johnson was born inCleveland,Ohio, on July 8, 1906, the son of a lawyer, Homer Hosea Johnson (1862–1960), and the former Louisa Osborn Pope (1869–1957), a niece ofAlfred Atmore Popeand a first cousin ofTheodate Pope Riddle.He had an older sister, Jeannette, and a younger sister, Theodate. He was descended from the Jansen family of New Amsterdam. His ancestors include theHuguenotJacques Cortelyou,who laid out the first town plan ofNew AmsterdamforPeter Stuyvesant.He grew up inNew London, Ohio.He had astutterand was diagnosed withcyclothymia.He attended theHackley SchoolinTarrytown, New York,then studied as an undergraduate atHarvard Universitywhere he focused on learning Greek,philology,history andphilosophy,particularly the work of the Pre-Socratic philosophers.

Upon completing his studies in 1930,he made a series of trips to Europe, particularly Germany, where his family had a summer house. He visited the landmarks of classical and Gothic architecture, and joinedHenry-Russell Hitchcock,a prominent architectural historian, who was introducing Americans to the work ofLe Corbusier,Walter Gropius,and other modernists. In 1928, he met German architectLudwig Mies van der Rohe,who was at the time designing theGerman Pavilionfor the1929 Barcelona International Exposition.The meeting formed the basis for a lifelong relationship of both collaboration and competition.

Johnson had a substantial fortune, largely due to his father's successful investment inAlcoa,the Aluminum Company of America.With this fortune, in 1930 he financed the new architecture department of theMuseum of Modern Artin New York, and in 1932 he was named its curator. As curator he arranged for American visits by Gropius and Le Corbusier, and negotiated the first American commission for Mies van der Rohe. In 1932, working with Hitchcock andAlfred H. Barr, Jr.,he organized the first exhibition on Modern architecture at the Museum of Modern Art.The show and their simultaneously published bookInternational Style: Modern Architecture Since 1922,published in 1932, played a seminal role in introducingmodern architectureto the American public.

When the rise of the Nazis in Germany forced the modernistsMarcel BreuerandMies van der Roheto leave Germany, Johnson helped arrange for them to come to work in the United States.He created a small organization called the Gray Shirts, styled after the Nazi Brownshirts.

The amount of power he yearned for was inversely proportional to the amount he actually attained. In politics, he proved to be a trifler, the dilettante he earlier feared himself to be, a model of futility who sought to find a messiah or to pursue messianic ends but whose most lasting following turned out to be the agents of the FBI—who themselves finally grew bored with him. In short, he was never much of a political threat to anyone, still less an effective doer of either political good or political evil.

Franz Schulze,Philip Johnson: Life and Work(1994), p.144

Politics and journalism

In December 1934, Johnson abruptly left the Museum of Modern Art and began pursuing a career in journalism and politics. He first became a supporter ofHuey Long,the populist governor of Louisiana. He tried and failed to recruit Long to join the National Party, which he founded.Johnson unsuccessfully ran for representative of New London in the Ohio state legislature.After Long was assassinated in 1935, Johnson became a correspondent forSocial Justice,the newspaper of the radical-populist and anti-Semitic FatherCharles Coughlin.Johnson traveled to Germany and Poland as a correspondent, where he wrote admiringly about the Nazis.

InSocial Justice,Johnson expressed, asThe New York Timeslater reported, "more than passing admiration for Hitler".In the summer of 1932 Johnson attended one of theNuremberg Ralliesin Germany and saw Hitler for the first time. Years later he would describe the event to his biographer, Franz Schulze: "You simply could not fail to be caught up in the excitement of it, by the marching songs, by the crescendo and climax of the whole thing, as Hitler came on at last to harangue the crowd". He told of being thrilled at the sight of "all those blond boys in black leather" marching past the Führer.Sponsored by the German government, he traveled on a press tour which covered the invasion of Poland in 1939. Schulze dismissed these early political activities as inconsequential, concluding they merited "little more substantial attention than they have gained" and his politics "were driven as much by an unconquerable esthetic impulse as by fascist philosophy or playboy adventurism".

Architecture school and Army service

In 1941, at the age of 35, Johnson abandoned politics and journalism and enrolled in theHarvard Graduate School of Design,where he studied withMarcel BreuerandWalter Gropius,who had recently fled from Nazi Germany.In 1941, Johnson designed and built his first building, a house at 9 Ash Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The house, strongly influenced by Mies van der Rohe, has a wall around the lot which merges with the structure.It was used by Johnson to host social events and was eventually submitted as his graduate thesis; he sold the house after the war, and it was purchased by Harvard in 2010and restored by 2016.

In 1942, while still a student of the architecture school, Johnson tried to enlist withNaval Intelligence,and then for a federal job, but was rejected both times. In 1943, after his graduation from Harvard, he was drafted to the Army and was sent toFort Ritchie, Maryland,to interrogate Germanprisoners of war.He was investigated by the FBI for his involvement with the German government, Coughlin andLawrence Dennis,an American fascist economist, and was cleared for continued military service.After thetrial of Dennis and his collaborators,Johnson was relieved of his interrogation duties and transferred toFort Belvoir, Virginia,where he spent the rest of his military service doing routine duties.

Early Modernist period (1946–1960)

• 
  TheGlass House(1949)
• 
  Interior of theGlass House(1949)
• 
  Farnsworth HousebyMies(designed 1945–7) for comparison
• 
  The Four Seasons' restaurant of Seagram Building in its original form (1956)

In 1946, after he completed his schooling and his military service, Johnson returned to the Museum of Modern Art as a curator and writer. At the same time, he began working to establish his architectural practice. He built a small house, influenced by the work of Mies, in Sagaponack, Long Island. In 1947, he published the first monograph in English on the architecture of Mies.

In 1947, he curated the first exhibition of modern architecture of the Museum of Modern Art including a model of the glassFarnsworth Houseof Mies.

In 1949, he began building a new residence, theGlass Housein New Canaan, Connecticut, that was completed in 1949. It was clearly influenced byFarnsworth Houseof Mies, an influence which Johnson never denied, but looked quite different.

The Glass House is a 56-foot by 32-foot glass rectangle, sited at the edge of a crest on Johnson's estate overlooking a pond. The building's sides are glass and charcoal-painted steel; the floor, of brick, is not flush with the ground but sits 10 inches above. The interior is an open space divided by low walnut cabinets; a brick cylinder contains the bathroom and is the only object to reach floor to ceiling.The New York Timesdescribed it in 2005 as "one of the 20th century's greatest residential structures." Like all of Johnson's early work, it was inspired by Mies, but its pure symmetry, dark colors and closeness to the earth marked it as a personal statement; calm and ordered rather than sleek and brittle. "

Johnson continued to add to the Glass House estate during each period of his career. He added a small pavilion with columns by the lake in 1963, an art gallery set into a hillside in 1965, a postmodern sculpture gallery with a glass roof in 1970; a castle-like library with a rounded tower in 1980; and a concrete block tower dedicated to his friendLincoln Kirstein,the founder of theNew York City Ballet;a chain-link "ghost house" dedicated toFrank Gehry.

After completing the Glass House, he completed two more houses in New Canaan in a style similar to the Glass House; theHodgson House(1951) and the Wiley House (1953). In New York City, He designed two major modernist additions to the Museum of Modern Art; a new annex, and, to complement it, theAbby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden(1953)

In 1954–56, he made thepro bonodesign forCongregation Kneses Tifereth Israel,a synagogue for aconservative Jewish congregationinPort Chester, New York.It had a simple interior and a ceiling of curving plaster panels.

Soreq Nuclear Research Center,Nahal Soreq,Israel

In 1957, Johnson designed theSoreq Nuclear Research CenterinIsraelat the invitation ofShimon Peres.

Johnson joined Mies van der Rohe as the architect of record (Mies did not have NY license) for the 39-storySeagram Building(1956). Johnson was pivotal in steering the commission towards Mies by working withPhyllis Lambert,the daughter of the CEO ofSeagram.The commission resulted in the iconic bronze-and-glass tower on Park Avenue. The building was designed by Mies, and the interiors of the Four Seasons and Brasserie restaurants (later redesigned), as well as office furniture were designed by Johnson.In December 1955, the city of New York denied an architect's permit to Mies. He moved back to Chicago and put Johnson fully in charge of construction. Mies returned in late 1956 and finished the building.

In 1989, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Seagram's exterior, lobby, and The Four Seasons Restaurant as official city landmarks. In 2006, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Late Modernism (1960–1980)

• 
  Monastery building atSt. Anselm's Abbeyin Washington DC (1960)
• 
  Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts InstituteinUtica, New York(1960)
• 
  TheDavid Koch TheateratLincoln Centerin New York City (completed 1964)

Throughout the 1960s, Johnson continued to create in the vocabulary of the modernist style, designing geometrical theatres, a monastery, art galleries and gardens. TheMunson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute(1960) is a good example of his work in the period; it is supported by eight external ferro-concrete piers, or two on each side. The exterior structural members are clad inbronzeand "black" Canadiangranite.The windowless cube is set above the office areas, which recessed in a dry moat, giving a "floating" effect.A model of the building was exhibited in the United States Pavilion at theBrussels' World's Fair of 1958,as an example of the new trends in American architecture. It was listed on theNational Register of Historic Placesin 2010.

Another major project of the period was the Atrium of theDavid H. Koch Theater(formerly the New York State Theatre, the home of theNew York City Ballet,atLincoln Centerin New York.

• 
  The Johnson Building atBoston Public Library,Boston, Massachusetts (1972) after its 2016 renovation
• 
  Pennzoil Placein Houston, Texas (1970–1976)
• 
  Pennzoil Place from above
• 
  Paley Center for Media, New York (1991)

In 1967, Johnson entered a new phase of his career, founding a partnership with architectJohn Burgee.He began to design office building complexes for large corporations. The most prominent of these wasPennzoil Place(1970–76) in Houston, Texas. The two towers of Pennzoil Place have sloping roofs covering the top seven floors and are trapezoidal in form, planned to create two large triangual areas on the site, which are occupied with glass-covered lobbies designed like greenhouses. This idea was widely copied in skyscrapers in other cities.

The new building of theBoston Public Library(1972), known as the Johnson building, adjoins the original Boston library built in the 19th century by the celebrated firm ofMcKim, Mead & White.Johnson harmonised his building with the original landmark by using similar proportions and the same pink Milford granite.

• 
  TheFort Worth Water Gardens,inFort Worth,Texas (1974)
• 
  TheFort Worth Water Gardens
• 
  The spiral chapel inThanks-Giving SquareinDallas,Texas (1977)

In the late 1970s, Johnson combined architecture and landscape architecture to create two imaginative civic gardens. TheFort Worth Water Gardensopened in 1974, is an urban landscape where visitors experience water in distinct ways. The gardens cover 4.3-acres (1.7 hectare), and comprise three very different kinds of water features; One offers a quiet meditation pool, surrounded with cypress trees and high walls, with a thin sheet of water cascading downward to the pool, making the sound of a rain shower. The second pool is an aerating pool with multiple illuminated spray fountains, beneath a grove of oak trees. The third fountain is the Active Pool, which challenges fit visitors to walk down 38 feet (12 meters) to the pool at the bottom, with water cascading all around them.

In 1977, Johnson completed a much quieter garden in Dallas,Thanks-Giving Square.It features a non-denominational chapel in a spiral form, a meditation garden and cascading fountains, tucked between buildings in the center of the city.

Postmodern period (1980–1990)

• 
  TheCrystal Cathedral(finished 1980)
• 
  Interior of the Crystal Cathedral
• 
  Interior of the Cathedral in 2004

In 1980, Johnson and Burgee completed a cathedral in a dramatic new style: theCrystal Cathedralin Garden Grove, California, is a soaring glassmegachurchoriginally built for the ReverendRobert H. Schuller.The interior can seat 2,248 persons. It takes the form of a four-pointed star, with free-standing balconies in three points and the chancel in the fourth. The cathedral is covered with more than 10,000 rectangular pieces of glass. The Glass panels are not bolted, but glued to the structure, with a silicon based glue, to give it greater ability to resist Southern California earthquakes.Johnson and Burgee designed it to withstand an earthquake of magnitude 8.0.The tower was added in 1990.

The cathedral quickly became a Southern California landmark, but its costs helped drive the church into debt. When the church declared bankruptcy in 2012, it was purchased by theRoman Catholic Diocese of Orangeand became the Roman Catholic cathedral for Orange County.

Working with John Burgee, Johnson did not confine himself to a single style and was comfortable mixing elements of modernism and postmodernism. For theCleveland Play House,he built a Romanesque brick structure. His skyscrapers in the 1980s were clad in granite and marble and usually had some feature borrowed from historic architecture. In New York he designed theMuseum of Television and Radio(now the Paley Center for Media) (1991).

• 
  550 Madison Avenue(1982)
• 
  Top of550 Madison Avenue
• 
  Window of550 Madison Avenue
• 
  Entrance of550 Madison Avenue

In 1982, working in collaboration with John Burgee, he finished one of his most famous buildings,550 Madison Avenue,(first known as AT&T Building, then the Sony building before taking its present name). Built between 1978 and 1982, it is a skyscraper with an eight-story high arched entry and a split pediment at the top which resembles an enormous piece of 18th-centuryChippendale furniture.It was not the first work ofpostmodern architecture,asRobert VenturiandFrank Gehryhad already built smaller scale postmodern buildings, andMichael Graveshad completed thePortland Building(1980–82) inPortland, Oregon,two years earlier. But the building's Manhattan location, size, and originality made it the most famous and recognizable example ofpostmodern architecture.It was designated a city landmark by theNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commissionin 2018.

• 
  TC Energy Center(formerly Bank of America Center) in Houston, Texas (1983)
• 
  TheTC Energy Center,Houston (1983)
• 
  PPG Place,Pittsburgh,(1984)

Between 1979 and 1984, Johnson and Burgee builtPPG Place,the postmodern headquarters of thePittsburgh Plate Glass Company.It is a complex of six buildings within three city blocks, covering five and a half acres. The centerpiece is the 40-story tower, One PPG Place, which has a crown of spires at the corners which suggest theneogothictower of theHouses of Parliamentin London. During the 1980s, Johnson and Burgee completed a series of other notable postmodern landmarks. TheTC Energy Center(formerly Republic Bank Center, later, Bank of America Center), in Houston (1983), was the first postmodern skyscraper in the Houston skyline. Fifty-six stories high, it has two setbacks creating what appear to be three different buildings, one against the other. The three triangular gables were inspired by Flemish Renaissance architecture.The interior and exterior are covered with rough-textured red granite, which also covers the surrounding sidewalks.

• 
  Hines College of Architectureat the University of Houston (1985)
• 
  The ellipticalLipstick Buildingin Manhattan, (1986)
• 
  The concrete tower and cupola of400 West Marketin Louisville, Kentucky (1993)

The new building for theHines College of Architecture(1985) of the University of Houston paid homage to forms drawn from earlier periods of architectural history, using modern materials, construction methods, and scale. The facade of the Hines building resembles, on a larger scale, the neoclassic facades of the French architectClaude Nicolas Ledoux.

400 West Market(1993) in Louisville, Kentucky, is a 35-story office tower built of reinforced concrete rather than the typical steel. It is topped by a concrete cupola, a vestige of the building's original owner and builder, Capital Holding.

In 1986, Johnson and Burgee moved their offices into one of their new buildings, the ellipticalLipstick Buildingat 885 Third Avenue in New York, nicknamed because of its resemblance to the color and shape of a stick of lipstick. A feud was beginning between the two architects, with Burgee demanding greater recognition.

As their business flourished and number of clients grew, the feud between Burgee and Johnson continued to grow. In 1988, the firm's name was changed to John Burgee Architects with Johnson as the "design consultant". In 1991, Johnson responded by establishing his own firm. The feud ended badly for Burgee; he was saddled with all of the firm's debts, while Johnson no longer had any responsibility. Burgee was eventually forced to declare bankruptcy and to retire, while Johnson continued to get commissions.

Later career and buildings (1991–2005)

• 
  Ally Detroit Centerin Detroit, Michigan (1991–1993)
• 
  191 Peachtree Towerin Atlanta (1991)
• 
  Chapel of St. Basilat the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas (1992)
• 
  "Da Monsta" entry pavilion for theGlass Housein New Canaan, Connecticut (1995)
• 
  Gate of Europetowers in Madrid, Spain (1989–96)
• 
  190 South LaSallein Chicago, Illinois (1987)

After four years as a solo practitioner, Johnson invited Alan Ritchie to join him as a partner. Ritchie had been a partner for many years in the Johnson-Burgee office and was the partner-in-charge of the AT&T building and the190 South LaSalleoffice building, a skyscraper designed as an homage to the demolishedMasonic Templeof Chicago. In 1994, they formed the new practice of Philip Johnson-Alan Ritchie Architects. During the next 10 years, they worked closely together and explored new directions in architecture, designing buildings as sculptural objects.

TheGate of Europein Madrid (1989-1996) was originally a collaboration with Burgee and one of his rare works in Europe. It features two office buildings leaning toward each other, the first example of this style, which spread to America. The towers are 26 stories each, and both lean by 15 degrees from vertical.

191 Peachtree Towerin Atlanta was a project begun with Burgee. It is composed of two 50-story towers joined and crowned with two classical pavilions.

TheComerica Tower(1991-1993) was also begun with Burgee. Like their earlier Postmodern works, it featured elements borrowed from historical architecture, particularly the triangular gables, borrowed from RenaissanceFlemish architecture.It is the second tallest building in the state of Michigan.

TheChapel of St. Basilat theUniversity of St. Thomasin Houston, Texas (1992) is a notable late work. The design includes a domed chapel, a campanile, and a meditation garden, a labyrinth. Its structure is a combination of the basic forms: a cube, a sphere, and a plane. The cube contains the worship area, beneath a semi-sphere, which is presented as the symbolic opening to heaven. The vertical rectangular granite plane divides the church and opens the chapel to light. During daytime the interior is lit entirely with natural light.

In 1995, Johnson added a postmodern element to his own residence, theGlass House.This was a new entry pavilion in a sculptural form, which he called the "Monsta", or "Monster".

Other late works include theCathedral of Hope in Dallas,theHabitable Sculpture(a 26-story apartment tower in lower Manhattan), The Children's Museum in Guadalajara, Mexico, and TheChrysler Center.

• 
  TheUrban Glass Housecondominiums in New York (2006)
• 
  The Ware Centerin Lancaster, Pennsylvania (2008)

TheUrban Glass Housein lower Manhattan was one of last designs with Alan Ritchie, and was not completed after Johnson's death. It is a condominium building in lower Manhattan whose form was inspired by Johnson's most famous early work, theGlass Housein New Canaan, Connecticut.

The final building he designed with Richie was thePennsylvania Academy of Musicbuilding inLancaster, Pennsylvania,which was completed in 2008, three years after his death.

Honors

In 1978, Johnson was awarded anAmerican Institute of ArchitectsGold Medal.In 1979, he became the first recipient of thePritzker Architecture Prizethe most prestigious international architectural award.

In 1991, Johnson received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement.

Personal life

Johnson wasgay.He came out publicly in 1993, and was regarded as "the best-known openly gay architect in America".

In 1934, Philip Johnson began his first serious relationship withJimmie Daniels,a cabaret singer. The relationship lasted one year.

Johnson died in his sleep at hisGlass Houseretreat on January 25, 2005, at the age of ninety-eight. His partner of 45 years,David Whitney,died later that year at age 66.

Johnson was among the public figures at the core of the effort to saveOlana,the home ofFrederic Edwin Church,before it was dedicated aNational Historic Landmarkin 1965 and subsequently became a New York State Historic Site.

In his will Johnson left his residential compound to theNational Trust for Historic Preservation.It is now open to the public.

Art collection and archives

As an art collector Johnson had an eclectic eye. He supportedavant-gardemovements and young artists often before they became widely known. His collection of American art was strong inAbstract expressionism,Pop Art,Minimalism,Neo-Dada,Color Field,Lyrical Abstraction,andNeo-Expressionismand he often donated important works from his collection to institutions likeMoMA,and other important private museums and University collections like theNorton Simon Museum,theSheldon Museum of Artand theIris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual ArtsatStanford Universityamong many others.

Johnson's publicly held archive, including architectural drawings, project records, and other papers up until 1964 are held by the Drawings and Archives Department ofAvery Architectural and Fine Arts LibraryatColumbia University,the Getty, and the Museum of Modern Art.

Controversy over political activities

Reviewing Franz Schulze's biography of Johnson, Kazys Varnelis wrote that "between 1932 and 1940, Johnson was anantisemite,fascistsympathizer, and activepropagandistfor theNazi government."According to Varnelis, "Johnson makes no apologetic gesture toward his past behavior unless he is confronted by direct questioning, nothing even as paltry as an open letter accounting for and regretting his past actions and condemning the motives that led him to them".Johnson's activities included organizing political rallies for populistHuey Long;funding figures such as the right-wing agitatorJoe McWilliamsand his "Christian Mobilizers";and writing for three periodicals, includingCharles Coughlin'sSocial Justice,whose "almost every issue contained articles about the 'Jewish conspiracy' or about destructive economic forces led by figures with Jewish names".

Because his family had a home in Germany and spent their summers there, Johnson traveled there frequently. As aSocial Justicecorrespondent, he covered the huge Nazi rally at Nuremberg and the 1939invasion of Polandwith approval. The American correspondentWilliam L. Shirer,traveling with him on the Nazi-sponsored press tour, labeled him inBerlin Diary,as "the American fascist" and suspected him of spying for the Germans.On the same tour, three weeks after Poland fell to the Nazis, Johnson, with Shirer, "was with German troops at the front as the guest of thePropaganda Ministry".He wrote to a friend that "The German green uniforms made the place look gay and happy... There were not many Jews to be seen. We saw Warsaw burn andModlin being bombed.It was a stirring spectacle. "

In hisSocial Justicereport on his trip to Poland, Johnson declared that the German victory amounted to an unmitigated triumph for the Polish people and that nothing in the war's outcome need concern Americans. Johnson went on to say that German forces had not significantly harmed Polish civilians, and said that "99 percent of the towns I visited since the war are not only intact but full of Polish peasants and Jewish shopkeepers." He said reports of Nazi mistreatment of Poles was "misinformed".Referring to political developments in France, Johnson wrote inSocial Justicethat "Lack of leadership and direction in the state has let the one group get control who always gain power in a nation's time of weakness—the Jews". In 1940 Johnson quit journalism and distanced himself from politics.

In April 1942, on reports that Johnson might be working inColonel Donovan'sOffice of the Coordinator of Information,theUnited States Assistant Attorney GeneralJames H. Rowewrote to Director Hoover, saying, "I can think of no more dangerous man to have working in an agency which possesses so many military secrets."Johnson was later investigated by the FBI, but no charges were brought against him, and he was cleared for military service.

Johnson was inducted into the U.S. Army in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on March 12, 1943, but controversy continued. His name arose again in the so-called "Great Sedition Trial"of 1944 through his former contacts in the 1930s with its main target, the former diplomat and economistLawrence Dennis,who in the 1930s supported fascist economics as an alternative to capitalism. Dennis was charged withsedition,or advocating the forcible overthrow of the U.S. government, under theSmith Act.Johnson was accused of "close and steady contact" with Dennis in the spring of 1938, and providing financial support towards publishing Dennis's 1940 bookThe Dynamics of War and Revolution.Johnson had already testified in 1942 in the government case against another former associate, the German poet and journalistGeorge Sylvester Viereckin 1942.The ongoing federal case against Dennis, an FBI investigation, and a congressional investigation investigated about 30 people, including Johnson, but in the end he was not charged.Johnson was formally asked to appear at trial as a witness, and—by his own account—was speaking to prosecutorO. John Rogge,but after JudgeEdward C. Eicherdied of a heart attack, a mistrial was declared and the case was dropped.

In 1993, when asked byVanity Fairabout his past political views, he said, "I have no excuse (for) such unbelievable stupidity.... I don't know how you expiate guilt."

In 1956, he donated a design forCongregation Kneses Tifereth Israelin Port Chester, New York. Architecture professor Anat Geva observed in a paper that "all critics agree that his design of the Port Chester Synagogue can be considered as his attempt to ask for forgiveness."

He discussed his trips to Germany and his infatuation with fascism in a 1996 interview withCharlie Rose.He said, "It was the stupidest thing I ever did, and I never forgive myself and I never can atone for it. There's nothing I can do... That's been torture to me ever since."He admitted to Rose that, while he had "difficulty" withFranklin D. Rooseveltbecause of his inability to achieve what he set out, he "worshiped the man" and "voted for him four times."Replying to Rose asking if he liked "strong figures", he said "Sure do. I like good architects that are strong, likeGehry."

In 2018,Nikil Savalwrote inThe New Yorkerthat "Johnson would later describe Hitler as 'a spellbinder'; in 1964, well after he had been forced to abjure his Nazi past, he insisted in letters that Hitler was 'better than Roosevelt.'"

In 2020, in the wake of themurder of George Floydand the wave ofplace name changesthat followed, the Johnson Study Group—a group of 40 architects, designers, and educators—approached the Museum of Modern Art asking that honors given to Johnson be removed from public view, citing his "commitment to white supremacy", spread of Nazi publications, involvement with American fascist politics, and "effective segregation" of the architectural collection at the museum. "When it comes to racist urban planning policies in the 20th century and a deeply Eurocentric antiblack archive of American architecture,"V. Mitch McEwensaid, "MoMA under white supremacist Philip Johnson did largely create the problem. It innovated white supremacy in architecture... where under his leadership not a single work by any Black architect or designer was included."

In a 2020 article inElle Decormagazine, articles editor Charles Curkin asked Pritzker Prize laureateBalkrishna Doshiif the architecture world was due for a reckoning, citing theMuseum of Modern Art's chief architecture and design curatorship still being named after Johnson. Doshi replied that "Life itself is due for a reckoning, and architects must give respect to life."

In 2020, Johnson's name was dropped from theHarvard UniversityPhilip Johnson Thesis House, which was designed by Johnson.Sarah Whiting,dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, announced the change on December 5, 2020, citing Johnson's "widely documented white supremacist views and activities."

Quotations

• "I got everything from someone. Nobody can be original. As Mies van der Rohe said, 'I don't want to be original. I want to be good.'"
• "Don't build a glass house if you're worried about saving money on heating."
• "Everybody should design their own home. I'm against architects designing homes. How do I know that you want to live in a picture-window Colonial? It's silly, but you might want to. Who am I to say?"
• "Architecture is the arrangement of space for excitement."
• "Storms in this house [TheGlass House] are horrendous but thrilling. Glass shatters. Danger is one of the greatest things to use in architecture. "
• "A room is only as good as you feel when you're in it."
• "Merely that a building works is not sufficient."
• "We still have a monumental architecture. To me, the drive for monumentality is as inbred as the desire for food and sex, regardless of how we denigrate it."

In popular culture

Johnson is mentioned (along with fellow architectRichard Rogers) in the song "Thru These Architect's Eyes" on the albumOutside(1995) byDavid Bowie.

He appears in Nathaniel Kahn'sMy Architect,a 2003 documentary about Kahn's father,Louis Kahn.

Philip Johnson's Glass House, along withMies van der Rohe'sFarnsworth House,was the subject ofSarah Morris's 2010 filmPoints on a Line.Morris filmed at both sites over the course of several months, among other locations including TheFour Seasons Restaurant,the Seagram Building, Mies van der Roheʼs controversial860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments,and ChicagoʼsNewberry Library.

Season 3, Episode 6 of the Bad Gays podcast, a history podcast about complicated queer people, covers Johnson's life.

See also

• List of works by Philip Johnson
• Fascist movement in the United States

References

Bibliography

• Schulze, Franz (1996).Philip Johnson: Life and Work.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.ISBN978-0-226-74058-4.RetrievedMay 15,2018.
• Bony, Anne (2012).L'Architecture Moderne(in French). Larousse.ISBN978-2-03-587641-6.
• Taschen, Aurelia; Taschen, Balthazar (2016).L'Architecture Moderne de A à Z(in French). Bibliotheca Universalis.ISBN978-3-8365-5630-9.
• Prina, Francesca; Demaratini, Demartini (2006).Petite encyclopédie de l'architecture(in French). Solar.ISBN2-263-04096-X.
• Hopkins, Owen (2014).Les styles en architecture- guide visuel(in French). Dunod.ISBN978-2-10-070689-1.
• De Bure, Gilles (2015).Architecture contemporaine- le guide(in French). Flammarion.ISBN978-2-08-134385-6.
• Lamster, Mark(2018).The Man in the Glass House: Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century.Little, Brown and Company.ISBN978-0-316-12643-4.
• Watkin, David (1986).A History of Western Architecture.London: Barrie and Jenkins.ISBN0-7126-1279-3.

Further reading

• Lacayo, Richard (June 28, 2007).Splendor in The Glass.Time.Retrieved March 2021.
• Philip Johnson: Diary of an Eccentric Architect,1997 documentary.Retrieved March 2021
• "Extending the Legacy"Alexandra Lange article on the preservation of the Glass House, from the November 2006 issue ofMetropolismagazine.
• Philip Johnson article at Great Buildings Online.Retrieved September 27, 2003.
• Philip Johnson bio on the Pritzker Architecture Prize website.Retrieved September 27, 2003.
• Philip Johnson and Charlie Rose.Retrieved March 2021.
• Heyer, Paul, ed. (1966).Architects on Architecture: New Directions in America,p. 279. New York: Walker and Company.
• One hour interviewwithCharlie Rose(July 8, 1996) Retrieved March 2021
• Other interviews with or about Philip Johnson on Charlie Rose at Google VideoRetrieved March 2021
• Tomkins, Calvin(May 15, 1977). "Forms Under Light" (Profile of Philip Johnson).The New Yorker.
• Jenkins, Stover, et al.The Houses of Philip Johnson,New York:Abbeville Publishing Group (Abbeville Press, Inc.),2001.

External links

• ObituaryArchivedSeptember 27, 2007, at theWayback Machine
• Philip Johnson architectural drawings, 1943-1994 (bulk 1943-1970).Held by the Department of Drawings & Archives,Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.
• The Architecture of Philip Johnson
• "Philip Johnson Biography and Interview".www.achievement.org.American Academy of Achievement.
• Finding aid forPhilip Johnson architectural projectsat the Getty Research Institute
• Finding aid forPhilip Johnson papersat the Getty Research Institute
• Philip JohnsonatIMDb