Philip Cortelyou Johnson
B. 1906 Cleveland, Ohio
D. 2005 New Canaan, Connecticut

 

“The practice of architecture is the most delightful of all pursuits.  Also, next to agriculture, it is the most necessary to man.  One must eat, one must have shelter.”

 

With these words Philip Johnson opened his acceptance speech upon being the first recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1979. Johnson received an A.B. in architectural history from Harvard University.  He became the first Director of the Department of Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art where he helped establish the reputation of European Modernists like Mies van der Rohe (with whom he would later design the Seagram Building) and Walter Gropius. Johnson co-directed the Modern Architecture exhibition at MOMA, which led to the codification of the principles of modern architecture in International Style: Architecture since 1922 written with Henry-Russell Hitchcock.  In 1940 Johnson returned to Harvard’s Graduate School of Design where he trained under Marcel Breuer.  He practiced architecture in Cambridge, Massachusetts until 1946 when he moved back to New York to serve as Director of Architecture at MOMA.

 

Johnson's early influence as a practicing architect was his use of glass.   His masterpiece was a “Glass House” he designed as his own residence in New Canaan, Connecticut (1949). After completing several houses in the style of Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, Johnson joined Mies van der Rohe as the New York associate architect for the 39-story Seagram Building (1956).  He worked with Richard Foster from 1964 to 1967 and then with John Burgee from 1967 until his retirement.  Johnson received the AIA Gold Medal in 1978.

 

Once Johnson had helped established Modernist architecture in the United States he moved on to experimenting with decorative Classicism that would become known as Postmodernism, and then returned again to Modernism. His Glass House, the sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art, and the pre-Columbian gallery at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington D.C., are widely considered among the architectural masterpieces of the 20th century. Buildings by Johnson in the New York area are The New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, Tisch Hall and the façade of the Andre and Bella Meyer Hall of Physics at New York University; the AT&T (now Sony) Building (with John Burgee), the Museum of Television and Radio and #1 Central Park West (with Alan Richie), and in the Bronx, The Henry L. Moses Research Institute.

 

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

 

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