PHILIP CORTELYOU JOHNSON
(1906-2005)

In 1928, Johnson met the Bauhaus architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who was at the time designing the German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona exhibition. The meeting was a revelation for Johnson and formed the basis for a lifelong relationship.

Johnson organized the landmark show "The International Style: Architecture Since 1922" at the Museum of Modern Art in 1932. It was profoundly influential and is seen as the US introduction such pivotal architects as Le Corbusier, Gropius, and van der Rohe. The exhibition was also notable for controversy: architect Frank Lloyd Wright withdrew his entries in pique that he was not more prominently featured.

Johnson joined van der Rohe in the design of the 1956  Seagram Building, a bronze and glass tower on Park Avenue.  The New York Times called it the most important building of the twentieth century.  Later Johnson commissions included the master plan of Lincoln Center, PPG Place in Pittsburgh, various building at New York University, and the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.  He was the first winner of the Pritzker Prize, the $100,000 award established in 1979 by the Pritzker family of Chicago to honor an architect of international stature. In 1978, he won the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, the highest award the American profession bestows on any of its members.

He collaborated frequently with Richard Foster.

"The job of the architect today is to create beautiful buildings. That's all."

1946 - The Booth House, 319 Pound Ridge Road, Bedford NY.  3120 sf.  Sold to architectural photographer Robert Damora and his wife architect Sirkka Damora, who acquired the house in 1955 and lived there for 55 years. In the 1960's, Damora added a studio building adjacent to the house.  Photos by Robert Damora and Robert Preston.  Bottom photo by Julie Platner.  For sale in 2010.

1949 - Johnson's own "Glass House" in New Canaan CT, 69 miles north of New York City.  He lived there for 45 years with partner David Whitney.  Nearby is the entrance to his 1965 underground Painting Gallery.  Public tours available, information here.  The house is within walking distance of the New Canaan Train Station.  Includes "The Study" and  "Da Monster," bottom photo, also on the grounds.

1952 - The Richard Davis House, Wayzata MN. Sold to Mike and Penny Winton who added a Frank Gehry-designed, guest house (bottom photo, right).  Then the land was subdivided with each house on a separate parcel.  The Johnson House was sold to Bob and Carolyn Nelson.  The Gehry House was sold to Kirk Woodhouse, who eventually gave it to to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. He paid for its relocaiton to 60 miles south to a campus conference center in Owatonna.

1956 - The Eric Boissonnas House, 78 Logan Road, New Canaan CT.  33 acres. 4400 square feet.  The house was completed in 1956. The contractor for the project was E.W. Howell, Co. and the structural engineer was the Eipel Engineering Company. The landscape was designed by Johnson, who later said it was his favorite and his best house (Metropolitan Home, March-April 2001).  The two-story living room contained an organ and was designed as an "acoustical chamber" with the organ pipes hidden in the floor.   In 1960, the Boissonas family sold the house to the Logan Road Realty Corporation and moved to France, where Johnson designed them another house.  The land was likely subdivided by the developer at this point.  The house with eight acres was sold in 1963 to John F. Hennessy Jr. who added a pool in 1969.  Sold in 1971 to William S. and Ann T. Gilbreath.  Sold to interior designer Jay Spectre in 1983 with four acres of land.  After Spectre's death, the house remained vacant for about three years. In 1994, the property was sold to Bill Matassoni and Pamela Valentine who in 1998 restored the deterioration and made alterations, including replacing the plate glass with insulated glass, rebuilding the roofs, and updating the systems. 

1953 - The Alice Ball House, 523 Oenoke Ridge Road, New Canaan CT.  Was on the market 2007-2009.  Current owner Christina Ross.

1964 - The Henry C. and Patricia Beck House, Dallas TX.  12000 sf.  A mega-version of the Lake Pavilion that Johnson designed on the grounds of his Glass House in New Canaan CT.  Photos by Todd Eberle.  The couple divorced in the early 1980s. In 2002 Mrs. Beck sold it to a couple who owned another Modernist dwelling in Dallas. Renovated by architects Bodron+Fruit.  They remade the north end of the house, which had contained an entertaining-scaled kitchen and a dark warren of servants’ rooms, replacing it with a new kitchen, a family room and dining area, a guest room, and service and staff areas. Elsewhere, bathrooms were gutted, bedrooms were reconfigured, and the bronze and steel balustrades on the central stairs (just like the ones Johnson designed for the Four Seasons restaurant) were restored. Fruit also designed an elegant new pool pavilion with a flat concrete roof that seems to float above the glass-walled structure.  New landscape design by Reed Hilderbrand of Watertown MA.

The Brick House, across from the Glass House in New Canaan CT.

The DeMenil House, Houston TX.

The Hodgson House, New Canaan CT.

Sources include:  Virtual Globetrotting.