Dear Mr. Johnson,
Your buildings were not my style. Coming before my time, they just seemed a part of the landscape. The hard city streets, the steel and glass towers, the honking taxi cabs, the businessmen in suits. And your glass house. By the time I was in college, inspired by architects who were working with rammed earth, color and corrugated metal, I considered a glass house a strange folly, a voyage in the wrong direction.
But I have always reserved a final opinion since I saw you on the M1 bus going down 5th avenue.
It was 1985, summer, and I was an intern going to work for an architecture firm in midtown. You stepped onto the crowded bus. I recognized you from pictures: dapper black suit, trademark round, black glasses, white hair and a morning paper. Amidst all the sneakers and t-shirts, you seemed as if you stepped out of another age. And even though you were old, you were a gentleman, carefully holding onto the rail and allowing others to sit.
And you rode the bus. Unlike many of the bosses I had known, who took taxi's and limos to work, you rode the bus. How nice it was to see you, the architect of our century, riding the M1 bus. It made me, the intern, feel good. You believed in public transportation.
Amidst the crush of the morning ride down the avenue, you stood smiling until it was your stop. Then, carefully making your way down the steps (someone else held the door for you), you headed out down the avenue at a brisk pace.
Styles differ, and I can't yet weigh in with others on your architecture, but I think the nobility and the goodness I saw in you that day must live in your buildings. I think that that must have been part of your gift. in the meantime, I will continue to look at your buildings, until, like a child listening to classical music, I get it.
Best,
MGR
Taking a page from Steve Martin's letter to Johnny?
That was lovely.
Did he pass away recently?
Tuesday http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Obit-Johnson.html
Very well put, Maxwell.
Thank you for mentioning the passing of Phillip Johnson.
I'd like to mention the Sergram building and the Four Seasons
restaurant,given their landmark status, will influence many generations to come.
Self-indulgent bullshit entry.
How is it self-indulgent to write something nice about someone else?
To Annoyed:
If you can't say something nice - or at least funny - consider keeping it to yourself. Your attack on Maxwell is utterly not in keeping with the spirit of Apartment Therapy.
Really, now. I'm confident I echo the thoughts of others here when I say "Go to your corner".
While Johson may have designed the interior of the Four Seasons it was Meis van der Rohe who designed the Seagram's Building. Johnson was an early champion and benefactor of Meis. In some architectural circles Johnson's status as an architect is controversial. He is seen as a "wanna-be" and a rip off artist (i.e. His glass house is a direct quotation of the Farnsworth house by Meis which according to I.D. magazine has better Feng Shui, but that's another story, 11/2000).
Not to talk ill of the dead, I should say his greatest contributions have been as a benefactor and philanthropist in bringing Meis to the scene in America and at The Museum of Modern Art.
Whether by car or bus, my evening commute takes me up the hill through Little Italy in Cleveland, OH, and I see a church camponile at the summit. Philip Johnson was born a few doors away from the church. I wrote a research paper about some of his work when I was getting my planning degree. Having read about his early Nazi interests and, and then reading his later interviews, I still wondered what he was like. Your comments gave me a missing piece. Thanks.
http://www.omnitecturalforum.com/POMD/POMD.html
Architecture's Britneyest figure ever.
I truly appreciate that you were able to find an element of worth in the person though you may not appreciate his work. In an increasingly nasty world full of publicity hounds, poseurs and sychophants it's refreshing to encounter a bit of civility.
The blog at Pure Contemporary ran an informative story on Johnson last week too. It has links to a great full length story in the New York Times (the story is accompanied by an a/v presentation) and one to pbs.org, which has a page detailing his most important works.
http://purecontemporary.blogs.com/