Philip Johnson (1906−2005) was the first Pritzker Prize laureate in history. Over 75 years in the profession, he came to lead three architectural revolutions: modernism, postmodernism, and deconstructivism.
Until the age of 36, Johnson had not designed a single building. For twenty years, he studied, promoted, and wrote about the architecture of others: he became the first director of the architecture department at MoMA in New York, organized the 1932 exhibition that gave the International Style its name (and also modernism), and personally brought Mies van der Rohe to the United States. At 34, he enrolled in Harvard’s architecture program, where he studied under Marcel Breuer.
In 1949, the Glass House appeared — Johnson’s graduate project, a completely glass house in Connecticut. One room, a steel frame, transparent walls. The building became a modernist icon, although Johnson never denied the influence of van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House.
"I took everything from others. No one can be original," the architect admitted.
The Seagram Building, co-designed with Mies in 1958, is still considered one of the world’s finest modernist skyscrapers. Johnson was responsible for the interiors, including the legendary Four Seasons restaurant.
In the 1960s, John Burgee became his постоянным partner — together they would work for nearly 25 years. In 1980, they completed the Crystal Cathedral in California: a grand cathedral made of 10,000 glass panels, engineered to withstand an 8.0 earthquake.
In 1984, the architect crossed out everything he had created before. The AT&T Building on Madison Avenue, a granite skyscraper with a Chippendale-style pediment, became a manifesto of postmodernism. Modernism in America began with Johnson — and it ended with him as well.
For most architects, one revolution would have been enough, but Johnson began a third. In 1988, he organized the MoMA exhibition Deconstructivist Architecture, which gave the new movement its name: Gehry, Hadid, Libeskind — Johnson was the one who brought them onto the stage.
In 1996, his "Gate of Europe" rose in Madrid, inspired by the work of constructivist Alexander Rodchenko. The two towers, tilted toward each other at a 15-degree angle, became the world’s first inclined skyscrapers.
There is also something in this brilliant biography that one would prefer to erase: in the 1930s, Johnson openly sympathized with the Nazis and attended the rallies in Nuremberg. He later called this "the stupidest thing in my life, for which I will never be able to atone."
Modernism, postmodernism, deconstructivism — Johnson set the rules of three eras.
The architect worked until the age of 97: "I hate vacations. If you can build buildings, why sit on a beach?"