We’re saddened by the passing of one of America’s architectural giants, Philip Johnson, a larger-than-life figure who transformed our notion of space and design. Johnson lived in the shadow of Frank Lloyd Wright for much of his early career. About a decade after Wright died in 1959, Simon and Garfunkel wrote a song in tribute to the master architect. Though Johnson’s life was certainly filled with intrigue, drama and intense public criticism (for his architecture and particularly his politics) his career hasn’t been as celebrated as Wright’s. As Simon and Garfunkel sang: “I can’t believe your song is gone so soon/I barely learned the tune/ … Architects may come and/Architects may go and/Never change your point of view/When I run dry/I stop awhile and think of you.”
Perhaps now that Johnson is gone, we’ll better appreciate his life and work. But it’s hard to imagine a songwriter crafting lyrical plaudits for Johnson. His “Nietzschean” romanticism — as Benjamin Forgey puts it in Johnson’s obituary in the Post — and tendencies in the 1930s and 40s to lean in favor of European fascism, seems slightly inappropriate. But his architecture remains and his influence cannot be ignored. Kriston Capps of Grammar.police asks: “Who else could be said to have been so dedicated to form throughout his career while also adapting and changing styles so dramatically?” Well, nobody.
As Forgey writes, with Johnson “certain constants remained: Regardless of stylistic trim, Johnson’s buildings are notable for their regulated geometry and spatial order. A certain theatricality was never far from the surface.”
The headline writer for the W.Times inappropriately pegs Johnson as a “skyscraper architect.” While he did design skyscrapers, that description would be completely underselling his work. Johnson’s impact on low-rise Washington, D.C. — like many of the great architects of the middle-to-late 20th century who are underrepresented in the nation’s capital — was modest but not insignificant. Fortunately for us, Johnson’s local work is on full display for all to see. You just have to know where to look.
