11/24/2014
Art Research
Mr. Gutierrez
The Phenomenal Philip Johnson
Mr. Johnson, My Philip Johnson is was phenomenal artist/architect. He was wonderful and very creative and talented man. He however loved challenges and believed that nothing was ever too hard. He always thought that it could be better and thought about how he could improve his work. Johnson quoted “Maybe, just maybe, we shall at last come to care for the most important but most challenging and surely the most satisfying of all architectural creations; building cities for people to live in”. This explains a lot about Mr. Johnson because he felt satisfaction when building things and places in the city for the people. That was his addiction in life is creating something for others and knowing that you made others happy was satisfying. However, the life of Mr. Johnson occurred on July 8, 1906 in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Harvard Graduate School of Design in the 1947s. Not to mention he also received his degree in philosophy. Before Johnson decided to practice architecture he was the founding Director of the Department of Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art (Moma) in New York. Johnson was however best known for his remarkable designs of building that still exist today in the 20th century. Moma was the first museum affiliated program in the United States to devote to the study and exploration of architect as an artist. Over more than fifty long years Mr. Johnson was the most powerful figures in the American design and architecture. He designed many landmarks as well as different structures; more than thirty five. He built the twin-trapezoid-shaped Pennzoil Place in Houston, the fifty-one story IDS center in Minneapolis and the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center. Mr. Johnson wasn’t only an architecture but he also wrote three books: Deconstructivist architecture in 1988, as well as Writings and Johnson/Burgee in the late 1970s. Sooner or later people wanted to work with Mr. Johnson.
Mr. Johnson started to wonder off and wanted to work with others. However, working with others can be good and bad. Some people might not have the same meaning behind something as you or might not work as hard as you so you have to choose wisely as well as know the person you’re working with. Mr. Johnson made a wonderful choice, he worked with Mr. Burgee whom was an architect as well. He also had a reputation for mastering large and complex projects just like Mr. Johnson. They came together and thought about the different types of commission, the important high profile projects which were both large-scale as well as small. The different projects that they created included the Minneapolis IDS Center, the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California to the corporate headquarters of Pittsburgh Plate Glass. In which they were all great and creative buildings. However, the most creative one was the AT&T Corporate headquarters building in New York in the early 1980s.
Mr. Johnson however wasn’t just an architect, but he also did things like organize Mies Van der Rohe’s first visit to the country as well as Le Corbusier’s. Mr. Johnson engaged Mies to design his New York apartment. After working with Burgee he decided to work and collaborate with Mies on what some people might explain to be the continents finest- rise building, the Seagram Building located in New York. The Seagram building is a 38 story building on Park Avenue in the city of New York. The building soon became a monumental continuity of bronze and dark glass climbing up 515 feet to the top of the tower juxtaposing the large granite surface of the plaza below that’s 150,918. It sits 100 feet from the street edge, which therefore created a highly active open plaza. It has two large fountains that are surrounded by generous outdoor seating. Mr. Philip Johnson comes in when by furnishing the office spaces above the lobby. They have flexible floor plans lit with luminous