Philip Johnson (architect)

Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson at age 95 in his office in the Seagram Building, Manhattan with his model of a 30' by 60' sculpture created for a Qatari collector. (2002)
Born	Philip Cortelyou Johnson (1906-07-08)July 8, 1906 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Died	January 25, 2005(2005-01-25) (aged 98) New Canaan, Connecticut, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Harvard Graduate School of Design
Occupation	Architect
Awards	Pritzker Prize (1979) AIA Gold Medal (1978)
Buildings	Glass House, Seagram Building, 550 Madison Avenue, IDS Tower, PPG Place, Crystal Cathedral

Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect. He is best known for his works of Modern architecture, including the Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut, and his works of postmodern architecture, particularly 550 Madison Avenue which was designed for AT&T, and 190 South La Salle Street in Chicago. In 1978, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and in 1979 the first Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 8, 1906, the son of a Cleveland lawyer, Homer H. Johnson. He was descended from the Jansen family of New Amsterdam, and included among his ancestors the Huguenot Jacques Cortelyou, who laid out the first town plan of New Amsterdam for Peter Stuyvesant. He attended the Hackley School, in Tarrytown, New York, and then studied as an undergraduate at Harvard University where he focused on learning Greek, philology, history and philosophy, particularly the work of the Pre-Socratic philosophers. Upon completing his studies in 1927, he made a series of trips to Europe, visiting the landmarks of classical and Gothic architecture, and joined Henry-Russell Hitchcock, a prominent architectural historian, who was introducing Americans to the work of Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and other modernists. In 1928 he met German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who was at the time designing the German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition. The meeting formed the basis for a lifelong relationship of both collaboration and competition