Philip Johnson

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Philip Johnson
The Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, Texas houses an impressive collection of works by Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington and can actually be thought of as two buildings in one. The museum was originally built and designed by Philip Johnson in 1961 and forty years later Johnson was called upon again to design an addition to the building that would triple its exhibition space.
Philip Johnson was born in 1906 and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Harvard University majoring in philosophy and Greek not architecture. By the age of 26, Johnson was the founder and director of the Museum of Modern Art’s new architecture department in New York. There he cultivated an interest in architecture and co-authored the book The International Style, which introduced “Bauhaus,” a German style of architecture begun by Walter Gropius in 1918, to America (5).
At the age of 34, Johnson returned to Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. After receiving his Master of Architecture in 1943, Johnson began designing his own home in New Canaan, Connecticut known as “The Glass House,” a house whose walls are made entirely of windows. Other well-known works include the Seagram’s Building and the AT&T Building both in New York. In 1979 Johnson was awarded the first Pritzker Architecture Prize for his 50 years of work and designs in the field of architecture (6). Undoubtedly, Johnson has been a great influence in architecture though some will argue that Johnson’s style is quite whimsical seeming to change as often as the wind blows (3). Johnson’s response? “After fifty years you shouldn’t be doing the same thing” (3). Though at times controversial it cannot be denied that Johnson is one of the most brilliant and renowned architects of the past century.
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Interestingly, some of Johnson’s most acclaimed buildings are found in Texas. In Dallas alone, Johnson has designed ...