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An Architect's Journey

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study is that it can be read both as a con- putting them side by side with leaders ol I louston home, but it was through the densed biography of Johnson and as a America's progressive such as Mcnils* connection with the I Iniversity of book about the clients who sup- Howe and l.esca/c and . St. Thomas that Johnson was asked to pre ported his work. While most of the book By the time Johnson reached Har- pare a masier plan lor the school, as well focuses on Johnson in Texas, Welch also vard's Craduatc School ol Design in I'Ml), as to design three of the campus' new includes substantial biographical informa- Walter Cropius was its director, and the buildings, establishing the direction tor tion, giving the reader an overview of the school was at the forefront of the modern future construction. The Menil I louse and architect's lid- and tunes. Welch begins movement in the . Tor his the University ol St. I hoinas buildings, all .\m\ ends his hook with a visit to the Class thesis project, Johnson designed and built of which are indebted to Johnson's mentor House in New Canaan, Connecticut, .1 house foi himsell in < ambi idg< mod Mies van der Rohe. set an example that Johnson's New Kngland residence and the tied after Mies van der Rohe's courtyard encouraged the young post-war generation building considered to be his architectural houses. Following a stint in the army, of I louston architects in the direction of c D.Wrlrll masterpiece. Over his professional life, the Johnson moved to New York, where he modern design. One of these architects, New Canaan estate has served as a labora divided his time between a small architec- Tloward Barnsrone with Preston Bolton, tory for changes in Johnson's approach to tural practice and his old position at became the associate architect with architecture. After completion of the steel M o M A . The gregarious Johnson made Johnson on the St. Thomas buildings; later, frame Class House, which was heavily with his partner Taigene Aubry, Barnstonc friends easily; one was modern sculptor indebted to the work of Johnson's first would take over the building of the An Architect's Journey Mary Callcry, who introduced him to an great influence, Mies van der Rohe, John- Rothko l hapel, the last Johnson building array ol artists, architects, and sociall] son expanded the estate, adding a number commissioned by the Mcnils, Johnson's I'hilip Johnson & Texas by Frank Welch, connected art patrons. His association ot structures — among them the under- work tor the Mcnils also caught the eye ol Austin: University <>/ Texas Press, 1000. with Callcry proved to be the link that ground Painting Gallery, 1965, and the Jane Owen, daughter ot I tumble Oil co- 29S pp., illus,, S39.9S. first brought Johnson to Texas. In 1948, Sculpture Gallery, 1970, both to house his founder R. Tee Waller, leading to the com- on a \ isit to New York. , extensive collection of : the mission lor the Roofless Church in New Reviewed try William 1. Stem who knew Callcn, asked her 10 recom- library Study, 1980; and the recently I larinoiiy, Indiana, a clear stylistic depar- mend an architect for his new house in completed Ciate House, 1995, which ture I mm |ohnson's Mies-influenced work 's career is as much identi- . Callcry introduced the young will ser\e as a visitor's pavilion when the in I louston. fied with Texas as any place he has executive and collector to Johnson, who New Canaan estate is bequeathed to the worked in the United States, Over the by that rime was building Ins Class Through their patronage ot art and National Trust for I listonc Preservation. course of five decades, the Ohio-horn, I louse. Soon plans were being made for architecture in the 1950s, the Mcnils I hese buildings, along with several open- New York based architect has become a Johnson to visit I louston and meet became increasingly prominent in 'Texas air pavilions, document the stylistic shifts Texas phenomenon, a legendary figure Menil's wife, Dominique. Recalling his cultural circles. One ot their friends, Kinli in Johnson's work, revealing an architect producing major buildings in I louston, Carter Johnson, daughter ol Forth Worth who has changed unpredictably, as if fash- anticipation about that trip many years , Tort Worth, and Corpus Christi. publisher Anton (.alter, was invited to a ion, rather than a clear evolving idea, has later, Johnson told Welch, "You bet I was Twice — Mrst with the Menil 1 louse in weekend celebration for the dedication of determined his development. excited — my first important house and 1950 and then with 's in Texas to boot," two University of St. Thomas buildings, IViui/oil Place in 1976 — Johnson set Welch's prologue outlines Johnson's where she met Johnson. As she recalled precedents so strong that he influenced life from the rime of his I9U6 birth in What follows is the story of Philip John- later, "There was a warm immediate rap the direction of in to that moment in the late son and Texas organized chronologically, port, and we just got along famously. We Texas. Amazingly, in his ninth decade ol 1940s when he was introduced to Ins firsi beginning with the Menil House MU\ end talked about everything from gardening to life and the beginning ol his sixth decade Iexas patrons, Dominique and John de ing with the Cathedral of f lope, liach art collecting. Before the weekend was of work in Texas he is completing the Meml. The biography ol Johnson's early building project is treated in detail, from over, I asked him if he would come to Tort design of Dallas* gigantic Cathedral ol years examines his undergraduate educa- how the commission came to be to a thor- Worth and talk to us about designing I lope. Indeed, I'exas and its patrons can tion at I larvard, his time as the first ough description ot the completed work. Dad's memorial, I lc said indeed be would lay rightful claim to ensuring the success director of the Department of Archi- What makes this book so enticing is the and was soon back in 'Texas." ol Johnson's architectural career. Without tecture at New York's then-new Museum telling of the story, much of which was The building Ruth Johnson referred to Texas patronage, that career could have of Modern Art, his decision at age ?>4 to garnered from interviews with clients, became the Anion Carter Museum, com- been quite different. Moreover, the build- pursue a career in architecture at Har- friends, critics, .\\id associates of Johnson. pleted in 1961. By then, Johnson had bro- ings of Philip Johnson in Texas exemplify vard's Graduate School of Design, and I engthy quotes from these interviews give ken with his International Style roots, the extremes ot his work, from the rigor the beginning of that career. Welch the story a sense of immediacy, clarifying favoring instead an eclectic .nut refined elt gaucc oi I louston's touches on a dark side of Johnson's earl) how buildings are commissioned, built, described by one disapproving critic as University of St. Thomas of the 1950s to years, describing his leanings towards and critically evaluated. The projects are "ballet-school classicism." The opening of the kitsch and parody evoked by the I titler ami his attraction to right wing illustrated with drawings, vintage pho- the Anion ( arter Museum was a sigmli I recent, a Dallas office and hotel com- populist politics during the Depression. tographs, and beautifully composed con- cant event for a city with the nickname plex of 19H5. looking at Johnson in Hut the most important event of those temporary photographs taken by Paul "LOUIOUII," and from that day forward. Texas is one way to understand Ins over- years was uon-pohtical. With art histori- I lester. The black and white format is par Tort Worth would increasingly be viewed all career, while at the same time provid- an Henry Russell I litchcock, Johnson ticularly appealing, and a reminder of Just as a place of art and culture-. \s Welch ing a window into the power and patron- organized "The International Style," .1 how sharp and clear architectural photog- perceptively points out, the hiring of age that built the state during the second seminal exhibition at the Museum of raphy <.m be when it eschews full color. nationally recognized architects to build half of the 20th century. Modern Art that brought to an American Johnson's early association with 111 Iexas became increasingly popular. audience the work ol the great European This is exactly what Frank Welch set Dominique and John de Menil provided "Wealthy Texans began to regularly hire modernists Mies van der Rohe. I.e Cor- out to do in Philip Johnson & Texas. What the catalysl lor further commissions in I .ist l oasi architects to design their busier, J.J.P. Oud, and Walter Cropius, is most appealing about Welch's fascinating Iexas. Not only did he design the Mcnils' important buildings," he writes. "It 34 / t. / i I : i) I. 0 (lie A » 11KLAD

seemed to he culturally sale to stick w i t h modern bug, Johnson produced some of both men. The Post Oak Central c o m - American architecture over the last half a w e l l - k n o w n bin-city Ivy League architect his most signilicant Texas w o r k , returning plex, 1 9 7 5 - I 9 K 2 . and the t w i n towers of century. While not a critical biography, with design credentials, l a t e r the range to the clarity and imagination ot his earli- Penn/oil Place, 1976, were noted for their Philip Johnson & lewis docs raise appro- Idi esteemed-architect selection w o u l d est Texas buildings. Beginning w i t h the imaginative rethinking ot [lie siand.in.li/ed priate questions about the qualitative dis- broaden and become international. " Just artfully abstract Art Museum of South rectilinear speculative office tower, trans- parities in Johnson's w o r k . Frank Welch down the hill f r o m the A m o n Carter lex.is in I orptis Chrisii ol 1972, this peri- formed into objects ol pure geometric has produced a book that captures the Museum is 's Texas master- o d culminated in a series ol t louston sculpture best appreciated from the nearby spirit and mystique ot Texas since tin- piece, the Kimbel l Art M u s e u m , dedicated office buildings that would not only revive freeways while traveling at 60 miles per 1950s, a book about the individuals in 1972. N o w tinder construction across Johnson's career, but w o u l d also help to hour. While he was not alone in this, whose determined conviction challenged the street f r o m the K i m b e l l is a tour-de- put Housto n on the nation's architectural Johnson helped set a new direction for the status q u o to advance the state's cul- force w o r k ot architecture by Japanese map. This tune Johnson's patron was America's high-rise of lice buildings, limes, tural boundaries, and. finally, a hook architect Tadao A n d o that w i l l soon (ii raid I >. I lines, a in.in qiitn dillercm as impresario, benefited his company and about Philip |ohnson, AW Tasterner w h o house the Fort W o r t h M u s e u m of M o d - from the architect's cultural patrons of the I louston w i t h impressive architecture that practically got his start as an architect in 1950s and 1960s. A former mechanical attracted tenants willing to pay premium ern A r t . In I 970, at the behest of Ruth Texas, where his w o r k Still flourishes S(l engineer f r o m Indiana, I lines began his rents. "The I lines/Johnson collaboration C arter liilinsiui, Philip Johnson returned years later. career as a Houston developer w i t h a continued with the beacon ol the Cialleria, to Fort W o r t h to design the Fort W o r t h series of modestly designed two-story Trauseo Tower, IVK.i, the tallest building in Water G a r d e n . office buildings on Richmond Avenue. America outside a d o w n t o w n core, and the Following his successes in I louston and Working w i t h architect H a r w o o d Taylor RepublicBank building, I9H4, which sits I'ort W o r t h , n was inevitable that Johnson of Houston's Neuh.uis tfc Taylor, Hines opposite i'enn/oil Place. Johnson/Burgee's would receive a commission in Dallas. In was persuaded that good design need not practice expanded to include buildings in the early 1960S, on the advice ot I louston lead to costly buildings, and might even major American cities including New York, patron Jane Blaffer O w e n , Dallas contrac- (IhicagO, , Dallas, , and San tor I ienry C. Beck and his wife Party hired rcsuli in higher rents. S i I lnu s w o u ld Francisco. M u c h ol the credit for the archi- Johnson to design their house. Johnson retain I I c l l i i m t h. Oh.n.i ex kass.ibaum of tects" success belongs to their I louston had recently completed an open-air struc- St. Louis to design the Galleria, w h i c h patron, the engineer turned developer I ture on an artificial pond at his N e w became a trend-setting mix ol retail, hotel, Oerald D. I lines. Canaan estate. The arch motif that defined and office space. the portico of the A m o n (barter Museum At that time Hines became acquainted Johnson's career in Texas came tull cir- was expanded upon in this colonnaded with I.S. brochstein, w h o owned land that cle in the 1940s, when he was called back six-foot-high "folly," which was not tall he hoped to develop near the Cialleria. to the University of St. Thomas to design a enough to stand in w i t h o ut bending over. I lines persuaded Brochstein to let the chapel. Always enamored of the latest " At the Beck i louse, Johnson exploded the I lines organization lease the property, on trends in architecture. Johnson abandoned folly motif to lull scale, creating an o d d , which they w o u l d build a complex ot the grace and modest scale of his 1950s Infrastructure Lost grandiose house that was the opposite ot high-rise office buildings. Brochstein St. Thomas buildings for a structure that the refined, elegant dwelling that he had agreed, but wanted a say in the selection bowed in part to the then-fashionable Organization Space: Landscapes, designed for the Menils. Indeed, none ot of the architect, Hines came up with an trend in architecture called "deconsrruc- Highways, and Houses in America Johnson's w o r k in Dallas ever achieved the initial list of nationally prominent archi- tivism." As a result, the Chapel of St. hy Keller I ^sterling. Cambridge, stature ot his w o r k in i louston and I'ort tects, to w h i c h Brochstein added the name Basil. r > ' ' ~ , feels out ot place, overpower- Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1999. l Worth. Referring to later Dallas buildings, of Philip Johnson. Brochstein, w h o owned ing the spare, modern buildings that form 2(> > pp., ilka., $35. the Crescent ,VK\ the high-rise office build a business specializing in custom null the campus' academic mall. By the late mg M o m e n t u m Place ot I11*". I louston work installations, had come to k n o w and '90s, Johnson appeared more in control of Reviewed l>y Keith Kmmwiede ilus s u i i s t k -.lull w u h his bold design for architectural critic Stephen Fox observed admire Johnson when his conip.un sup- ilu ( athedra! of Hope in Dallas, a build- that "Philip Johnson saved his worst Texas plied the paneling and cabinets for the Keller Fosterling's Or/tamtatiiin Space is Anion Carter M u s e u m . Once again the ing clearly influenced by the w o r k of buildings lor Dallas." not a book about architecture. That is not linked chain ol Johnson patrons w o u l d , architect ot the Guggenheim Indeed, by the mid-'SOs, Johnson had to say, however, that it is not relevant to lead to new commissions. The first was Museum in Bilbao. Spain. And there may immersed himself in the paper-thin, post- architectural discourse. Ir is, precisely tor what w o u l d become k n o w n as the be more to come — in 19VN, at the age ot modern histortcism that had invaded archi- because it eschews an object-focused per- Post O a k Central buildings. The second 92. lohnson, w i th his new partner Alan tectural practice throughout the United spective and instead examines the processes was for Penn/.oil Place. Ritchie, was asked by Texas A & M regent States, showing a lack of a consistent point and organizational paradigms that deter- John I indsey, a successful I louston busi of view that led critics to dismiss him as a These buildings came at a crucial luiu mine our physical environment. nessman, to design an expansion tor the mere stylist, and no longer a leader in in Johnson's career. In the early In the domain ot (Organization Space design. A m o n g the Johnson buildings in Johnson had formed a partnership w i t h AcvM College ot Architecture. architecture is symptomatic of the intelli- Texas thai suffered the fate ol gratuitous , and together they had I rank Welch's I'btlij) Johnson & Texas gence, or lack thereof, of larger, often historicism are the University ot I loustoii's embarked on the design of the IDS is a book that should find a w i d e audi- invisible, infrastructures. The book is an College of Architecture. 1985, and build- Center in Minneapolis , an office tower ence. It tells the c o m i n g ot age story ol attempt to reveal those infrastructures, to ings lor an office park in Sugar Land. The ami enclosed retail center connected to lex.is cities f r o m the post-war years to expose the underlying procedural history 1 rest cut HI I l.ill.is. I In- I. oltegi ol Art 111 adjoining blocks w i t h pedestrian bridges. their dynamic rise in the '60's, '70s, and o l the American landscape. While other tecture, and the Sugar I.and buildings, Then in his mid-sixties, Johnson was 'NOs. M o s t interestingly, the book brings observers of o u r suburban nation may while clear and logical in siting and plan, beginning a seemingly new career, this to hie the people and patrons behind the bemoan the aesthetic degradation of the fail as w o r k s of architecture and mark the time as a favored architect lor high-rise story. Through the shifts and meandering* environment, F.asrerling is not so much low point m Johnson's Texas w o r k . office buildings. | o h n s o n \ association o f Johnson's w o r k , Welch captures trends, worried that the environment is ugly as Tun before being bitten In the post- u uli ( ,crald I), I lines was fortuitous loi both high and low, in the evolution ot that it is stupid. She is, therefore, less

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