Customer Reviews

The Architecture of Philip Johnson

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Philip Johnson, the most famous, influential and important architect of Post-War America gets here what he deserves: a monumental opus, gorgeously designed and filled with magnificent color photographs that surveys each and every one of the extant buildings designed by the "dean" of American architecture. From the Glass House (1949) to Trump Place (2001), this book works as a virtual catalogue raisonne of the work of Philip Johnson, reassessing a career that saw powerful masterpieces and dull, uninspired services to real estate tycoons but never went unnoticed.

The texts are simple and short, the emphasis being on the newly-commissioned photographs. Although an act of love sanctioned by Johnson himself (who chose the ruined World Fair Building for the cover), the book is not adulatory- Johnson's critics' sharp words on certain polemic buildings are included here.

As the publisher states in the flapcover, "This is *the* book on Philip Johnson's architecture".

On the other hand, Philip Johnson was an active fascist sympathizer and active propagandist for the Nazi government, who had tried to implement fascism in USA for at least 8 years between 1932 and 1940. Details of this past are described in "WE CANNOT NOT KNOW HISTORY:" PHILIP JOHNSON'S POLITICS AND CYNICAL SURVIVAL by KAZYS VARNELIS in Journal of Architectural Education, November 1994 published also on the Internet, and also discussed at http://arch.designcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?t=3709.