建筑大师Philip Johnson（菲利浦·约翰逊）逝世 享年98岁

文章作者 100test 发表时间 2009:06:22 23:54:50
来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

Philip Johnson, whose austere "glass box" buildings and latter-day penchant for incorporating whimsical touches in his designs made him one of the most influential architects of the 20th century, has died at 98.

Johnson died Tuesday at his home in New Canaan, Conn. - itself one of his most important creations.

Johnsons work, which spanned more than half a century starting in the 1940s, ranged from the modernism of his home, a glass cube in the woods, to the more fanciful work of his later years, including the AT&T Building in New York, with its curved pediment that made it look like a giant Chippendale chest of drawers.

Johnson once said his great ambition was "to build the greatest room in the world - a great theater or cathedral or monument. Nobodys given me the job."

In 1980, however, he completed his great room, the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Calif., a soaring glass structure wider and higher than Notre Dame in Paris. If architects are remembered for their one-room buildings, Johnson said, "This may be it for me."

With his partner, John Burgee, Johnson also designed the Bank of America building in Houston, a 56-story tower of pink granite stepped back in a series of Dutch gable roofs. and the Cleveland Playhouse, a complex with the feel of an 11th-century town.

"The world has lost a towering force who defined the art and practice of architecture in the 20th century," said architect Daniel Libeskind, the master planner for the new towers rising on the site of the World Trade Center.

Johnson was one of architectures most recognizable figures, with his trademark black round-rimmed glasses that gave him an owlish look.

Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Paul Goldberger of The New Yorker pronounced him "the greatest architectural presence of our time - which is not the same thing as the greatest architect."

"He was probably our first and most significant architect as celebrity," Goldberger said. "Theres no question that he used his fame for the betterment of architecture. His greatest passion was in seeing architecture, talking about it, making a stimulating dialogue about it."

Johnson also invented the role of museum architecture curator, at New Yorks Museum of Modern Art in 1932. And he coined the term International Style for the work of Europeans Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier.

His efforts to bring their style to the United States and incorporate some of its elements in his own work "literally changed the landscape of American architecture," said Terrence Riley, MoMAs current Philip Johnson chief curator for architecture and design.

Johnson got a chance to work with van der Rohe by designing the interiors for the German architects Seagram Building in New York.

He died this week with his latest project in the works: an "urban glass house" in New Yorks Soho neighborhood, inspired by his home in New Canaan. Until last year, the architect came to his office three days a week, said Alan Ritchie, Johnsons partner at Philip Johnson-Alan Ritchie Architects in New York for three decades.

Johnsons AT&T Building, a granite-walled tower with an enormous 90-foot arched entryway and a fanciful top, broke decisively with the glass towers that crowded Manhattan. The building, completed in 1983 and now owned by Sony, marked a sharp turn in architectural taste away from the clean lines of modernism. Other architects felt emboldened to experiment with styles, and commissions poured into the offices of Johnson and Burgee.

Most of the firms projects were corporate palaces: the Transco II and Bank of America towers in Houston, in 1983 and 1984. a 23-story neo-Victorian office building in San Francisco. and a mock-gothic glass tower for PPG Industries in Pittsburgh, built in 1983.

"The people with money to build today are corporations - they are our popes and Medicis," Johnson said. "The sense of pride is why they build."

Toward the end of his life, Johnson went public with some private matters - his homosexuality and his past as a disciple of Hitler-style fascism. On the latter, he said he spent much time in Berlin in the 1930s and became "fascinated with power," but added he did not consider that an excuse.

"I have no excuse (for) such utter, unbelievable stupidity. ... I dont know how you expiate guilt," he said.

He said that it was his homosexuality that caused him to suffer a nervous breakdown while he was a student at Harvard. He said that in 1977 he asked The New Yorker magazine to omit references to it, fearing he might lose the AT&T commission, which he called "the job of my life."

Philip Cortelyou Johnson was born July 8, 1906, in Cleveland, the only son of lawyer Homer H. Johnson and his wife, Louise. He graduated from Harvard in 1927 with a degree in philosophy, then toured Europe and became interested in new styles of architecture.

In 1940, Johnson returned to Harvard for graduate school, studying under Marcel Breuer. He returned to MoMA, then left in 1955 to open his own design office.

His projects at times ran into criticism from preservationists and even fellow architects. In 1987, he was replaced as designer of the second phase of the New England Life Insurance Co. headquarters in Boston after residents complained about the projects size and style.

Critics unearthed a quotation he had made at a conference a couple of years earlier: "I am a whore and I am paid very well for high-rise buildings." Johnson said later that his choice of words was unfortunate and he meant only that architects need to be able to compromise with developers.

In 1979, Johnson became the first recipient of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Early in his career, he reflected on what he had hoped to achieve.

"I like the thought that what we are to do on this earth is embellish it for its greater beauty," he said, "so that oncoming generations can look back to the shapes we leave here and get the same thrill that I get in looking back at theirs - at the Parthenon, at Chartres Cathedral."

ON THE NET
Pritzker Prize in architecture: http://www.pritzkerprize.com
Johnsons design firm: http://www.pjar.com
(FROM San Jose Mercury News)

　　一位历经现代主义、后现代主义以及解构主义的硕果仅存的建筑师———菲利浦·约翰逊（PhilipJohnson）当地时间1月25日在美国康涅狄格州新迦南的家中逝世，享年98岁。直到死以前他还在从事纽约的一个设计项目。

　　这位现代建筑的见证人经历了20世纪建筑史上各种潮流，被称为现代主义和后现代主义设计理论和实践的奠基人和领导者，半个世纪以来深深影响着建筑业的实践。他的家也是他最重要的建筑设计之一，这个森林中的玻璃房子是典型的现代设计。而1970以来他转而喜欢那种混杂各种风格的后现代主义的作品，1978年至1983年参与设计的美国电报电话公司（AT&T）纽约总部大厦就是代表，这一摩天大楼整体造型类似一高脚柜，楼体由高高的楼脚支撑起来，并采用了古典的建筑语言———拱，借用了15世纪意大利文艺复兴教堂的形式。这样，约翰逊把古典风格搬进了现代高层建筑，把巴洛克时代的堂皇与现代的玻璃盒子融为一体。

　　1979年，约翰逊成为美国凯悦酒店集团创始人设立的普里茨克建筑奖（Pritzker ArchitecturePrize）的第一位得主，现在这个奖被誉为建筑界的诺贝尔奖。他和艾伦·理奇（AlanRitchie）共同创办的美国PJAR建筑设计事务所在世界范围内拥有大量的成功作品，赢得众多奖项和荣誉。艾伦·理奇说直到去年，菲利浦·约翰逊还是一周有三天到办公室。

　　但是让约翰逊得到普遍尊重的不仅是他的设计，还因为他始终是美国建筑设计运动的推动者，长期担任纽约现代艺术博物馆（MOMA）建筑部负责人的他引介了很多欧洲现代建筑大师在美国展览，并参与建筑思想的传播和讨论，促使美国在二战后成为一个活跃的建筑思想发源地。这一点也得到欧洲人的尊重，在柏林弗里德里希大街200区的办公楼部分被称作菲利浦·约翰逊大楼，以纪念这位深受柏林人尊敬的美国建筑大师。1