Lunch with Philip Johnson--Surprising Confessions by the Great Architect

Back in the 1980's, I did the newsletter and also photography for a group of Young Corporation Presidents, who very appropriately called themselves the Young President's Organization...it had started in New York but soon had chapters all across the country. ( The NYC Chapter was the "Metro" one. I called the newsletter the "Metrogram." That made sense back when people still knew what telegrams were.

The YPO was known for its informational/pleasure junkets (conferences in Paris, etc.) with plenty of famous guest speakers. Also lots of outings in NYC including  fancy, very fancy dinners and also lunches with experts and celebrities.

I will never forget the luncheon event with architect Philip Johnson (of Seagram Building fame and Glass House in Connecticut etc.)--who was just beginning to fade from the limelight.

Mr. Johnson was in a startlingly confessional and contrite mood that day. He told the gathering that in order to get ahead ( he was nothing if not ambitious as a young man and even later) he would do all kinds of things he later regretted--such as not just artistic compromises, but sailing very close to the wind and maybe a little further on safety aspects of big buildings in order to keep costs down (and clients happy).

He urged the execs there to please think of the Greater Public Good when putting up buildings, both for design and safety. At one point I thought his eyes were almost tearing up.

The Young Presidents applauded very politely ( no questions for the Q and A at all and rushed back to their busy, busy schedules after lunch).

I spoke a little with Mr. Johnson and told him how affecting I thought his talk was and as I was going to be writing about it for the newsletter (private circulation only, but still publicity) I wanted to sure I was not going to write anything he would be sorry about later.

"No, no, write exactly what I said," he replied to me with a morose look on his face.

As article in Architectural Digest pointed out, the Seagrams building was unique in its day but later has come "the glassification of New York" and the contrast between styles is being lost...also a lot of landmarks that are not protected are getting glassed over. (See regular photo here of the kind of glassy neighbors the Seagrams building has today. In fact, that whole stretch of Park Avenue is pretty glassy as I noted before...the Waldorf Astoria, St. Bartholomew's Church and the NY Racquet Club survive, thank goodness, to keep the history of the Avenue in memory.