site history

Philip Johnson received the commission for the Fair’s New York State Pavilion from Governor Nelson Rockefeller following his acclaim for the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center. Rockefeller instructed Johnson to design the largest and tallest pavilion at the fair, flaunting the state’s status as host and proving beyond a doubt that New York was a true hub for progressive art and culture. He worked with partner Richard Foster and structural engineer Lev Zetlin to design a pavilion that would showcase both architectural and technological innovation. Like most structures at the Fair, the Pavilion was originally designed to be temporary and was to be demolished after the close.

According to Johnson, his aim was to achieve “an unengaged free space as an example of the greatness of New York, rather than a warehouse full of exhibit material.” The result was a Pavilion that consisted of three elements: the main open-air structure called the “Tent of Tomorrow”, three “Astro-View” observation towers, and a circular theater known as the “Theaterama”. With less than serious references to flying saucers and a colorful circus tent, Johnson’s New York State Pavilion embodied the same pop culture references that informed the Pop Art works selected by Johnson and showcased on the walls of the Theaterama.

Although contemporary architectural historians have often overlooked this work of Johnson’s, architectural critics of the day considered the Pavilion’s innovative design worthy of praise. Highlighting its underlying spirit of fun, architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable described the Pavilion as “a sophisticated frivolity…seriously and beautifully constructed. This is a ‘carnival’ with class.

Philip Johnson

Philip Johnson’s arrival into the field of architecture began with his appointment in 1932 as Director of the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This program was the first of its kind in the nation dedicated to the study of architecture as art. While there, Johnson collaborated with historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock to curate the groundbreaking exhibition The International Style. This revolutionary exhibit introduced American architects as well as the general public to European modernism and especially the work of Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, and Le Corbusier.

At the age of 34, Johnson began studying architecture at Harvard under Marcel Breuer. Work from his early career includes one of Johnson’s most famous buildings, the “Glass House” (1949), which was heavily influenced by his mentor Mies van der Rohe and his “Farnsworth House” (1946). In the coming decades, Johnson would become one of America’s most celebrated and prolific architects. The 1960s saw a number of important commissions including the Roofless Church (1960), Kline Biology Tower (1962-66), and the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center in New York (1963).

Following the successful design of the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, Governor Nelson Rockefeller commissioned Johnson to design the New York State Pavilion for the upcoming 1964-65 New York World’s Fair. This commission came at a time when Johnson began to break away from Miesian traditions and instead experimented with incorporating classical elements and ornamentation into his designs. Working with structural engineer Lev Zetlin, Johnson and his partner Richard Foster designed a pavilion complex that showcased architectural as well as technological innovation in a playful manner befitting the Fair.

Later, with partner John Burgee (1967-1991), Johnson reinvented himself again rejecting the modernist themes he once espoused. Ever the architectural gadfly, he adopted the freer historical references of “post-modernism” in the 1980s in several large scale structures such as the AT&T Building in New York City (1984) while nearly simultaneously organizing the influential 1988 exhibition Deconstructivist Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art.

In 1979, Philip Johnson was honored with the first Pritzker Architecture Prize in recognition of “50 years of imagination and vitality embodied in a myriad of museums, theaters, libraries, houses, gardens and corporate structures.” He also received the highest honor of the architectural profession when he was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects. Philip Johnson died in January 2005 at the age of 98.