                                        
PPG Place, 1979-1984
Detail of PPG Place glass spires.
The Pittsburgh skyline featuring PPG Place.
Johnson's PPG Place. |
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additional research information from Dr. Lori Philip Johnson was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1906 and died on January 27, 2005 at the age of 98. In college, Johnson studied philosophy and classics. He graduated from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1930. In 1932, Johnson became the Chairman of the Dept. of Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City. At age 25, he curated the groundbreaking exhibition and co-authored the book, International Style Architecture since 1922 with Henry Russell Hitchcock. Following his tenure at MOMA, Johnson returned to Harvard to study architecture. He graduated from the architecture program in 1943. Interestingly, he resumed his position at MOMA in 1946. He remained with the museum until 1955 when he established his own architectural design firm. A devout follower of Mies van der Rohe, Johnson practiced architecture throughout the 1950s. In 1967, he took a partner, John Burgee, and embarked upon his mature work in the field. Johnson, now well into his 90s, still works and contributes to the field of modern architecture and of course, his career and buildings are the subject of many books, articles, essays, and films.
Architecture's American Gothic: Philip Johnson's PPG Place Located on Market Street in downtown Pittsburgh, PPG Place remains a masterwork for Johnson & Burgee. The design looked to the history of American skyscrapers and revisited the notion of a series of high towers within New York's Rockefeller Center complex. For Pittsburgh, glass has been an important industry since the 1700s. Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company or PPG's world headquarters shows the industry's prominence by its 231 glass spires. The spires or points of glass relate to The Point, a famous gathering site in the city where the three rivers--the Ohio, Monongahela, Allegheny--meet. Actually, Johnson designed PPG Place to be directly on axis with The Point. Like cathedral architecture of the 1200s, PPG Place emphasizes great height and boasts an interior flooded with light from above. PPG Place recalls the gothic cathedral while reinventing the modern skyscraper. This building evokes the spires of gothic cathedrals and promotes the notion of the modern glass box. Inspired by Mies van der Rohe's modern office buildings of the 1950s, Johnson considered the skyscraper not only a symbol of modern architectural progress but of modern society. This PPG skyscraper is 40 stories tall with five satellite buildings that extend out over a six city block area. The PPG complex includes public storefronts on the lower level and the offices of the PPG Company on the upper floors. PPG Place, built during the Pittsburgh's second renaissance, has become a city landmark. Costs for the complex exceeded $200 million.
Selected Work by Johnson:
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