Modern Design

Additional Images

Julius Shulman's black and white photograph featured here depicts Philip Johnson's desk.

Courtesy of JuliusShulman.org

© J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10).

Provenance

Gifted to Dick Buford from Philip Johnson.

Lot Essay

Philip Johnson's primary work desk served as a drawing board for his projects at his office in the Seagram Building.

After the completion of his iconic Glass House project in the early 1950's, Johnson joined Mies van der Rohe as the architect of record for the development of the 39-story Seagram Building (1956.) This iconic bronze-and-glass tower at 375 Park Avenue would ultimately serve as the office and center of creativity for Johnson's work over the coming decades. The modernist interiors of the Four Seasons and Brasserie restaurants, as well as office furniture, were designed and overseen by Johnson with efforts to ensure cohesion with the appearance of the façade.

The desk offered here was witness to Johnson's evolution from Late Modernism into the Postmodern era. In 1986, Johnson moved offices into another one of his celebrated designs, the elliptical Lipstick Building at 885 Third Avenue in New York. It was then that the desk was given to its new owner, Dick Buford.

Dick Buford and Philip Johnson

Dick Buford was a long-term friend of Philip Johnson's who was. among other things, executive director of the New York Department of City Planning and a founder of the New York Landmarks Conservancy. Buford opened the New York office of Metropolitan Structures in the Seagram building. When Johnson moved his office out of the Seagram building, he offered his office furniture to Buford, who chose to take Johnson's desk.

Various period photos show Johnson sitting at the desk with the New York skyline in the background.