File talk:Philip Johnson.2002.FILARDO.jpg
This photo was taken by me, Benjamin Pietro Filardo, in 2002 at Philip Johnson's office on the 34th floor of the Seagram Building, 375 Park Avenue, New York, NY. I worked in his practice from 1998 until his death in 2005.
This is the only photograph of a bearded Philip Johnson that I am aware of. He kept this beard for a few months only, so this photo is not representative of Johnson's public image during most of his life. This photo was taken in Johnson's room facing the East River at his Park Avenue office. The table on which he worked was kept clear except for white plastic drawing scales, a roll of tracing paper, an eraser and a pot containing several sharp number 2 pencils. The walls around him were always kept bare.
I took several photos of Johnson during the time I worked with him, and selected this one for it's relative merits as a portrait, including composition, expression and context.
The object on the table in front of him is a scale model of a 30' by 60' sculptural tea room I worked on with him for an art collector in the middle east. It was intended to be one of several large objects to be placed in a sculpture garden in the client's estate. Johnson's sculpture was intended to double as a reception and tea room for the client's visitors, and was to be placed at the entry to the sculpture garden. Inside the tea room is a circular metal bench. Below the sculpture there was to be a guest bathroom and kitchen for preparing refreshments for guests.
While the future of the sculpture garden as a whole is in question, the sculpture was completed in 2007 and delivered to the client. The sculpture was fabricated in Rhode Island by Merrifield Roberts Inc,(no longer in business) who were custom fabricators and boat builders, and who also built works by Claes Oldenburg. The sculpture was fabricated using warped sheets of aluminum over aluminum studs and beams. The sculpture is open to the elements at the top and along its entry slit, but a heavy duty air conditioning system was nevertheless designed to keep the space cool during visits. The aluminum was painted a beige/sand color. An image of the sculpture under fabrication can be viewed here - http://www.core77.com/bullitts/2003/10/Merrifield-Roberts,-Inc.-Tearoom.asp?context_id=3¤t_bullitt_id=187¤t_bullitt_number=1
The scale model was built from layers of 1/4" foam core stacked as a series of contour lines and hollowed-out in the middle. Layers of joint compound were then applied and sanded to build-up the smooth finish seen in the model.
