Philip Johnson (1906 - 2005) studied philosophy at Harvard before spending some years as a department director at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. While at MoMA (although I’m not sure they called it that back then) he was partially responsible for popularizing “The International Style” (think less severe Bauhaus) architecture in the early 1930’s. In his 30’s he went back to Harvard to study architecture and became a practicing architect.
His most significant works were generally in collaboration with other architects, including Mies van der Rohe (1958’s Seagram Building), Richard Foster and John Burgee. With Burgee (a 20+ year collaboration) his best known works are probably the Crystal Cathedral, PPG Place (which is what ‘Vegas casinos will look like in the year 2015), the IDS Center, Pennzoil Place and the AT&T Headquarters (now Sony Plaza). In my personal opinion his two most significant buildings by far are Seagram and AT&T because they were both such wake-up calls for urban architecture. (I’d say one for the better and one for the worse, but that’s just me.)
The solo work for which he’s most known would of course be his own personal, Glass House. This house might seem, to the uninitiated, like a rip off of Mies van der Rohe’s work, particularly the Farnsworth House, but considering the two had known each other for years, shared the same design ideals and even worked together after the Glass House, I’m guessing they didn’t see it that way. I have no idea, obviously, but I think it was more like a shared medium (steel framework and glass) which brought with it a shared vocabulary. All that aside, I find Johnson’s Glass House a more pleasing and natural use of the materials than the Farnsworth House. Farnsworth is certainly more dramatic, but to me it looks like it has only just landed and may yet have other stops to make. The Johnson house looks like it belongs to the site — as I believe it should.